USC’s push toward the College Football Playoff is starting to look a lot like a Jayden Maiava story.
The Trojans quarterback walked into one of the sport’s most intimidating settings in Week 6 and never looked rattled. In front of a record crowd of 114,419 at Penn State’s White Out game in Beaver Stadium, with “Mo Bamba” by Sheck Wes blasting through the stadium, Maiava opened the night by hitting Zacharyus Williams for 12 yards. He then went 5-for-5 on the opening drive and capped it with a 19-yard touchdown to freshman receiver Trent Mosley.
That first series set the tone. Maiava stayed composed, pre-snap and in the middle of the chaos, and USC fed off that steadiness all night. By the end, the Penn State crowd had been quieted by a quarterback who looked comfortable from the first snap to the last.
Maiava finished 21-of-33 for 301 yards and three touchdowns, another strong line in a season that has already included bigger numbers. He threw a career-high five touchdowns against Louisiana in Week 2, and the week before that he completed 92% of his passes against Fresno State with three touchdowns. But against Penn State, the setting gave this performance a different kind of weight.
“Thought he was poised, confident. I think he was very locked into how we wanted to attack them and I thought he stayed really steady throughout the entire game,” Riley said. “He played how you need your senior quarterback to play and one of your experienced players in terms of that environment.
“I thought he handled it well. He played one of his best games for certain.
Just really proud of his poise. There was just king of a calmness with him and there was energy but he was just very calm throughout the entire game.”
That calm is becoming the defining trait of USC’s season. Mel Kiper’s recent 2027 NFL Draft rankings left Maiava out of the top 50 quarterbacks, even though seven were included. He keeps getting overlooked in those conversations, but it’s still early in October, and there’s plenty of football left before draft stock becomes anything close to final.
What matters now is consistency, and that’s where Maiava has work to do. He followed his Penn State outing with his worst game of the season against Washington, a reminder that USC still hasn’t locked in the same level of play from him week to week.
The schedule ahead gives him no room to drift. USC has road games at Wisconsin, Indiana and UCLA, and Ohio State comes to the Coliseum on Halloween.
Each one is a chance for Maiava to strengthen the Trojans’ playoff case and make his own argument to NFL evaluators. Playing like he did in Happy Valley in those games would be hard to miss.
USC will need more from its defense in those ranked matchups, but this team’s ceiling still flows through Maiava. Since taking over as the starter in November of 2024, he has been the Trojans’ biggest edge.
The numbers underline that. USC is 11-0 when Maiava doesn’t throw an interception, and 14-1 when he completes more than 61 percent of his passes.
He is the unquestioned leader of the offense, and the Trojans will go only as far as he carries them.
He also has a young supporting cast growing up fast around him. Mosley and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt are USC’s top two receivers, and both are true freshmen.
Their transition has been seamless enough that you’d hardly know it by watching them. Dixon-Wyatt’s high school teammate, freshman tight end Mark Bowman, is part of that same Southern California pipeline that USC has leaned into.
Tanook Hines has also found his rhythm after a slow start. The sophomore missed the entire offseason and the season opener while recovering from an offseason procedure, and for the first time since he was eight years old, he wasn’t playing football or running track in the spring. The Houston native has since looked more like the true freshman standout he was in 2025.
That group gives Maiava a dangerous set of weapons. Mosley, Dixon-Wyatt and Hines form one of the most explosive receiver trios in the country, while Williams continues to be a key piece in his second year in the program. Freshmen Boobie Feaster and Tron Baker have also given Maiava reliable targets.
For USC, the path forward is clear: the better Maiava plays, the farther the Trojans can go.
In Other News...
USCs Midseason TV Numbers Say A Lot About This Team
USCs first half of the season has played out under an unusually bright national spotlight, and the Nielsen numbers help explain why. The Trojans have already been part of a handful of heavily watched games, including a Pac-12 rivalry matchup on NBC that drew the biggest audience of the group. Along the way, the TV ratings have mirrored the bigger storyline around this team: when USC is involved, people tend to tune in, whether it is for the brand, the stakes, or the chance to see how the Trojans handle a big-stage opponent.
The midseason viewership snapshot also offers a reminder of how often USC has been in games that carried real national interest, with key performances and defining moments helping drive those audiences. It is the kind of exposure that comes with being one of college footballs most recognizable programs, and it will only matter more as the schedule moves deeper into the year. The broader ratings picture is still taking shape, with more games ahead and other programs, including Wisconsin, showing their own audience draws in the same tracking. [Read more 🡒]
USC Just Sent A Clear Message About Lincoln Rileys Future
USC president Beong-Soo Kim made it clear the school is looking at the football program through the lens of the season in front of it, not the price tag attached to Lincoln Rileys contract. With Wisconsin next on the schedule and a difficult stretch still ahead, the message from the top is to shut out the outside chatter and stay focused on the only thing that can change the conversation: winning.
It is an understandable stance for a team still trying to steady itself in a season with plenty of noise around it. The Trojans have ranked opponents looming and the usual championship and playoff talk hanging over the program, but Kims comments suggest USC is not interested in letting speculation about Rileys future drive the story right now. Instead, the coming weeks will be about performance, not panic, and whether the Trojans can play their way into a better place. [Read more 🡒]
USCs Bye Week Could Still Bring A Rankings Boost
USCs week 7 bye comes at a good time, even after the Trojans already grabbed a major win over Penn State. At No. 19, they are still sitting in the part of the rankings where every result around them matters, and this weekend offers a chance for movement without USC having to take the field. The ripple effects could start quickly, with several teams above and near the Trojans carrying uncertainty into the next round of games.
Texas, Florida, UCLA, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Missouri all have situations worth watching, and a few quarterback injuries could end up shaping the bracket of the poll more than anyone expected. If some of those teams stumble, USC could climb simply by holding steady during the bye, which makes this one of those quiet weeks that could still matter a lot in November-style ranking math. [Read more 🡒]