Miller Moss says he’s focused on winning after earning USC starting quarterback role
Barely one day after he’d realized his lifelong dream of being named USC’s starting quarterback, Miller Moss already was ready to put his triumph in the rearview mirror.
“It’s hard in what we do to stop and smell the roses,” Moss said Tuesday. “I mean, obviously, it was a goal I set for myself a long time ago, and I’m happy I accomplished that. But I don’t think it’s necessarily about that now. It’s about going and winning games.”
USC coach Lincoln Riley made a point to note that Moss didn’t run away with the job after entering camp with a significant lead over Nevada Las Vegas transfer Jayden Maiava. Riley characterized USC’s starting quarterback competition as “neck and neck” and credited Maiava for making “a major, major jump” since spring.
USC out to prove its revamped defense can win a ‘fistfight’ against LSU
Confidence was radiating from Will Campbell as Louisiana State’s towering left tackle and future first-round pick leaned back comfortably in his chair this week, declaring in a deep bayou drawl his intentions for Sunday’s season-opening meeting with USC’s defense in Las Vegas.
“We know what we’re there for. It’s not to go to Caesars Palace,” said Campbell, the All-Southeastern Conference lineman. “It’s to be in a fistfight.”
He wasn’t hiding how it would be fought either. “We’re gon’ run the ball,” Campbell said in another interview. “That’s not something we’re … trying to keep quiet.”
This wasn’t exactly bulletin board material in the traditional sense. Even if it was presented that way to USC defenders, who responded with shrugs or sideways glances. But Campbell’s confident declaration drove home the reality of USC’s situation.
USC vs. LSU: Betting lines and how to watch
Here’s a look at the betting odds, spread and over/under for USC vs. Louisiana State, which is set to start at 4:30 p.m. PDT on Sunday.
The game will be shown live on ABC and ESPN+ and will air on 710 AM in Los Angeles.
Twenty years later, when USC and LSU meet again, only one team can come out on top
Can Lincoln Riley cool down his already hot coaching seat? Can UCLA’s DeShaun Foster coach the team to a winning record?
The two teams stared at each other from across the East Room of the White House, each waiting for its photo op, each convinced it belonged there more than the other. But both USC and Louisiana State technically had been named college football’s national champions after the 2003 season — LSU by the Bowl Championship Series computers and USC by the Associated Press voters — so both had been invited to meet with President George W. Bush at the White House in March 2004.
Later, as he congratulated both teams, President Bush joked the two should decide a champion right then and there.
“The South Lawn is pretty good sized,” Bush quipped.
No football was played that afternoon on the White House lawn. Nor would the two college football powers play at any point in the ensuing 20 years.