USC Defense Defeats Offense 43-28 in 2024 Spring Football Game

LOS ANGELES – The Trojan defense recorded four interceptions in USC's spring game to lock in a 43-28 victory over the offense in Lincoln Riley's third spring football game at USC on Saturday (April 20).

"Fun day and a lot of great competition out there," said Riley. "Defensively, I think you saw some flashes of what we've been seeing on the practice field. The defense did a great job creating the turnovers. That was probably the story of the day: the defense making the offense pay for their mistakes. There are a lot of really good individual plays out there. A lot of players on both sides of the ball that we're really excited about…I'd say there's growth on all sides evenly across the board; you really feel that right now. I think today was a little bit of a representation of that. You saw some really good moments from both sides."

In the game's scoring system, the Trojan defense began with a 24-0 lead and was able to add 3 points for turnovers, fourth down stops and missed field goals and 7 points for defensive touchdowns and safeties. The offense was scored as a normal game.

In the scrimmage that was televised live on Pac-12 Network, all three Trojan quarterbacks saw action as redshirt junior Miller Moss went 16-of-21 for 133 yards with 1 TD and 2 INTs, redshirt sophomore Jayden Maiava went 15-of-17 for 172 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT and redshirt junior Jake Jensen went 6-of-8 for 91 yards and 1 INT.

Sophomore WR Makai Lemon led the offense with 6 receptions for 52 yards and 1 TD, while freshman RB Bryan Jackson had a team-high 10 carries for 13 yards and a TD.

Defensively, freshman LB Elijah Newby and redshirt freshman CB Maliki Crawford each had a team-high 5 tackles, while redshirt freshman DL Deijon Laffitte recorded 1 sack. Senior LB Raesjon Davis tallied 1 forced fumble and redshirt senior CB DeCarlos Nicholson, sophomore S Christian Pierce and redshirt senior CB Jacobe Covington each had 1 PBU.

The defense earned points quickly off three interceptions made by CBs Nicholson, Crawford and freshman Marcelles Williams. The Trojan defense led 33-0 in the first half.

Although interceptions were thrown, that did not shake Riley's confidence in the quarterback room. Rather, it showed the development of the defense.

"Good defenses make things tough on offenses. Good defenses prey on offensive mistakes, and they did that," said Riley. "You take the four interceptions, and three of them were not honestly horrible decisions. There were a couple of bad throws, a couple of just competitive plays, but that's what happens."

The offense found the endzone with two minutes left on the clock as WR Lemon scored on a 17-yard pass from Maiava.

Freshman RB Bryan Jackson scored on a 4-yard run to close out the first half of play. The defense led 33-14 going into halftime.

In the second half, redshirt junior CB Prophet Brown intercepted a deflected pass from Moss and ran it back 100 yards into the end zone.

"I probably haven't run that far since my high school days at running back," Brown said with a smile in postgame.

Offensively, Jackson scored once again, this time off a 3-yard pass from Moss.

Junior DE Garrett Pomerantz recovered a fumble from Jackson to notch 3 more points for the defense.

Redshirt freshman RB A'Marion Peterson wrapped up the day with a 6-yard TD run to post the final points for the offense.

The spring game warpped up USC's 15 practices of spring ball, and Riley noted that he was pleased with the team's progress.

"I think the biggest thing that I'm most excited about is just the vibe of this team," said Riley. "I really like the team. I really like coaching the team. I liked the way they interact with each other. I like the way they compete with each other. I guess the future and all that happens here in the next eight to nine months will determine if we say it's positive or not, but it feels different."

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Players Mentioned

Prophet Brown

Jacobe Covington

Maliki Crawford

Raesjon Davis

Bryan Jackson

Jake Jensen

Deijon Laffitte

Makai Lemon

Jayden Maiava

Miller Moss

Elijah Newby

DeCarlos Nicholson

A'Marion Peterson

Christian Pierce

Garrett Pomerantz

Marcelles Williams