In the game of college football Texas Hold’em and needing to win two games out of his last three to become bowl eligible, USC head coach Lincoln Riley decided to go all in and replaced his starting QB Miller Moss with backup Sophomore Jayden Maiava in this must-win game against the Cornhuskers. And it paid off in a 28-20 victory to get them within one game of bowl eligibility. Maiava connected on 70+% of his passes for 259 yards, 3 TD’s and 1 interception as well as picking up another 20 yards rushing and the Trojans’ only score on the ground. Six different receivers caught multiple passes from Maiava for 245 of the 259 yard total with WR’s Duce Robinson, Zachariah Branch, and Byron Hudson picking up a TD each. Although he didn’t make it into the end zone, Senior RB Woody Marks did all the heavy lifting on the ground rushing 19 times for 146 of the team’s 185 yard total.
For Nebraska, Freshman QB Dylan Raiola connected on 27-of-38 for 191 yards, 1 TD to Sophomore RB Emmett Johnson, and 2 interceptions. Johnson and Sophomore Donte Dowdell combined on the ground for 107 of the team’s 119 yards on 18 carries. The game was close—tied at 7 after the 1st Qtr, 14 a piece at the break, and 21-to-20 after a third quarter in which Maiava connected with Duce Robinson for a 48 TD while Nebraska had to settle for two field goals. USC missed their chance to score on their first possession of the 4th Qtr on a 27 yard blocked field goal. But Nebraska couldn’t capitalize and had to punt just four plays into their drive with a little over ten minutes left in the game. The Trojans would take their nice sweet time—going on eight minutes— to drive 84 yards in 13 plays down to the Nebraska 2 yard line where Maiava would run it in himself to make it a 28-20 game with under three minutes left. The Cornhuskers had a chance but Raiola would be intercepted for his second time 13 plays into their attempt to tie the game and send it into overtime.
As USC head coach Lincoln Riley said afterwards; “We made some mistakes where we had some opportunities to separate, but I was just super-proud right at the very end. The last drive offensively, and then closing the door defensively there at the end was just tremendous.” Regarding Riley, the great Los Angeles Times Sports Journalist Bill Plaschke had this to say: “Maiava is good . . . but is he good enough to settle the ground under Riley’s uncertain footsteps? . . . No, Riley is not getting fired, not even after going 7-10 in his last 17 games and failing for the third time in three years to qualify for the College Football Playoff. But a third consecutive poor finish combined with the arrival of a new university president could mean that . . . one more bad season would be his last season . . . Riley needs to coach these last two regular-season games and possibly a bowl game like he’s coaching for his USC life.”