USC QB Miller Moss ready to lead Trojans after bucking trend in transfer portal era

INDIANAPOLIS — Several days removed from a humbling loss to his crosstown rival, USC head coach Lincoln Riley called backup quarterback Miller Moss into his office. A 38-20 home defeat to UCLA on Nov. 18 saddled the Trojans with their fifth setback in six games, ransacking a once-promising campaign that remained unblemished through mid-October. The unraveling had cost them the chance to compete for a Pac-12 championship and national championship alike. And while USC would eventually be invited to the Holiday Bowl against No. 15 Louisville, there was nothing left to play for in the broader sense.

A rudderless conclusion meant star quarterback Caleb Williams — who was, at that time, still the reigning Heisman Trophy winner — had made a business decision to skip the Trojans' postseason and begin preparing for the NFL Draft, in which he would become the No. 1 overall pick by the Chicago Bears. Riley informed Moss of the news. Nearly three full years of waiting for the chance to be USC's starting quarterback were about to pay off.

"One thing that was unique about that time," Moss said, "was everyone that didn't want to be there, or [everyone who] was done with the program, moved on. So literally everyone that was there had every intention of being there and wanted to be there and was excited to be there. So I think when you get a group of people that, collectively, is excited to go win a football game, you usually get a pretty positive result. And that's what we were able to achieve."

Williams, who watched the Holiday Bowl from the sideline, was one of four players who opted out to protect their respective draft prospects. Sixteen others entered the transfer portal and were no longer considered part of the team. Another five were unavailable due to injury. What remained of Riley's roster was a skeleton squad.

But USC is still USC — a college football blue blood, as Riley reminded reporters time and time again at Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday — and that means even the backups tend to be immensely talented players, Moss included. He completed 23 of 33 passes for 372 yards and a Holiday Bowl-record six touchdowns in his first career start, fueling the Trojans to a 42-28 win that propelled the program toward the offseason and its eventual entry into a new conference. Now a redshirt junior, Moss flanked his coach at Lucas Oil Stadium this week and enters the 2024 campaign as USC's presumptive starter, bucking a nationwide trend of impatience at the quarterback position.

"Obviously it's been great that he stayed and stuck through it," Riley said. "And I think he's gotten a lot better because of that."

The recruiting industry believed Moss was pretty good to begin with after a standout career at Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills, California, roughly 30 miles north of the LA Memorial Coliseum. A four-star prospect in the 2021 cycle, Moss was rated the No. 76 overall player and the No. 12 quarterback in the country amid a particularly deep group at his position. Williams (Bears), Quinn Ewers (Texas), J.J. McCarthy (Minnesota Vikings) and Drake Maye (New England Patriots) were among the signal-callers rated higher than Moss, while Jalen Milroe (Alabama), Garrett Nussmeier (LSU) and Shedeur Sanders (Colorado) were all behind him in the 247Sports Composite rankings. He held additional scholarship offers from the likes of Alabama, Georgia, Michigan and Oregon.

Fast-forward to 2024 and what has separated Moss from nearly everyone in that recruiting class is his willingness to stay put, to remain steadfast in his commitment to the program he chose out of high school in an era when nobody seems interested in waiting. Nine of the 11 quarterbacks rated higher than Moss went on to transfer at least once. Two of them have transferred multiple times. Aside from Moss, who is entering his fourth year at USC, the only players who started and finished their respective collegiate careers at the same school were McCarthy and Maye.

"I have a tremendous appreciation for the university and the people that I work with each and every day," Moss said. "I think it's a tremendous honor to be able to play quarterback for Coach Riley. And I think I had certain goals when I signed at USC, and I wanted to see those through until I couldn't anymore. So I think kind of all of the above, right there, is why I stayed and stuck it out."

Moss stuck it out even after the head coach who recruited and signed him, Clay Helton, was fired two games into his freshman season. He stuck it out despite the arrival of Williams, who followed Riley from Oklahoma to USC after throwing for 1,912 yards with 21 touchdowns and only four interceptions in 2021. He stuck it out when five-star prospect Malachi Nelson mirrored Williams by flipping from Oklahoma to USC that same winter, further clogging the Trojans' future depth chart with yet another blue-chip quarterback. He stuck it out this past winter when Riley signed UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava (3,085 yards and 17 TDs in 2023) less than a month after Moss' stellar effort in the Holiday Bowl.

By then, though, Moss knew that he could stick it out through anything after enduring the painful loss to Utah in the 2022 Pac-12 Championship Game. That night, Moss said, represented the nadir of his first two seasons on campus, a stretch in which he logged just 63 total snaps and only attempted 27 passes. Williams had injured his hamstring during a lengthy first-quarter run and was clearly hobbled for the remainder of the game. But the eventual Heisman Trophy winner refused to come off the field, and Moss couldn't help but wonder if his coach's refusal to make a change meant Riley had lost faith in him. Coach and player met for a heartfelt discussion shortly thereafter.

"He wanted to make sure it didn't have to do with my lack of confidence in him," Riley said. "Which it didn't. I remember I said on the headset many times, ‘Hey, if Caleb can't go [against Utah], Miller will go in there and he'll play well.' But Caleb was functional enough at that time and had been playing at a high enough level, it was hard to take him out. I remember having a conversation and I was open and honest with him."

Said Moss: "I think it's hard to really gain Coach Riley's trust without being thrown into the fire fully. You can perform well in a practice setting, but in order to fully earn Coach Riley's trust, I think you need to be thrown in the fire and have live bullets coming at you. Me and Coach Riley have been through a lot together, and I think that's only strengthened our relationship. He's someone that I truly respect and love playing for."

The conversation with Riley gave way to a stretch of postseason practices in which Williams was away from the team for various award ceremonies, thus affording Moss nearly all the first-team reps. It was during this window, Moss said, when his own self-confidence was restored. He knew for certain that his coach, who has now tutored three Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks at Oklahoma and USC combined, believed in him as a viable option for the program's future. And he understood just how talented the player ahead of him on the depth chart truly was. Eventually, he'd get his chance.

All Moss had to do was trust himself, trust Riley and wait.

"I think the opportunity to play for Coach Riley obviously is attractive as a quarterback," Moss said. "I think I'd be lying if I said that wasn't the case. I also think the guy I was sitting behind was pretty good as well, so that gave me a little solace in doing so, if you understand kind of that train of thought.

"But at the end of the day, it was extremely frustrating not playing. I'd be lying if I said that wasn't the case. But I tried to have some foresight in doing so, and hopefully it's going to continue to pay off."

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13 .