"He gave us a great chance to beat Notre Dame": Lincoln Riley drops promising update on USC's emerging QB sensation

USC Trojans coach Lincoln Riley had quarterback sensation Jayden Maiava start the final four games last season, and now the young signal-caller is poised to make the position his own heading into the 2025 season. However, he'll have to fend off competition from transfer Sam Huard and five-star freshman Husan Longstreet.

On Thursday, Riley spoke about Maiava's development, resilience and elite-level potential on Always College Football with Greg McElroy.

“We were excited about how he played,” Riley said (12:35 onwards). “Given his inexperience in our system and coming in under that kind of situation—it’s not always the easiest. And I thought he handled it really well.”

Maiava led USC to a 3-1 record in the final four games of last season. Riley made a reference to the team's 35-49 loss against Notre Dame. Maiava was impressive in the losing effort, passing for 360 yards, resulting in three touchdowns and two interceptions.

“He gave us a great chance to beat Notre Dame with the way he played in that game,” Riley added. “Some of the throws this guy makes, how decisive he is as a player—his good is so good.”

Maiava was a UNLV transfer and had to learn Riley's complex offensive configuration, all while struggling with a knee injury. Now that he enters the new season healthy, Riley dropped a promising update on how he's doing ahead of the 2025 season.

“He’s been able to really train, and I think he’s going to move around better for us this year,” Riley added. “If we can trim a few of those decisions off of him—some of the forced throws—this guy’s got a chance to be elite...There are just some things he does that are hard to teach, hard to coach...”

The Trojans coach thinks that Maiava could be even more lethal if he and the coaching staff could just improve his decision-making a bit.

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Jayden Maiava ranks No. 38 in the latest 247Sports QB rankings

Earlier this week, 247Sports dropped their latest QB rankings entering the 2025 season. USC quarterback Jayden Maiava finds himself in the No. 38 spot.

"The signal-caller who chased Miller Moss to Louisville, Maiava assumes top billing as the facilitator of sorts for Lincoln Riley," College football analyst Brad Crawford said. "As we've seen with Riley's quarterbacks, most deserve the benefit of the doubt this time of the year given the friendly offensive scheme."

Maiava is a good quarterback, but he needs to do a little cleanup in the game, one of which involves not throwing interceptions. He passes well. But some of them land on the opposition's hands, leading to disarray at times in games.

This is what he struggled with in 2024, and now fans hope it doesn't continue in 2025.