Miller Moss may be ‘smartest QB I’ve had,’ says USC coach Lincoln Riley

Miller Moss is only three games into his tenure as USC‘s starting quarterback, but those have been about as impressive a three-game stretch as he and head coach Lincoln Riley could have hoped for.

Moss threw for 372 yards and six touchdowns to defeat Louisville in the Holiday Bowl last December in his first career start. He followed that up with 378 passing yards and a touchdown in an upset over LSU in the 2024 season opener on Sept. 1. He added another 229 yards and a passing score in the Trojans’ 48-0 shutout win over Utah State last week.

In all, Moss has 979 passing yards, eight passing touchdowns and one interception in his first three starts for USC. But it’s not those numbers that have impressed Riley the most regarding Moss. 

“There’s no question [Moss] is really smart,” Riley told Keyshawn Johnson on the most recent edition of “All Facts No Brakes.”. “He’s one of the smartest ones, and maybe the smartest [quarterback] that I’ve had, which is saying something. 

“Those other guys really understood the game, too, but he’s got a great mind for it.”

As Riley alluded to, he has coached some great quarterbacks at Oklahoma and USC, including current NFL starters Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts and Caleb Williams — all of whom won the Heisman Trophy and became the first overall pick in the NFL Draft (except Hurts, who only spent one year under Riley as a graduate transfer).

While Williams had just made his pro debut with the Chicago Bears, the other three quarterbacks in that group have all gone on to have success in the NFL as well, accounting for six playoff berths and four playoff wins among them. Mayfield’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers even defeated Hurts’ defending NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles in the wild-card round of last year’s playoffs, and both figure to lead their teams into postseason contention again in 2024.

But most, if not all, of the high-profile quarterbacks Riley coached before Moss committed to the Trojans in large part thanks to Riley’s ability as a QB developer and offensive play-caller. As Riley pointed out, Moss took a different track, but it’s one that has helped win over his teammates and coaches.

Moss grew up a die-hard Trojans fan in Santa Monica, California, went to high school in Los Angeles, committed to USC when the program was struggling under Riley’s predecessor Clay Helton, and then stuck with the Trojans even as Williams followed Riley from Oklahoma and starred throughout the 2022 and 2023 seasons with Moss as his backup.

“It [has] been well-documented — he dreamed of being a USC Trojan,” Riley told Johnson. “He stayed here when he didn’t have to. He really put the program — both the program and his dreams of not just playing quarterback at this level, but doing it at this school — he put that front and center and I think it’s earned him the respect of our team, the locker room and really the entire program.”

But while Moss is excelling in the limelight at USC, his former teammate Williams had a rough first NFL outing in Chicago. Although the Bears defeated the Tennessee Titans, 24-17, that was mainly due to their defense and special teams, while Williams only completed 14 of 29 passes for 93 yards.

Riley said he hasn’t gotten a chance to watch the film from Williams’ Bears debut but did tell his former star signal-caller that he would and send back some tips. He’s also not worried about Williams’ long-term trajectory.

“It was a little bit of a tough outing in some ways, but that’s that league,” Riley said. “There’s no doubt he’s going to make some great plays, and I know he made some really important plays at the end of that game for them to win it. He’s going to definitely get better, certainly, as it goes on — as he learns his team, as he learns the league, as he sees how people are going to defend him. … I think he’s going to continue to adapt.

“I know he’s a confident kid that’s going to go back to work and correct the mistakes.”

Williams was rarely afforded the luxury of coming away with a win at USC if he did not have a superstar-level performance on offense, as the Trojans’ defense often struggled mightily during his time there, especially in 2023. 

Riley overhauled that unit last offseason by bringing in D’Anton Lynn from crosstown rival UCLA as the Trojans’ new defensive coordinator and adding a highly-touted staff including linebackers coach Matt Entz, a former FCS national champion head coach at North Dakota State, former Alabama assistant and Houston defensive coordinator Doug Belk as defensive backs coach, and defensive line coach Eric Henderson, who coached Aaron Donald while in the same role with the Los Angeles Rams.

The results have been overwhelmingly positive thus far, as USC held a talented LSU offense to 20 points in week 1 and recorded the Trojans’ first shutout win since 2011 against Utah State on Saturday.

“He [has] done a great job,” Riley said of Lynn. “I give a lot of credit to him and, really, the entire defensive staff. I think we knew we hired a lot of individual coaches that were really good and had great résumés and we thought fit the bill, but I’ve been most impressed with how that group has come together, both for the coaching staff to work as one unit and then our defense as a whole.

“I think he [has] done a good job of instilling confidence and in with our group,” Riley continued. “I think he’s got a really direct, clear message of how we want to play defensively, and I think our guys go out there with a very clear mind and are very confident.”

The Trojans’ next test will be their Big Ten opener at Michigan in Ann Arbor on Sept. 21 after a bye this week.

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