USC names Williams' backup Moss starting QB
Miller Moss, who spent three seasons as a backup, was named Southern Cal's starting quarterback on Monday.
Is anyone surprised by this?
- Thread starter rebel5280
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if Moss stays healthy this season, I have a feeling Maiava will be at school #3.
It is still isn't a bad move for Maiava. Lincoln Riley back-ups have been hot commodities and have done big things after transferring. Going there and riding the pine, but having a year or more under arguably the best QB developer in college football can still be a positive. The fact that Riley wanted him likely helped his future stock.
I agree it was the right move, but he didn't transfer to not play until his senior (or Jr. redshirt) season. It's the
Uiagalelei way. I wish the best for Maiava. Gave us a very good season, he's "from" Vegas, and he didn't play for Gorman (sorry Joe). 3 very big plusses for me.
Now back to Sluka and Hajj.
Maiva gets dumped on, ESPN wrote him off.
“It was the kind of performance Riley needed to see. Instead of dipping into the transfer portal for two quarterbacks -- a young one and a veteran -- like Riley said he would do, USC only brought in UNLV's Jayden Maiava, giving Moss the clear chance to become the starting quarterback.”
Translation: he’s from UNLV, he clearly sucks and is no threat to JM.
“It was the kind of performance Riley needed to see. Instead of dipping into the transfer portal for two quarterbacks -- a young one and a veteran -- like Riley said he would do, USC only brought in UNLV's Jayden Maiava, giving Moss the clear chance to become the starting quarterback.”
Translation: he’s from UNLV, he clearly sucks and is no threat to JM.
The dislike of Maiava on here is crazy. I get he abandoned ship but without him I don't see us being where we were last year. Did he struggle and make bad plays at times, yeah he was a freshman, that's kind of expected. Did he over perform, sure, again he was a freshman. Kid obviously had talent or top tier P5 schools wouldn't have come knocking.... legit if he's here right now, we're probably in top 25 preseason and a hands down favorite for CFP.
Losing out to another talented QB with more time in the system doesn't mean "he sucks"... give him a year to push Moss and he either will get his shot or end up at some other big P5 school. Just saying
I don't hate Maiawa. My only complaint isn't with his performance, he was a freshman. He did very well for his first year. But, when he told his fans that he was staying, I felt that he made a commitment to us. Then when he committed to Georgia and then reneged and went to USC, I see that as a character flaw.
Wood did the same thing with hoops. Told everyone he was coming back. Coaches, faculty, fans … and then poof, he used a video to make an announcement just a couple days later, so obviously his intent was to leave altogether, but decided to lie to everyone about it.
It’s a tremendous character flaw.
With Jaden Maiava, was it him or her s family and his agent? This choice may have helped his family out off some financial difficulties
Exactly. Ultimately, there was a bidding war with USC and Georgia. How can you blame a kid if he make an extra $2-300k per year and over the next 4 years? That can turn into over a Million dollars that he might not see over the next 20 years.
Exactly, he went for the money. He was good for UNLV but i dont see a NFL career for him. I cant blame him for choosing a way to help him financially to get big bucks why he still has a chance to.
and possibly the coaching "stay/go" decision in December around Marion and his relationship may have influenced a decision to change his mind as well..
People are acting that JM transferred just to get paid. I don't think that is the case. He went to go play for the best QB producer in all of college football, a coach that has produced multiple high level NFL quarterbacks. UNLV hasn't had an NFL QB since Randall Cunningham.
Sure he will get paid, but he gets to play and to tutored by Lincoln Riley, and it looks like he is one play away from the being the starter at USC. He also is slated to be their QB of future unless he gets recruited over ( which I do admit is a very high possibility).
Some think JM has zero NFL potential, I don't think so. I think going to USC and getting coached by Riley will maximize whatever NFL prospects that he has.
Worse case he gets a nice paycheck as a back up. Another likely case he gets paid to be a QB at a P4 school as a transfer elsewhere. Best case he is the guy at USC, also getting paid, likely more than he is this year.
Maiaiva was not some random diamond in the rough. He was a solid HS recruit that had legit interest from some P4 schools.
Sure he will get paid, but he gets to play and to tutored by Lincoln Riley, and it looks like he is one play away from the being the starter at USC. He also is slated to be their QB of future unless he gets recruited over ( which I do admit is a very high possibility).
Some think JM has zero NFL potential, I don't think so. I think going to USC and getting coached by Riley will maximize whatever NFL prospects that he has.
Worse case he gets a nice paycheck as a back up. Another likely case he gets paid to be a QB at a P4 school as a transfer elsewhere. Best case he is the guy at USC, also getting paid, likely more than he is this year.
Maiaiva was not some random diamond in the rough. He was a solid HS recruit that had legit interest from some P4 schools.
I think he did it to get paid. If Riley says hey you are my back up for the next 3 years but you will be able to learn from me and there is no money attached to that then he stays.
I mean, money certainly played a part... But thats not the only reason. Again, there appears to have been some politics of personalities involved I think with differences not being able to be resolved that also led him to look around, not just $$$. It makes you wonder who we wouldve been able to bring in to compete with him, Im not sold that Hajj or Sluka despite hoping they will be really good this year for us, would've unseated him as the incumbent QB... and Im not sure we were on many mid-tier QB's boards as destinations.
The other part of that equation was that Maiava wasn't the best fit for this offense. Which I am sure was at least a contributing factor to whatever issues that JM and Marion may have had. So if his goal was to make it to the NFL, his chances may have been reduced here simply due to that fact.
This is why NIL and the portal has made college sports so unrecognizable. “Can’t blame him for leaving for money” I get that, but there is zero penalty now in doing so. I gotta believe at some point there will be at least 2 year deals in place, cause this free agency stuff every year is unsustainable. I wish he was here, I don’t think he ever lands the starting job at SC. So while he made a decent chunk of cash, he isn’t getting meaningful gametime minutes. Idk I’m salty haha, hope it works for him, it finally looked like we were going to have consistency at the QB position and poof he leaves to be a back-up instead.
I could also see him transferring 'down' as well just to get playing time.
I don't think there will be a drop in QB play this year from last year with either Hajj or Sluka with all the mistakes "he's just a freshman" made. I believe that it's either a wash or an improvement
That and just the amount of time Marion had to spend on the sideline with Maiava while the defense was in. I believe now, depending on our new QB's, Marion will have an opportunity to focus on the whole offense and not just one player. This will make us better. Just my opinion but, I'm sticking with it.
I agree in general. One thing Maiava had was pretty good arm talent. He also was a bit of a gunslinger for better or worse.
I think both of our newcomers also have pretty good arms, but it is to be seen that they can or are willing to make certain throws that JM did. One critique of Sluka for instance was bailing from the pocket and taking off running perhaps too soon. Who knows what they will look like in this offense though.
It is safe to say that our run game will be more dynamic since both newcomers are easily better runners than JM. Our RB core should be good, probably comparable to last season give or take, but there will be a lot of new faces this season so hard to say until game 1.
As you said for better or worse. Sluka looks more conservative to me and not as accurate (from the one game I saw). But he won't make the turnovers Maiva made so we'll see how that all nets out.
People are going to be surprised at the tempo UNLV plays.
Marion wants to run 70+ plays a game. Last year the offense averaged 69 per play, good for #64 in the country. I think you’re looking at 73 or so per game as the goal.
Marion wants to run 70+ plays a game. Last year the offense averaged 69 per play, good for #64 in the country. I think you’re looking at 73 or so per game as the goal.
Its crazy to think that running 4 more plays a game is a huge jump in pace of play... My concern would be an offense that rolls to fast and a defense that gets gassed because it doesnt have time to recover due to the pace. all our weapons and offensive design is to play full throttle, but an important part to winning big games is being able to also possess the ball when necessary. Particularly end of halves and especially if your winning.
Im not even sure what plays per game accomplishes two of the top scoring teams last year LSU (1) and Oregon (4) were 78 and 105 in plays per game and 1 and 2 in yards per play. Oregon did this with having an edge vs their opponents in time of possession 31:01 minutes per game, LSU was slightly less at 28:29.
So to me keep you defense from playing more than your offense, score a lot and have a lot of yards per play moving the chains is more important than how many plays you run.
So to me keep you defense from playing more than your offense, score a lot and have a lot of yards per play moving the chains is more important than how many plays you run.
I guess the goal is to be like the Oregon offense, but as pointed out you better have a lot of depth on defense because when the Eagles tried this their defense constantly got torched end of games.
I remember reading somewhere that we now have a compliment of either O-Linemen or D-Linemen, so we don't have to pull guys from one of those units to practice against the other. My thought about that is that now we probably have the D-Linemen, so getting too gassed shouldn't be an issue.
Running tempo can really work when you get momentum. You can lock defenses into certain packages, and really get them gassed.
But this really only works with productive plays on first downs, and it is the most effective from run plays. That has been our problem. The run game has not been good on early downs, pass plays that end in negative yards or incompletes kill tempo.
More than tempo, amount of plays, etc. To me the most important aspect to make this offense at it's most effective is being able to run the ball on early downs.
But this really only works with productive plays on first downs, and it is the most effective from run plays. That has been our problem. The run game has not been good on early downs, pass plays that end in negative yards or incompletes kill tempo.
More than tempo, amount of plays, etc. To me the most important aspect to make this offense at it's most effective is being able to run the ball on early downs.
We were really good with third down conversions last season, but that starts with something productive on first down.
Correct, as Peyton Manning would always say his focus was not to get to third down situations, he was always looking for a play that would move the ball past the sticks.
Sluka has better ground game with his legs than Maiava so it should be a net positive!
Maiava certainly had some head scratching passes …. But there were many times he threw a perfect ball, a lot on long routes, strong arm, nice flight and an easy catch.
Kind of what you expect out of a freshman.
I can’t say whether I’d rather have a sophomore Maiava who plays four or these two guys with one year each. I’ll let you know in January ….hopefully not sooner … and then I’ll affirm it or deny it with the next transfer class.
I’m terms of continuity I’d love to have had a stud freshman stay for many years. But for this offense I think we found a better fit in dual threat Sluka. Hopefully it works out that way.
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