COLUMN: Miller Moss stakes claim as next USC QB with storybook performance

SAN DIEGO -- As much as the media (at least this reporter) wanted to make quarterback Miller Moss' first career start Wednesday in the Holiday Bowl into an all-stakes audition for his chance at being the Trojans' QB1 in 2024, Moss continued to reiterate that it was just another day in a long string of them that he has been stacking toward that goal -- and that he didn't feel he necessarily had anything to prove to anyone who mattered.

Meanwhile, his teammates reinforced the impression he had already made on them behind the scenes, where only they and the coaches could truly know how much the third-year signal-caller had developed or how ready he was for his long-awaited moment.

Running back Austin Jones and others tried to tell us all that we shouldn't be surprised by anything Moss did vs. Louisville's top-20 defense.

"Miller is a really good quarterback and you're going to get an opportunity to see that. There's nothing that's going to faze [him] in the game," Jones had said during bowl practices.

And yet, how could anyone have been prepared for what Moss did when the spotlight finally found him Wednesday?

He completed 23 of 33 passes for 372 yards, 6 touchdowns and 1 interception in the Trojans' 42-28 win over the No. 15-ranked Cardinals. It was both the most touchdown passes ever thrown by a USC QB in his first career start and also a Holiday Bowl record (surpassing the previous mark of 4 in each case).

It was so much more than the numbers, though.

Moss was simply marvelous. He looked poised, confident and in command. At times, he even looked a little like Heisman-winner Caleb Williams with some of the throws he connected on, through tight traffic and on the move outside the pocket under pressure.

But most importantly, yes, he looked like the Trojans' 2024 starting quarterback.

If not for USC's glaring depth concerns at the position with only two scholarship QBs on the roster, I'd say there would be no need to go hunting in the transfer portal -- there still is for that reason, but Moss effectively changed the dynamics of that search now.

Coach Lincoln Riley was asked point-blank if Moss had won himself the QB job for next season already?

"I can't believe we got to the fourth question," Riley quipped. "He did a great job. I mean, shoot, he may have scared off anybody that would want to come here anyway. He was awesome. It's a performance game."

RELATED: Everything Lincoln Riley said after USC's Holiday Bowl win over Louisville | Watch the postgame press conferences with Riley, Miller Moss and teammates | Not subscribed to TrojanSports.com? Enjoy more coverage like this by joining our team -- sign up here!

Actually, it didn't take four questions -- Riley was also asked it as part of the first question but kept his response to that one focused on the performance itself.

Meanwhile, wide receiver Kyron Hudson, who was the recipient of one Moss' 6 TD tosses, got the same question and didn't hesitate to give his more matter-of-fact take on it.

"What Miller did out there is something that is going to help us in the future, so personally, yes, he did," Hudson said. "I'm super excited for Miller. He waited his time and he's ready for it -- and he's the guy that we need."

Riley seems to be realizing that more than ever as well.

Since five-star freshman quarterback Malachi Nelson surprised him by entering the transfer portal earlier this month, exasperating the depth concerns that already existed there, Riley has several times now mentioned that moving forward he and his staff will place a premium in recruiting on finding players to whom it matters to be at USC in a significant way -- players who believe in the development process and trust the staff to get the most out of them, even if that doesn't manifest in immediate playing time.

In other words, players like Moss.

"I've said previously and our local guys know this, it's really, really important to me the longer I coach and going through this, I don't know it all, but having people that this program is incredibly important to them, that's the key," Riley said Wednesday night. "I think in this day and age with all the movement, when you have guys like that it's even more of an advantage than maybe it was 5 or 10 years ago because it's becoming a little bit harder to find.

"Miller's had a passion for this university and program for a long time. You've seen that in his ability to hang in there, to continue to get getter. Part of, I think, the reason he played well tonight is the consistency he's brought. He could have bolted off at different times -- he stayed here, he's gotten better and that's why a night like tonight happened. He's obviously a tremendous leader for our program, was a great leader for us tonight. I'm really excited to see what the future holds for him because he's going to get better and better."

We touched on this in a column leading into the bowl game -- how when Moss committed to USC back in June of 2020, he told us how he spent the next hour "just running around the house playing the USC fight song on the speaker."

He dreamed of this -- not just being a college quarterback and showing he could put up stats and win big games but doing that here at USC in the same Cardinal and Gold he grew up wearing as a young Trojans fan.

It really is an incredible story.

Moss was a highly-rated recruit out of local Bishop Alemany HS -- the No. 8-ranked pro-style QB in the 2021 recruiting class -- and he committed to USC despite the Trojans already having another four-star QB commit in Jake Garcia at the time. Later in that recruiting cycle, USC started pursuing yet another surging QB recruit in Jaxson Dart. That led Garcia to decommit, but not Moss.

He went through that first season backing up Dart and Kedon Slovis, before both QBs departed through the transfer portal after that 2021 campaign, only for USC and Riley to bring in Caleb Williams, who would be immediately entrenched as the starter for at least two years at that point.

Still, Moss stayed. Unlike how he may have felt as a freshman behind Dart, a guy he trained with in the offseason and felt competed well against, he understood the reality of the situation with Williams, a Heisman candidate from the day he joined the program. Moss embraced Williams and embraced the idea that he could benefit from learning under Riley, the heralded QB developer.

"Obviously, a difficult first year for me in college -- a lot of ups and downs and adversity in that situation. But I think it's just more a testament to the guys in that locker room, to the leadership in our coaching staff that made me want to stay," Moss said after the game. "I love those guys, I'll ride for those guys and I think Coach Riley's done a really, really great job in quarterback development, obviously, with the guys that he's had. I trusted him and I trusted his process."

That's about all the reflection Moss would share Wednesday night. Usually gregarious and consistent with good soundbites the last couple years, Moss flipped a switch this month as he took the reins of the offense. He was now the leader of the team, he understood, and that meant making everything about the team.

As much as he's earned the opportunity to indulge his own story right now and bask in where his journey and his decisions have now led ...

I took one more shot at it, though, noting in the postgame press conference how for as much as he deflected the spotlight in recent weeks and tried to make this game about anything but himself, he had just gone out and seized the full glow of that spotlight while making himself the story of the game. Given his path to this point, how special is this now? Were there moments Wednesday night where all of that hit him at times?

Still, he wouldn't bite.

"It's a good positive moment, I still think more so for the team than for me personally. These six weeks since UCLA weren't about any individual -- they were about us and people that wanted to be here and wanted to play this game and wanted to come together," Moss said. "Obviously, I did some good things, there were some things I could do better definitely. I'm sure I'll watch the film and there will be a ton of stuff I need to clean up. Personally, it's a good step in the right direction, but definitely a lot to improve on, a lot more to accomplish."

He didn't have to say it, though. It was on his face as he kneeled out the final seconds of the win and was met by an unending parade of congratulations across the field -- from Williams, the supportive Heisman winner who looked as excited as anyone to see his understudy take the final bow this time, to Riley, who pulled Moss in for an embrace in the middle of the chaos, to one teammate after another, an on-field Fox Sports interview, the Holiday Bowl offensive MVP trophy presentation, etc.

In those moments, Moss couldn't hide his emotions, as his eyes seemed to well up at times with his head spinning around and taking it all in, not even sure which way he should be walking from one moment to the next.

It was a stark change from the preceding four quarters, when Moss looked in complete control of everything.

After an initial three-and-out and a drive that ended in a missed field goal, Moss led four straight touchdown drives for USC to build a 28-14 halftime lead.

There was the 17-yard catch-juke-and-run touchdown to Tahj Washington that Moss uncorked while backpedaling away from pressure on third-and-8. (That scoring drive was set up by Max Williams' sack and forced fumble of Louisville QB Jack Plummer, which Solomon Byrd recovered at the Cardinals' 19.)

There was the 29-yard touchdown strike to Washington in the second quarter that Moss deftly dropped over the trailing defensive back and almost perfectly hit Washington in stride before the receiver had to slow up just a bit at the end to still haul it in with ease.

Then the 9-yard touchdown pass that Moss whistled through traffic, past the hand of one defender and right into the chest of Hudson before the other two DBs in the area could close in on him.

And if that didn't merit some Caleb Williams comparisons, Moss' fourth touchdown of the first half sure did, as he agilely escaped a near sack in the pocket and then while moving to his right with another defender diving toward his legs flung a pass to a spot on the right side of the end zone -- 40 yards in the air -- that freshman receiver Ja'Kobi Lane got to in time to haul in the off-script 31-yard touchdown with 19 seconds left before halftime.

Moss then shook off his one true mistake of the game -- an ill-advised sideline throw he tried to force to the front corner of the end zone that was easily intercepted by Louisville and returned 61 yards to set up an eventual touchdown early in the third quarter to cut the lead to 28-21 when it seemed USC was on the brink of going up three scores.

"One-hundred percent my fault on that swing. Turning the ball over in the red zone is not winning football, but I also have the mindset that I'm not going to allow my mistake to be the reason we don't win this game," Moss said. "I just let them know that's 100 percent on me -- as long as we do our job we'll be all good."

He was indeed still in full control.

Moss would convert passes on third-and-12 and third-and-8 to keep the next drive going and then hit Lane again with a perfectly-placed jump ball in the back corner of the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown to make it a 35-21 USC lead.

But Moss saved his best touchdown pass for last.

While he nearly had that deep shot to Washington perfectly timed earlier in the game, he absolutely did drop the most on-the-money dime to Duce Robinson over the shoulder down the seam for a 44-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to make it a 42-28 game while not letting the Cardinals ever complete their comeback hopes.

"He was awesome, he was awesome," Riley said. "I'm not a bit surprised with how he played. He just did what he's been doing in practice really for a while, but especially kind of the second half of this year in every practice the guy was just getting better and better. So I knew he'd be very confident coming in and it was great to see him respond. ...

"It was a tremendous quarterbacking performance, and obviously a lot of guys around him played very well and made plays, but he certainly led the charge."

While many watching Moss play his first true extended action as a college quarterback (he had 59 career passing attempts over three seasons coming into the day) surely were surprised, his teammates echoed Riley in maintaining, again, that Moss had already won them over long before Wednesday night in San Diego.

"The thing I noticed about Miller right from when I got here is his composure and how confident he is in himself. And he's a leader, he's like a natural leader," safety Bryson Shaw said. "The guys really gravitate to him. He wasn't nervous at all. Talking to him, he's a cool, calm, collected guy. He's a killer, man. He's got ice-cold veins and he showed that tonight, so just from right away I knew what kind of guy he was because he's just a professional."

Said center Justin Dedich: "It's a cliche saying, but trust the process -- sticking through it because when you get your opportunity you've got to shine. And Miller's the definition of that. He's seen it. He's been ready to play for quite a while now, and then he finally got his opportunity and he showed the world that he's ready to take it."

Consider it taken.

USC has found its starting quarterback for 2024.