There were three minutes and 56 seconds left in the fourth quarter of the 95th edition of USC and Notre Dame’s historic rivalry. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was as loud as it has been all season, with redshirt sophomore quarterback Jayden Maiava ushering USC down the field trailing by just seven points to the No. 4 Fighting Irish, hoping for a late-game upset. 

Then, everything went south for the Trojans (6-6, 4-5 Big Ten).

Just outside the red zone, Maiava vastly underthrew redshirt junior wide receiver Kyron Hudson, and sophomore cornerback Christian Gray turned the other way for 99 yards as cardinal and gold seemingly parted completely as the soul-crushing pick-six came home for Notre Dame (11-1). Trojanites slowly sunk back to their seats as Irish green arose in their place, with USC’s ill-fated late-game mistakes protruding their heads once again.

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The Fighting Irish — players and fans alike — continued to run rampant in the stands and on the sidelines when, on the next drive, Maiava threw yet another pick-six, this time for a perfect 100 yards. By the time last season’s Trojan kryptonite graduate safety Xavier Watts — nabbing two interceptions in this game last year — waltzed into the endzone for his score, it seemed as if Touchdown Jesus and the Knute Rockne rest stop were just down the street. 

“We battled today like we have all year. We just didn’t quite play good enough in the second half, and we gave ourselves some chances right there at the end, and tried to stay aggressive; obviously some plays just didn’t go our way,” said Head Coach Lincoln Riley in the postgame press conference. “It’s just an excruciating loss.”

The game was put to bed by Maiava’s mishaps on two straight drives, but Notre Dame seemed like the more complete team from start to finish.

Senior quarterback Riley Leonard wreaked havoc on Defensive Coordinator D’Anton Lynn’s system. Leonard consistently avoided pressure and escaped the pocket, using his legs to pick up first down after first down. He finished with 155 yards and 2 touchdowns through the air, and 50 yards plus a touchdown on the ground. The choice not to put a quarterback spy on Leonard continued to break the Trojan’s back defensively.

It was a theme of Notre Dame’s attack on offense: smash-mouth football. Multiple times, Fighting Irish tailbacks would break through two or even three Trojan tacklers in a given play. Notre Dame came into the day as the 10th-best rushing offense in the nation and supplemented that with seven yards per carry Saturday afternoon. 

“We just didn’t do a good enough job against the run, period. That was, to me, the story of the day, we didn’t defend the run as well as we have been, and I thought that made them pretty multidimensional,” Riley said. “We’ve made massive, massive progress defensively in every way that you can measure it. But certainly today wasn’t our best.”

Through much of the season, Riley’s playcalling on offense has been put into question, but for a majority of the game — spare an odd appearance by third-stringer redshirt junior quarterback Jake Jensen on second and goal — Riley was setting Maiava up for success. Riley schemed many receivers open in space for Maiava to find and hit in stride. 

Sophomore wide receiver Makai Lemon was the beneficiary of much of this scheme. He hauled in a career-high nine9 catches and was just one yard short of his career high in yards, finishing with 133. Lemon had multiple high-difficulty catches, contorting his body near the sideline time and time again to corral the ball.

The mobile quarterback change had been working for USC. Riley called countless run-pass options for Maiava to read the defense and potentially take a shot downfield. Maiava finished with 360 passing yards — the most for a Trojan quarterback since their first game of the year — with 5 total touchdowns to go along with the two interceptions.

Up to that point, Maiava had avoided turnovers and costly mistakes. He had gone 104 pass attempts without throwing an interception, but when he did, it came at one of the costliest times. Maiava threw long contested balls throughout the day; many were underthrown, but his receivers adjusted and made up for it, except on the pick-sixes.

“There’s a lot to learn from within these past three games that I’ve played,” Maiava said after the game. “I can’t turn the ball over in these big moments like that and let the team down, especially the seniors.”

USC walked off the field ending the season with a .500 record and just two wins over teams that finished with a winning record. They escaped Pasadena with the Victory Bell but were unable to steal back the Jeweled Shillelagh. All things considered, it was an up-and-down season for the Trojans.

The team had a last-gasp effort to the season and secured bowl eligibility, meaning one more final game of this rendition of USC football. But it was a season filled with what-ifs for the Trojans, but at least for Riley, he holds this team in high regard.

“You know, were there times we could have played better? Sure. There’s times we could have coached better? Yep. Did we miss some opportunities? Yes, we did. We laid it on the line every single week,” Riley said. “This team has no reason to put their head down, and as I’ve said I’m proud to coach this team.”

With USC’s regular season coming to a close, the Trojans now await their bowl game matchup.