LOS ANGELES — Windows are shut now, seams downfield tightening in front of quarterbacks’ very eyes, a development that could open a new door of opportunity for USC football in the Lincoln Riley era.
This defense, golden-haired heir Miller Moss said, makes you earn it, the quarterback smiling in spite of a middling performance in USC’s spring game Saturday afternoon. He’d noticed it this spring, before Saturday, when watching film of previous’ years offensive installs, seeing openings for throws that no longer felt open. And Moss saw it even more plainly Saturday, when he fired a third-down ball on USC’s first drive that hung just a beat too long.
And 6-foot-4 Mississippi State transfer DeCarlos Nicholson, using every inch of his spindly 6-foot-4 frame, leaped to knock away a completion that – in a past USC life – would’ve gone for a touchdown.
In the offseason, head coach Riley and new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn made it a priority to add length in the secondary. And a new-and-improved troop of long-armed dynamos in coverage, fitting concisely into a scheme that returning corner Prophet Brown said postgame is “completely different,” stood out most prominently from an offense-against-defense spring showcase at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
After that initial breakup from Nicholson, USC recorded four picks on the day in just two quarters of football, making a number of game-changing plays that stood out regardless of a softened whistle-before-tackle format.
“This is a very unique DB room,” cornerback Jacobe Covington tweeted mere moments after heading off the field.
On USC’s second series of the game, UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava rotated in at quarterback, leading a lengthy drive before lofting a go-get-it ball down the right sideline. Locked in a 1-on-1 grapple, Nicholson twisted just at the last minute.
Pick.
On the subsequent series, Moss went back behind center, Riley splitting reps fairly equally between prospective-starter Moss, Maiava and third-string returner Jake Jensen. And as the junior quarterback fired a rope outside the numbers, freshman cornerback Marcelles Williams – one of the standouts of spring camp – tracked the ball and stretched his arms to the heavens.
Pick.
On the next series, Jensen had a go, but floated a ball too short down the left sideline directly into the lanky arms of redshirt freshman corner Maliki Crawford.
Pick. Third in a row.
Brown added another at the start of the second “half,” a tipped pass in the end zone floating into his arms, speeding the entire length of the field and joking postgame he hadn’t run that far since playing running back in his high school days. And even in what essentially amounted to a glorified spring practice, it was apparent – both in transformed personnel and Lynn and new DBs coach Doug Belk’s scheme — that USC’s secondary has formed a new identity entering Big Ten Conference play.
“We’re being put in position to make these plays,” Brown said, “and have the freedom to go out there and play fast.”
Conversely, Saturday afternoon didn’t inspire a wealth of confidence in USC’s offensive cohesion, a sort of weird outcome that nonetheless felt like an overall win for the program after years of defensive struggle. Moss was solid, but left much of the gunslinging he displayed in December’s Holiday Bowl off the table, finishing 16 of 21 for 133 yards, a touchdown and two picks. Maiava left the best impression from the quarterback position Saturday, going 15 of 17 despite the one interception, hitting sophomore Makai Lemon on one beautiful back-shoulder ball in the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown.
Riley, though, all but cleared up any notion of a quarterback competition entering the summer and fall camp, noting sophomore Maiava was “improving rapidly” but that Moss was “certainly ahead right now.”
“We’re in a position right now where we don’t have to decide a starter, but if we played today, it would certainly be Miller,” Riley said postgame.
Lemon made an imprint with a game-high six catches, while sophomore Duce Robinson added four for 56 yards. USC’s run game showed flashes of depth, too, with sophomore A’Marion Peterson running for 41 yards on nine carries and freshman Bryan Jackson scoring twice.
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But the defensive side of the ball stood out as a whole, even in going long stretches playing in a “thud” period, where whistles were blown on touches rather than full tackles. USC’s defensive line showed improved chase in bottling up runs to the outside, and true freshmen like linebacker Elijah Newby and edge rusher Kameryn Fountain made cases for snaps come the fall, both thriving in pursuit in both the run and pass game.
“That’s the standard,” Brown said postgame, speaking on pride in USC’s defensive playmaking. “That’s what we gotta do as a defense.”