On the road in a hostile environment, the quarterback Lincoln Riley has been confident in all year long showed up. Jayden Maiava, in a must-win game for the USC Trojans, was spectacular. He delivered, and he showed he is one of the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten and the country.
Against Penn State, my MVP of the game goes to quarterback Jayden Maiava. He saved his best performance in his tenure at USC for an important test against Penn State. Everything you wanted to see from Maiava, he provided in this game. He finished the day 21-33 for 301 yards and 3 touchdowns. That is elite-level quarterback production.
It went further than just the production for Maiava in this game. He was calm and poised in the pocket. It seemed he had all the answers
in this game. He put together two smooth scoring drives early in the game. On one of those drives he was perfect, not missing a single pass. He then finished the game leading a decisive touchdown drive in the fourth quarter with his final scoring pass. All the hype and talk about Maiava this offseason was justified on Saturday night. His package of skills and intangible qualities was on full display in this game.
This game was a good reminder that the Trojans have a special player at quarterback. Jayden Maiava is more than capable of being this quarterback consistently, and with the up-and-coming stretch of games after the off week, this is the version of Maiava that needs to show up. Nonetheless, this was the perfect time for this type of performance.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC leans on star quarterback Jayden Maiava in important road win
