The storyline of USC's spring game last weekend was the Trojans' rebuilt, under-new-management defense, both in terms of anticipatory intrigue and results.

But all the focus on the new defensive staff, new scheme and new pieces on that side of the ball has belied the reality that so much is different for the Trojans' offense as well as they transition past the Caleb Williams Era to a new quarterback playing behind a reshuffled offensive line, a youth movement at wide receiver and a changing of guard in at running back as well.

We broke down out defensive takeaways from spring in depth on Wednesday -- now we dive into the offense ...

As impressive as the USC defense’s spring game performance was, suffice to say that Lincoln Riley and his offense did not exactly throw the kitchen sink at them. Riley has shown historically that he’s extremely leery of putting live reps on tape or even making them available to the media’s eye. There was no reason to expect anything more than the most vanilla, stripped-to-basics version of his playbook in the spring game, as has been the case over the past two years. Though there were a handful of wrinkles throughout, most of what the offense ran in this showcase were the bread and butter plays that already litter the Trojans’ tape from the past two seasons. The team ran the classic collection of vertical concepts and simple underneath route combinations that make up the foundation of Riley’s offense, along with a smattering of screen passes and run concepts much like those we’ve grown accustomed to. As a result, it’s difficult to draw any conclusions from the spring game about what the USC offense will look like this year, though I do have some guesses based on the greater context.

We do know that the offense will change a bit from what we’ve seen in Riley’s tenure so far, as the Caleb Williams version of his playbook will not be the one best suited to maximizing Miller Moss or Jayden Maiava’s skill sets. What’s likely is an offense more similar to what Riley ran with Baker Mayfield or Spencer Rattler, featuring more of an emphasis on manipulating the middle of the field and leaning on the play-action game while reducing option elements of the playbook. The gameplan we saw in the Holiday Bowl against Louisville is likely a good reference point for how Riley will want to run his offense in 2024, where his quarterback is asked to pick apart the defense from the pocket with timing, decision making, and accuracy. He said as much Saturday.

"The quarterback position is probably going to be played a little bit differently. I know we talked a lot about it after the bowl game -- it's a little bit more traditional," Riley said. "And I think at times it can be a good thing for some of these receivers in terms of getting in a rhythm and just letting these guys make plays. And the quarterbacks we have in the room, that's more of their style."

What we saw from the offensive side of the ball in the spring game wasn’t particularly inspiring wholistically, but because of the manner in which Riley approached the day that shouldn’t be taken as reason for pessimism. What can be taken away from Saturday’s tape is how individual players and position groups have developed certain aspects of their game and how they held up in the situations they were placed in. Just as for the defense, the limited nature of contact in the showcase makes this a challenge as well, but there was plenty to be gleaned from what we were able to see.

Usually, a spring game that involves a team’s top two quarterbacks each throwing interceptions results in the spontaneous combustion of the fanbase. That hasn’t really been the reaction to the performances of Miller Moss (1 TD, 2 INTs) and Jayden Maiava (1 TD, 1 INT), nor should it be. (I’m proud of everybody for not overreacting).

As mentioned previously, the offense ran by the Trojans in this game was not particularly sharpened or complex. In the context of what they were asked to do, both quarterbacks performed quite well outside of their respective mistakes. Moss went 16 of 21 for 133 yards and a score, while Maiava completed 15 of 17 passes for 172 yards and a TD of his own. Though neither quarterback lit up the scoreboard a la Arch Manning at Texas (we call that manufactured inflation), both quarterbacks demonstrated the respective skill sets that make them intriguing as potential starters.

Moss started the day a bit shaky, first underthrowing what should have been an explosive gain down the sideline to Ja’Kobi Lane, then trying too hard to thread the needle for a cover-2 hole shot on the next drive only for Marcelles Williams to pick him off from underneath. These were the two worst throws of Moss’ day; the first a badly thrown ball on a good decision, the second a well-placed pass that should never have been thrown. From that point on, however, Moss was sharp in his execution of the offense.

His next drive did admittedly result in an interception at the goal line, but I’m not going to put that one on the quarterback. Moss fired a perfectly-placed slant to the chest of Kyron Hudson, only for Jacobe Covington to play through the receiver’s hands perfectly and pop the ball into the waiting arms of Prophet Brown. The throw itself was accurate, on time and catchable, likely resulting in either a catch or an incompletion 95% of the time. Hudson didn’t attack the ball as he should have and Covington made a fantastic play to knock it up into the air; sometimes these things just happen.

On his following and final drive, Moss locked in and marched the offense down the field once again, this time resulting in a touchdown. Playing in the context of a game-ending 2-minute drill, the quarterback was methodical and on target all the way down the field as he made his reads with confidence and delivered the ball with precision. He started with two beautifully-timed and placed dig routes to Duce Robinson and Kade Eldridge (Eldridge dropped his), following up with a number of decisive throws underneath to keep moving the sticks. Moss then fired a near-perfect ball up the seam to Lane, only for it to just bounce away from the outstretched tips of his receiver’s hands. On the third-and-12 that followed, Moss once again ripped a dig route perfectly for the conversion, this time for 15 yards to Hudson. After throwing a short touchdown pass a few plays later, he finished the drive an impressive 9 of 11, having thrown for 74 yards and a score.

Moss didn’t light things up by heaving deep balls or dazzling as a scrambler, but he executed the primary directives of the quarterback position with machinelike confidence and top-notch decisiveness. His obvious understanding of what he’s seeing from the defense and how his progressions will work in response is perhaps his most valuable trait, allowing his teammates and coaching staff to consistently trust that he’ll make the right decision from down to down. It’s inevitable that he’ll make the occasional mistake when attempting to diagnose what he sees, especially before he gets more real game-action under his belt, but what he’s already shown indicates that this anticipatory skill will be a major strength of his game. Though he might never be a high-efficiency master of the deep ball, his arm seems to be very accurate in the underneath and intermediate ranges where the majority of his work will almost certainly be done. In conjunction with his toughness and leadership, that combination of traits bodes well for Moss’s ability to be a high-level starter for this team.