Jayden Maiava and No. 12 Southern California have one of college football’s most productive offenses humming through three nonconference games at home.
The Trojans’ Big Ten Conference opener also marks their first road test of the season, and it comes on the opposite coast at winless Rutgers on Saturday in Piscataway, N.J.
Lincoln Riley is having USC (3-0) leave Los Angeles on Thursday instead of Friday to mitigate the effects of the cross-country trip. And he expects his veterans to keep their younger peers mentally ready against a winless opponent.
“I don’t care who you’re going to play on the road,” Riley said on the team’s “Trojans Live” show. “You want to go win road games, you gotta go take it.”
With the benefit of the third game, Maiava leads FBS in passing yards (896) and touchdowns (10), and his completion percentage of 80.7% ranks seventh. He threw for five TDs on Saturday in a 49-30 win over Louisiana.
“When you talk about Jayden Maiava, he is as good a quarterback as there is in the country,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. “The guy’s completing his passes at 81%. … He’s very efficient. He’s got really good players around him. Two freshmen that are playing wideout in (Trent) Mosley and then (Kayden Dixon-Wyatt) that are really fine players.”
USC also has a dependable ground game to round out the offense. King Miller separated himself as the No. 1 running back against Louisiana with 18 carries for 128 yards and a score.
The Trojans’ defense has had mixed results — allowing 26 and 30 points against San Diego State and Louisiana, respectively, around a 39-0 shutout of Fresno State — and the secondary will be something to watch against Rutgers after Louisiana’s Lunch Winfield completed 16 of 22 passes against them.
Specifically, USC will have to be ready for Rutgers wide receiver KJ Duff. Through two games, Duff ranks second in the country in receiving yards (333) and is tied for first with five touchdown catches.
“He’s a really good route-runner,” Riley said. “He can make really competitive one-on-one plays. He’s good with the ball in his hands, and obviously he’s somebody that they feature a lot. …
“They use him a lot of different ways creatively, and they do a nice job trying to put him at the point of attack and make you make decisions on, do you want to give help to him and maybe not have as much (defending) the run game, or vice versa?”
As for who will throw him the ball, that’s yet to be decided as of Tuesday. Dylan Lonergan left the season opener with an injury, and AJ Surace made his first career start last week in a 28-21 loss to Boston College. Schiano said he did not yet know which quarterback would start Saturday.
Rutgers (0-2) hasn’t had the start to the season it envisioned — a 37-21 loss to lowly UMass made the Scarlet Knights, as Schiano put it, “a national punchline.”
The veteran coach struck a more positive note entering the Big Ten opener.
“I look forward to (USC). I think our guys are gonna be ready to play,” he said. “… I think we’ll play our best game to date and see where that stacks up.”
