LAS VEGAS -- Just like a year ago in San Diego, the USC football team celebrated jubilantly on the field Friday night at Allegiant Stadium after another momentous bowl victory. Confetti fell atop the Trojans as coach Lincoln Riley smiled wide and hoisted the Las Vegas Bowl trophy after a dramatic come-from-behind 35-31 win over Texas A&M.
But what does it all really mean for the program moving forward?
It's harder to answer that this time around.
Last year, quarterback Miller Moss' 6-touchdown Holiday Bowl performance in his first career start seemingly alleviated questions about the immediate future of the position for USC. The way the Trojans shook off five losses in six games to look genuinely renewed and rejuvenated in that dominant win over a ranked Louisville team gave Riley the ability to compellingly spin it forward as a culture reset and springboard for 2024 with a new defensive staff in tow and every reason to buy into better things to come.
This time ...
Well, Riley can certainly tout the togetherness, resilience and grit of his team and program, as he did after the Trojans overcame a 24-7 deficit late in the third quarter to twice take the lead in the final minutes of the fourth quarter -- including the game-winning 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive in the final 1:49, capped by a 7-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Ford with 8 seconds left.
For all the adversity and disappointment of this season -- losing five fourth quarter leads in the final minutes, all in varying degrees of excruciating fashion -- it can absolutely be said these Trojans never let up or lost their investment in their coaches, their teammates or the next game. That's very notable.
And despite entering this game with two first-time starters on the offensive line -- walk-on center Kilian O'Connor and redshirt freshman right tackle Tobias Raymond -- and then having to thrust true freshman Justin Tauanuu (with all of 16 snaps of experience) in at left tackle after Elijah Paige left with a lower leg injury five plays into the game, the Trojans rallied around that as well. That's frankly impressive.
"Just incredibly proud of this group, the resiliency they showed," Riley said. "I told them there's a toughness and a hardness that's developing within this program right now that I think you can look at a lot of different points throughout this season and certainly tonight and you see that. There's a lot of excitement about that. ...
"Guys are excited, guys are proud as they should be. Like I said at the trophy presentation, our motto here is 'Fight On' and this team has really embodied that and did so again tonight."
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Riley can -- and should -- definitely sell all that after this bowl win.
But not that this bowl game and the momentous finish alone point toward any bankable big-picture reason for heightened optimism for 2025.
That benefit of the doubt was afforded this time last year, and it was followed with a 7-6 season and Moss being benched with three games left on the schedule.
Friday could have been an equally important showcase for his replacement, Jayden Maiava, but the redshirt sophomore quarterback was all over the place in his final opportunity to build confidence in his grip on the job heading into the offseason.
To his credit, he was at his best late, completing 8 of 9 passes for 76 yards on that game-winning touchdown drive and leading touchdown drives on four of USC's final five possessions overall to key the comeback.
But a big reason the Trojans were in that hole to begin with is because Maiava tossed a season-high 3 interceptions -- including 2 of the worst decisions or passes any USC QB made all season -- while finishing 22 of 39 for 295 yards and also a season-high 4 TDs.
The first interception came deep inside Texas A&M territory early in the second quarter when he lofted a bad ball down the middle to the opposite shoulder than receiver Makai Lemon was expecting it and in general well off the mark.
His second interception was more circumstantial when Aggies defensive lineman Cashius Howell deflected Maiava's pass near the line and snared the ball out of the air for an interception to the USC 9 -- setting up a quick touchdown and 24-7 lead with 5:12 left in the third quarter.
And the third one threatened to undermine USC's comeback early in the fourth quarter, coming on the heels of two Trojans touchdown drives that had cut the deficit to 24-21 and a quick three-and-out by the defense. On the next play, Maiava lofted a ball to no man's land, his reaction seeming to indicate a miscommunication that nonetheless set the Aggies up at the USC 38 as Dalton Brooks picked it off.
Another defensive stand and a missed field goal ultimately negated the impact of the pick, and Maiava got the Trojans back on track with a 10-play, 79-yard touchdown drive that included a 33-yard connection to Lemon and a 15-yard touchdown to Ja'Kobi Lane (more on him in a bit) for a 28-24 lead with 4:30 to play.
After Texas A&M retook the lead, Maiava then led the game-winning drive in his best sequence of the day at the most important time.
So what to make of all that? That's the question the Trojans face entering the offseason.
For what it's worth, Maiava's coach and teammates speak highly of his poise and leadership and their confidence in his potential.
"I'm very confident in him. I'm very confident, just going through what he's been through, watching how fast he's improved, and I think most importantly for me there's your performance as a player but there's who you are as a person, a leader. When you play that position that's just part of it," Riley said. "The guy's so selfless, so about the team. I think he's just going to continue to get better and better, and we've obviously got some good players around him on both sides of the ball that are excited to come back and lead."
Said Ford: "Jayden's just hard on himself, and that's why we love him. He wants to be perfect for us and he doesn't want to ever let us down. He always puts the blame on him, which I hate. Like dude, the ball hit me square in the hands, it's my fault. He's just that type of guy. People love him and rally around him. ...
"Hopefully I get this right, I think it was maybe the second pick or something like that, he was pretty hard on himself and was like 'My bad, guys.' And everybody just rallied around him, we're like, 'Bro, we don't care. No one even cares. It's not a big deal.' And he was like, 'All right, all right, cool, let's roll.' And from then on he was just the leader that he was. It was good to see everyone pick each other up like that -- that's what a team is about."
Lemon added more praise about the QB's resilience.
"Definitely a poised quarterback. You're going to have ups and downs during the game, but it's all how you respond and fight toward the end and he did a great job of that tonight," he said.
That's all encouraging, but then there are the tangible concerns. While Maiava led some key scoring drives Friday night, he was also erratic throughout the game, finished just 1 of 8 for 28 yards and 2 INTs on passes that traveled at least 20 air yards and PFF credited him with zero "big-time throws" -- which it defines as a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window.
Overall in four starts, he threw 6 interceptions (with 11 touchdowns), including three pick-6s, after also having shown turnover concerns last year at UNLV against lesser competition.
With the opportunity to silence questions about the position moving forward, like Moss at least did in the moment a year ago, it was a commendable finish Friday night for Maiava but a mixed-bag performance that despite the resolve he showed down the stretch has only raised more questions about the state of the QB position for USC in 2025.
Riley had made clear all along that he would seek to add a transfer QB out of necessity with only Maiava and true freshman Husan Longstreet on the roster, but now it remains to be seen if the Trojans will seek not just depth but invest in a proven veteran QB to come in and truly compete for the starting job. Of course, only Riley knows how Maiava's performance vs. Texas A&M will influence that decision.
"He didn't play his best there for a while, missed a few things he doesn't normally miss, but he stayed with it and that's what you gotta do. You're not always going to have your A game," Riley said. "You play against a defense that is as good as Texas A&M's, they're going to make some plays too, and you've got to keep fighting. I think he showed the heart of a champion in just staying with it. That's not an easy thing to do, and he's really hard on himself. He wants to do it so bad for the other guys on the team and on the roster that you appreciate that. His teammates, though, did a great job lifting him up. ...
"It was like the team just kept lifting him up and he kind of caught fire there at the end and played really confident. So, proud of the guys around him and certainly proud of the way Jayden responded."
All of this said, though, the questions that linger heading into the offseason — QB, the remaining roster needs, Riley’s aversion to committing to the run and questionable clock-management — and the reality that the Trojans ultimately showed this year that a stirring win in a mid-tier bowl game can't be extrapolated into the year ahead, the night and moment itself Friday were significant for the program.
Riley called it a "poetic" ending that the Trojans scored the dramatic touchdown in the final minute this time after so many games in which that scene unfolded the other way.
"I think it really just [shows] who this team is," said linebacker Easton Mascarenas-Arnold, one of many seniors to hang around through December to play in this final game. "There's a lot of games that we let slip away, but even those games we never gave up. This team was always fighting. I think today was a good example of us rallying together in those moments. ...
"You can't dwell on the past, you can only control the present, so I think today we said regardless of what has happened, today we're going to control our destiny and control our fate and it showed at the end."
Said his brother, senior safety Akili Arnold: "It's huge for us. Especially this game, when the fourth quarter hit and we knew the game was close, I think for a lot of us, we're like, we're not going to let this one slip away, we're not going to let it slip away like those other games in the fourth quarter. It was the last game of our college career and we're going to make everything work and came out with the W."
And to do it with a rash of transfer portal departures -- including high-profile receivers Duce Robinson, Zachariah Branch and Kyron Hudson -- and a couple key seniors like cornerback Jaylin Smith and center Jonah Monheim opting out of the bowl game, can't be ignored.
"I think it's just like what this school is. Like, everybody thinks like, oh some guys are leaving, oh no, the world's crashing down. No, we've got guys that stepped up," Ford said. "... Our approach didn't change. We just came out to practice the same way, almost as if nothing happened. So everyone's mentality was great and made each other better over these last three weeks."
Ford was one of those guys with a season-high 6 catches for 59 yards and that indelible moment on the game-winning touchdown as he dropped to his knees in the end zone, buried his helmet in his hands and soaked in the emotions of a six-year college football career that didn't play out the way he necessarily envisioned but ended in such a memorable way.
You know, kind of like this USC football season ...
"Man, it was just a lot of emotion," Ford said. "... This is just a testament to how hard I think I've worked and persevered through it. So that all hit me all at once, and it was a cool way to end it."
Then there was Lane's latest star-turning showcase performance as he reeled in 7 catches for 127 yards and 3 touchdowns -- his second straight 3-TD performance as he finishes the season with 12 scores. He deservedly was named the game's MVP.
"I don't think it was anything that clicked. I think the work that we've put in the whole season as a whole just makes me want to be better for everybody, and I think that's what kind of pushed me toward the end was realizing we all need to just come together and finish," Lane said.
Lemon was every bit as impressive with 6 catches for 99 yards and a 46-yard kickoff return.
In those two, USC will have one of the top receiver tandems in the Big Ten and beyond next year -- despite the high-profile transfer departures.
The young running backs who got their first real expanded opportunity Friday night also looked encouraging, with freshman Bryan Jackson rushing for 66 yards and a TD on 16 carries and redshirt freshman A'Marion Peterson adding 43 yards on 12 carries with some nice runs sprinkled in from both.
The young offensive linemen held up strong -- with O'Connor allowing just 1 pressure, Tauanuu giving up 2 pressures and Raymond 3, with 0 sacks or penalties between them.
And D'Anton Lynn's defense capped an overall encouraging first season, delivering three straight scoreless series after USC went down 17 late in the third quarter to give Maiava and the offense the opportunity to author that comeback.
"I just think we didn't flinch. We're a pretty battle-tested group. We've been through a lot this year, we've been in a lot of big games, we've been in a lot of games that have obviously come down to the end of it. So there wasn't really anything in this game that could happen where I thought we were going to totally flinch," Riley said. "That doesn't mean we were going to play perfect, but I knew we would stay with it. There was never one thought in my mind that we wouldn't.
"And [the] attitude, leading into the game, last night in the team meeting, really the last several weeks, and then their attitude on the sideline and the way everybody was lifting each other up, nobody was down, like they just kept going. They knew we were going to get ourselves back into it. There was a real confidence on the sideline, and that's that hardness and that toughness I think is starting to develop in the program, and there were a lot of examples of that this year. And it was great to be able to finish on a great note where that was required."
It was indeed, and the Trojans absolutely earned the celebration that ensued on the turf at Allegiant Stadium afterward.
(It could also be said that bookending the season on that same field with wins over SEC foes LSU and Texas A&M in Las Vegas makes everything that happened in between even more frustrating, but no USC fan needs to be reminded of that).
It just needs to also be understood that there are many questions still to answer through the offseason roster-building period and much to prove next fall when Riley enters his fourth season coming off decreasing win totals each of the last two years since his impressive 11-win Trojans debut.
So take the bowl win for what it was -- a much-needed positive finish to an overall frustrating season -- and learn from last year that any reason for optimism in the Trojans' potential in 2025 doesn't stem from one night in late December but rather everything else that's still to come and sort out.
