Among this USC football team, freshman quarterback Miller Moss always gives among the most insightful perspectives, and Saturday night after his first extended action of the season, he was reliably candid in reflecting back on his first year with the Trojans.

""I missed my senior year [of high school] and then I didn't play much this year so your love for the game is definitely tested, especially when you're named the third-string quarterback in fall camp. That stuff's not easy. I'd be lying if [I said] it was," he shared. "It really tests your love for the game, it tests how much you really want this stuff. There's been a lot of adversity this year and I'm happy I came out of it in a positive way."

Moss was thrust into action late in the third quarter of USC's season-ending 24-14 loss at Cal on Saturday night when fellow freshman Jaxson Dart was knocked from the game with a punishing hit on a scramble.

Interim head coach Donte Williams said he wasn't sure if Dart had sustained a concussion but that the QB wasn't cleared to return to the game.

And so with that, Moss took the reins of the offense for the first time this fall.

After not having a senior high school season due to the pandemic wiping out fall football in California last year and Moss enrolling at USC in January, he had come in for one snap during the Week 3 Washington State game when Dart had to come off the field for a play. But otherwise, the coaching staff had curiously decided not to get him any action, even late in the blowout 29-point loss to UCLA two weeks ago when Moss was the backup QB with junior starter Kedon Slovis sidelined (as he remained the rest of the season).

Moss finished Saturday 8-of-13 passing for 74 yards, a TD and a lost fumble on a sack he couldn't have prevented when a Cal defender came unblocked from a blind side.

Moss' first Trojans' touchdown came on the team's final drive of the season, on a third-and-9 from the 16-yard line as the QB hit receiver K.D. Nixon with a short on-time connection that allowed Nixon to work his way into the end zone.

After the game, Moss said, he gave the touchdown ball to his mother as they shared a hug on the field.

"I'd be lying to you if I said this year was easy," Moss said. "I mean, we lose our coach Game 2 and then we have a whole bunch of other unprecedented things happen, but I think the fact that I was able to go through that and come out on the other end in a positive way gives me a ton of confidence going forward. Whatever happens, whatever crazy, unprecedented thing comes in the future -- it's college football, I'm sure something will happen -- but I feel like I'm ready for it and whatever happens I'll be good."

Moss, who was a four-star prospect ranked the No. 8 pro-style QB in the 2021 recruiting class, said after the game that he planned to stay at USC and see what his future holds with new coach Lincoln Riley taking over.

Dart has been widely anointed as the future of the QB position at USC since his star-making performance in Week 3 at Washington State (391 passing yards, 4 TDs, 2 INTs off the bench) and the Trojans' decision to start rotating him with Slovis in the middle of the season after Dart returned from a torn meniscus. With Slovis missing the last three games in full, Dart started each.

But Moss is hopeful a new coaching staff means a chance for him to compete for the job anew.

"Absolutely, I'm looking forward to going out there in the spring or starting now in the winter and going and competing and however the chips fall, the chips fall," he said. "But I'm excited to compete. ... All I want -- I think [Riley's] reputation kind of precedes himself in terms of him as a coach -- all I want from him is a fair shot."

As for Saturday night, Moss said that he hated to see Dart -- whom he considers a good friend now -- get hurt, but that he felt prepared and ready for the moment. Moss acknowledged he was "a little shaky" to start but that he found his rhythm soon thereafter.

Asked if he felt it was an early audition for the new coaching staff, he said he didn't have a chance to even think in those terms.

"Honestly, that didn't really cross my mind. I was just happy to be out there. You work so hard for a certain moment and sometimes you feel like that's never going to happen, so it was really good to be out there and there's really nothing like being out there so that was a good experience," he said.