The fans were booing. The big guys weren’t tackling. The skill guys weren’t catching. The coach’s failures were hovering.
As USC took the field at the start of the second half at an angry Coliseum Saturday afternoon, the Trojans trailed Wisconsin by double digits amid the suffocating scent of here we go again.
Enter their tousle-haired, eye-blacked breath of fresh air.
Enter the antithesis of a modern-day college quarterback, a three-year backup who didn’t transfer, didn’t walk out, didn’t sell out.
Enter Miller Moss, who loved USC even when USC didn’t love him back, who now spreads that love around the field with a certain resilience that sends a distinct message.
He’s got this job and he’s not giving it up. He’s got this team and he’s not letting them quit.
When his interception and fumble led to that 21-10 halftime deficit Saturday, he did what any great USC quarterback does.
He fought on. And on. And on.
Read more: USC overcomes mistakes to rally past Wisconsin for Big Ten win
Two second-half touchdown passes on pinpoint strikes. One second-half touchdown on a spinning scramble that turned him upside down. One ensuing trip to the medical tent to have his head examined, for which he had a perfect explanation.
“You go flying, you see some things,” he said.
As the Trojans flew through the second half, the one thing everybody saw was Miller Moss strengthening his grip as this team’s leader with a force that squeezed the life out of Wisconsin in the Trojans’ 38-21 victory.
“One thing we said in that room and always have — show me a tough team and I’ll show you a tough quarterback,” said coach Lincoln Riley.
A week after getting pushed around late in a heartbreaking loss at Michigan, the Trojans looked like a tough team because Moss looked like a tough quarterback.
He’s no Caleb Williams, but nobody around here is talking about Caleb Williams. He’s no Heisman favorite, but nobody around here is talking about individual awards.
This new Trojan era needs smashmouth victories. The new Trojan culture requires comeback credibility. These new Trojans need a quarterback who can take advantage of a reborn defense and manage their embattled coach’s game plan well enough to give them a chance in the 12-team playoff.
And, believe it, this 3-1 team is good enough to qualify for the playoffs. The Trojans should probably be able to get there with two losses. Penn State in two weeks seems to be the only powerhouse standing in their way, and Moss is a perfect fit for this journey.
Humble, teachable, likeable, connected with Riley and, of course, as daringly bonkers as his seven-yard touchdown run on fourth and one that clinched the win with 8:22 remaining.
In it, chugging on instinct and not playbook, Moss juked one defender and spun through another one before landing in the end zone on his head.
After which, nobody was more dizzy than his teammates.
Said running back Woody Marks: “I knew he had it in him, but not like that — that was crazy.”
Added linebacker Mason Cobb, who finished the game with a 55-yard pick-six: “I’ve never seen that. That little jump in the end zone, that was crazy.”
Moss was asked about the play and just shrugged. He talked about it as if he was walking across a campus quad, not traversing a bridge over doubt.
”I felt like they were crashing pretty hard,” he said, referring to rushing linemen. “I felt the guy crash, thought I could get one, was able to get a little bit more.”
Riley acknowledged that Moss didn’t exactly follow the script, but noted it was a smart deviation.
“It was not 100% designed that way,” Riley said. “Miller saw it and was aggressive and made a great play.”
It essentially completed an afternoon in which Moss completed 30 of 45 passes for 308 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. For the season he’s completed 65% of his passes for eight touchdowns and two interceptions despite being constantly harassed because of the struggles of an evolving offensive line.
While he was only sacked once Saturday, and while his protection was noticeably improved, his final touchdown pass came in the face of an overbearing blitz that couldn’t stop him from finding Duce Robinson for an eight-yard score.
Said Ja’Kobi Lane, who caught 105 yards worth of passes for two touchdowns: “He’s a dawg. And he played like it.”
It is this admiration from teammates that has elevated Moss from an anonymous benchwarmer to the most important person on this team. There are many reasons the Trojans were thankful that he was cleared in that medical tent after crashing into the end zone. This team that once couldn’t use him now can’t win without him.
“You see him get smacked, get up back and throw touchdowns,” said Cobb. “Man, we’re a team that’s going to keep swinging. That’s our identity, for real.”
That’s both their identity and Miller Moss’ identity, the career minor leaguer now taking the biggest of hacks.
Somewhat lost in the offensive outburst was the fact that the defense pitched a shutout in the second half, showing again that this D’Anton Lynn thing is really working out. That, and this Miller Moss intensity is contagious.
On Wisconsin? Non Wisconsin.
“They really embody what we want to be about,” said Moss of the Trojans’ defense.
He’ll never say that about himself. He should have said that about himself.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.