He was very good by UNLV standards and there is/was some upside for sure.
Downside he puts the ball in danger a lot. He made some really bad reads particularly in the bowl game.
Early in the season Marion was very 'fatherly' with him on the sidelines after a mistake. 'Hey it happens' shake it off.
By end of year you could almost see it switch to, 'Dude we've talked about this $#!+....
Couple examples.
In Utep game he threw a really bad pass when Rebs were up I think 14 late in the 2nd qtr. Defender flat out dropped it. If he catches it, he was taking it to the house and suddenly it's a close game and UTEP has life.
In Kansas game there was a 4th and one play and Maiava tried to go over the top to White. It fell incomplete. These boards went nuts (myself included) wondering what the Hell kind of play call was that. Reality is Maiava made that decision. He had the ability to check down or check out of that. There were 3-4 other guys running routes.
There was a lot of good as well. Not crapping on the guy he was a freshman. But if he doesn't start making better decisions with the ball he won't be starting for USC.