USC football breakdown: How the Trojans look at quarterback
LOS ANGELES — In his freshman year of high school, long before he was minted as Lincoln Riley’s next quarterback of the future at USC, Husan Longstreet was stuck behind Lincoln Riley’s first quarterback of the future at USC.
Longstreet had enrolled at Los Alamitos, a kid who’d watch film for four hours straight since he was in middle school hoping for a fair shake at some snaps. Malachi Nelson, though, stood in his way in that 2021 season, a five-star prospect who had committed to USC and Riley as one of the top quarterbacks in the class of 2023. He had another year of ball left at Los Al. So Longstreet left, and transferred to Inglewood to see the field, playing a year there before heading east to Corona Centennial.
And suddenly, a year after Nelson left USC for an ill-fated backup stint at Boise State and longtime five-star commit Julian Lewis opted for Colorado, Longstreet has assumed his place as the jewel of USC’s quarterback room.
“I feel like we landed on the perfect guy for us,” Riley said of Longstreet on National Signing Day.
Life after Caleb Williams was odd for USC in 2023. Veteran backup Miller Moss took the reins for much of the season and was largely solid, but had a heap too much responsibility placed on his right shoulder and was benched after nine games. UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava took over down the stretch in replacing Moss and offered a complete mixed bag, a toolsy sophomore swinging between heroic and cringe-inducing throws at a moment’s notice.
Longstreet is the anointed one, yes, even heading to USC early in December to participate in a couple bowl practices. But Riley has never started a true freshman quarterback in Week One in his eight years as a head coach, and all signs still point to Maiava getting the first crack in 2025.
“When I go in, if he wins that job,” Longstreet said of Maiava to the Southern California News Group in December, “I’m going to learn from him. Just see what he does, and just go, better from there.”
As the first transfer-portal window has wrapped – although exceptions are always possible – here’s a full breakdown of the movement in USC’s quarterback room entering spring, the first in a six-part series examining the post-portal scholarship outlook for every part of the roster.
Quarterback
Returning: Soph. Jayden Maiava
Arriving: Husan Longstreet (Corona Centennial)
Departing: Jr. Miller Moss (portal, Louisville), Jr. Jake Jensen (portal, undecided)
Top questions
Does USC go after another QB1? Riley said on National Signing Day he’d be “very, very excited” to head into 2025 with Maiava and Longstreet as the two top options in USC’s quarterback room, but Longstreet may not be immediately ready come the fall and Maiava was up and down in four starts for the Trojans in 2024: 59% completion percentage, 1,135 yards, 14 total touchdowns, six interceptions.
The current crop of transfer-portal quarterbacks left uncommitted, though, is weak on solid options. USC did extend an offer to San Jose State transfer Emmett Brown, but Riley also said on National Signing Day that the program would look for another quarterback as “depth in that room.” It’s likely USC rolls with Maiava and Longstreet, even if they add a third piece from what’s left of the portal, into the spring.
Is Maiava Riley’s guy? After the Trojans’ comeback victory in the Las Vegas Bowl, Riley made expressively clear: He was plenty confident in Maiava entering 2025.
“I think, just going through what he’s been through – watching how fast he’s improved, and I think again, most importantly to me is, there’s your performance as a player, but there’s also who you are as a person, a leader,” Riley said. “When you play that position, that’s just part of it.”
Maiava made some truly head-scratching decisions for the better part of the Las Vegas Bowl though, throwing three interceptions amid a four-touchdown performance to pull USC back from a hole he’d helped dig. Maiava is still plenty raw, as his own trainers have observed. His refinement may define much of the Trojans’ fortune this coming fall.