Could a former USC quarterback be a fit for Stanford football?

With transfer portal season starting, it is time for the speculation and predictions to roll in.

Oct 25, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans quarterback Miller Moss (7) throws the ball against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in the first half at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

With the last regular season games of the 2024 season wrapping up over Thanksgiving weekend, it now means the beginning of playoff season, where both conference championships and the College Football Playoff getting ready to kick into high gear, where at the end, a new national champion will be crowned. But for many teams, the offseason is officially here meaning that it is also time for the transfer portal season.

And one of the biggest names to enter the transfer portal thus far is USC quarterback Miller Moss, who after getting benched in favor of redshirt sophomore Jordan Maiava following a 4-5 start, took to Twitter/X to announce his intention to put his name in the portal and play his final season of eligibility elsewhere.

Onward. pic.twitter.com/dsRue81Qyz

— Miller Moss (@millermoss7) December 2, 2024

After his announcement, On3’s Pete Nakos mentioned possible schools that could be a fit for Moss, with the four programs being Iowa, Auburn, Michigan and Louisville. While all four make sense given their quarterback situations in 2024 and the high probability that each of the schools will be looking to add veteran leadership, Stanford is one school that could potentially look to add a quarterback, making Moss an intriguing thought.

Even though he was benched, Moss put up a solid campaign with the Trojans in his first season as a starter in Lincoln Riley’s offense. For the year, he threw for 2,555 yards with 18 touchdowns and nine interceptions in nine games played. And while he was unable to lead his team to victory in five games that he played in, each loss was by no more than a score with the biggest defeat with Moss under center being against Minnesota on Oct. 5 when the Trojans fell 24-17 on the road.

Moss kept USC competitive and in every single game until the very end, something that the Cardinal struggled to do this season. Out of the nine Cardinal losses, only four were by a score or less with their three point loss to Wake Forest coming after a late game interception thrown by Ashton Daniels ended a potential scoring drive.

Moss has proven he can be relied on in big moments, with the most prominent example coming during the Vegas Kickoff Game when a 378 yard performance helped the Trojans upset LSU. Moss coming to Stanford would give the team not only an established veteran, but one who has experience in the biggest moments.

Redshirting in 2021, Moss then got the chance to learn and grow in the two seasons that followed. Riley, known for his tremendous quarterback development and offensive mindset with his work developing Jalen Hurts and Baker Mayfield at Oklahoma, was hired by the Trojans at the start of the 2022 season, bringing a revamped, quarterback friendly offense with him.

In addition, former Sooners star Caleb Williams came with Riley to USC, and while Moss was the backup in both 2022 and 2023, he had the chance to be in an exceptional quarterback room before taking over the starting role following Williams’ departure for the NFL ahead of 2024.

With Justin Lamson recently announcing his intention to transfer from Stanford, and starter Ashton Daniels planning to do the same, that leaves 2024 freshman Elijah Brown as the main guy. Brown, who showed a lot of promise in his true freshman season but battled an injury the majority of the year, is a guy who the Cardinal potentially see as the future but with limited action this year, it may be hard to make him the full time starter in 2025.

While all this is purely speculation, with Moss having yet to make any sort of decision, the thought of him potentially coming to The Farm and being a part of the effort to restore the Cardinal program back to its former glory is an intriguing one that could go a long way in bringing hope back to Stanford football.