LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Jayden Maiava passed for 286 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another score, and No. 14 Southern California opened a season of high expectations with a 42-26 victory over San Jose State on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Trent Mosley caught seven passes for 118 yards and a touchdown in the Orange County product\u2019s impressive debut for the Trojans, who showcased several promising newcomers in coach Lincoln Riley\u2019s offense. Kayden Dixon-Wyatt also caught a TD pass in his debut, while Riley Wormley and Shahn Alston rushed for their first TDs.<\/p>\n
USC has College Football Playoff aspirations<\/a> with a restocked roster around Maiava, who went 25 for 29 as the Trojans built a 35-3 lead heading into the fourth quarter at the Coliseum. Six of the 10 Trojans who caught a pass were making their USC debuts.<\/p>\n \u201cReally dominated the game there through three quarters,\u201d Riley said. \u201cA lot of exciting ball. (Had) a lot of guys (in) their first games as Trojans make a lot of big plays out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Maiava began his third season as the Trojans\u2019 starting quarterback by rushing for a score on the opening drive. Dixon-Wyatt caught a short scoring slant in the second quarter, and 2025 breakout star King Miller<\/a> rushed for a TD and a 28-0 lead right before halftime.<\/p>\n Trojans\u2019 defense sags<\/p>\n New USC defensive coordinator Gary Patterson\u2019s unit<\/a> mostly looked sharp until the fourth quarter, when new San Jose State quarterback Luke Weaver led three late touchdown drives against the Trojans\u2019 backup defenders to tighten the final score considerably.<\/p>\n \u201cFourth quarter, not up to our standards,\u201d Riley said. \u201cA bunch of guys got opportunities, and we had several that did not play the way that we anticipated. There will be a lot to learn and grow from. … The way our starters played, that deserved to be a single-digit-score game.\u201d<\/p>\n Mosley\u2019s debut was dynamite<\/p>\n Mosley slipped seamlessly into USC\u2019s game plan, leading the team with nine targets from Maiava while showing the elusiveness that made him a recruiting coup for Riley. Mosley\u2019s longest grab went for 33 yards, and he had 52 yards after the catch.<\/p>\n \u201cHe kind of just did what he does in practice,\u201d Riley said. \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody here is very surprised. That\u2019s kind of what it looks like most days.\u201d<\/p>\n Mosley also had a 41-yard punt return<\/a> in which he eluded several Spartans with a grace that had his teammates shouting.<\/p>\n \u201cThat kid moves differently,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI mean, he\u2019s special. I love to see him play.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n Sign up for Top 25 Poll Alerts: Spartans surge late<\/p>\n Hawaii transfer Weaver passed for 234 yards and threw fourth-quarter TD passes to Jerry McClure and Jordan Anderson before rushing for a late score. The Spartans\u2019 thoroughly overhauled roster will get a boost from its strong finish to head coach Ken Niumatalolo\u2019s third-season opener.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s far and away the best football team they\u2019ll play all year, and our guys were able to get open,\u201d Niumatalolo said. \u201cWe were able to protect against them, and so those things are encouraging. … And when things did break down, it\u2019s exciting to see Luke extend some plays. That\u2019s going to bode well for us in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n USC\u2019s injury absences<\/p>\n The Trojans won despite being without several expected key contributors due to apparent injuries. Star defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart and presumptive starting receivers Tanook Hines and NC State transfer Terrell Anderson were the biggest absences.<\/p>\n The takeaway<\/p>\n The Trojans lost All-American receiver Makai Lemon<\/a> and counterpart Ja\u2019Kobi Lane to the NFL, but Mosley and their possible replacements looked awfully promising. A few defensive players also popped \u2014 particularly defensive end Luke Wafle, the top overall recruit in last year\u2019s class by some evaluators. Freshman quarterback Jonas Williams, Maiava\u2019s possible successor next season, played the fourth quarter and passed for 55 yards with an interception.<\/p>\n Up next<\/p>\n San Jose State visits Eastern Michigan on Friday, Sept. 4.<\/p>\n USC hosts Fresno State on Friday, Sept. 4.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here<\/a>, visit the Top 25 here<\/a> and see AP\u2019s full college football coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Jayden Maiava passed for 286 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another score,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[7,1321,1327,949,72208,177599,11322,177600,177597,177598,177360,24279,177601,112475,28998,88,90,89,997,29903,24582,24585,127,56427],"class_list":["post-448569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-california","tag-college-football","tag-college-sports","tag-football","tag-gary-patterson","tag-jakobi-lane","tag-jayden-maiava","tag-jerry-mcclure","tag-jonas-williams","tag-jordan-anderson","tag-kayden-dixon-wyatt","tag-ken-niumatalolo","tag-luke-wafle","tag-luke-weaver","tag-makai-lemon","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-state-spartans","tag-san-jose-state-spartans-football","tag-southern-california-trojans","tag-southern-california-trojans-football","tag-sports","tag-trent-mosley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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