The biggest surprise on the official depth chart USC released last Friday on the eve of the season opener was that true freshman Parker Lewis had beat out redshirt junior Chase McGrath for the starting job.

And sure enough, Lewis was right in the middle of one of the most important moments of the game Saturday -- and perhaps the season -- as USC needed to recover an onside kick with less than 3 minutes remaining to get a chance at erasing the rest of its deficit vs. Arizona State.

As Trojans fans well know, Lewis' onside kick scooted perfectly off the grass providing a tough hop for the nearest Sun Devil and ultimately a recovery for USC's Bru McCoy. The Trojans would go onto score the game-winning touchdown from there in a 28-27 win with Lewis' extra point sealing the victory.

"That was my first in-game onside kick. I'm just really glad everything went well," Lewis said Wednesday. "... I honestly, that was such a crazy intense moment, I can't even tell you what was going through my head. It was just practice, repetition, do what we did in practice. That's what I had going."

The standout freshman from Phoenix, Ariz., didn't get any field goal attempts in the game, but he converted all four of his extra points and also handled kickoffs. He did have one kickoff go out of bounds, but he pointed to the tee afterward as if to indicate that something went awry before he connected with the ball.

Ultimately, he delivered when it mattered most.

Lewis was a big-time prospect coming out of Arizona state power Saguaro High School, but his winning the starting job was still a surprise as incumbent kicker Chase McGrath had gone 14 of 17 on field goals last season and was perfect on 54 extra point attempts.

"Parker has been extremely productive in camp. I know that you all have not got a chance to see him live, but extremely explosive leg. I think you saw that in the game, and Chase is in my opinion one of the better kickers in the country and he competed with one of the better kickers in the country," head coach Clay Helton explained earlier this week. "Chase has been suffering from a little bit of knee tendinitis, hip tendinitis, no fault of his, but just the other kid was producing better in the moment going into this game."

Said Lewis: "Going into the season I just tried to compete my best and just hit my ball and that was the mindset I had throughout the entire fall camp. ... It was honestly a pretty crazy moment [learning I won the job]. Coming in as a freshman and winning the job was really surreal, but I just tried to maintain, be calm and focus up for the game. That was my mentality after."