LOS ANGELES – This change at quarterback, Lincoln Riley pointed out, was not about the future.

Yes, Jayden Maiava is one season of eligibility younger than Miller Moss. Yes, USC and Riley need a stable contingency plan at QB for years to come, with smoke rising around a potential return to Colorado for the best 2025 Julian Lewis Award. But the seismic shift from Moss to Maiava, Riley said last week, was a “two-week decision.”

“That’s just this week because there’s so much going on,” Riley said of USC’s matchup with Nebraska on Saturday. “And, I feel like I owe it to Jonah Monheim and all the other guys here who are going to be playing their last games as Trojans coming up.”

“I mean,” he continued a few words later, “you only have so many moments with this team.”

And so USC will see what it has in Maiava, and the world will see what it has in USC, mired in a season of transition where any tangible hope has long since slipped away with repeated late-game blowouts. With three games remaining, USC sits at 4-5, two wins away from NCAA-defined bowl eligibility – a status they’ve missed exactly twice in their last 25 years as a program.

A postseason win could prove a palate cleanser and restore some hope in Riley’s rebuild, similar to the 2023 Holiday Bowl phenomenon. But the road to winning two of three is tough, with Nebraska next Saturday and a pair of interesting rivalry week matchups on the horizon.

Saturday, November 16: Nebraska

The Cornhuskers will bring a mystery corn maze from Lincoln, an early-season Big Ten darling that has slumped in recent weeks. Nebraska hasn’t reached 350 yards of total offense or 25 points since September, and head coach Matt Rhule took drastic action last week, flying in the former Houston head coach. and longtime Dana Holgorsen was disciplined by the Air Raid to help work with Nebraska’s offense.

On Monday, Rhule took the ambiguous addition one step further — announcing that Holgorsen has officially been hired as his program’s offensive coordinator and will serve as the play-caller against USC.

“I think it gives us a new perspective,” Rhule told the Nebraska media on Monday, “a look at what we’re doing and who we’re doing it with.”

It’s a rare midseason development that will reunite two Mike Leach disciples, as both Riley and Holgorsen were key parts of Leach’s staff at Texas Tech in the mid-2000s. Still, the weapons at Holgorsen’s disposal Saturday may be limited; five-star freshman Dylan Raiola sat out with a back injury in Nebraska’s loss to UCLA on Nov. 2, and Rhule said the Cornhuskers would prepare backups Henrich Haarberg and Danny Kaelin to play against USC.

November 23: at UCLA

the two powerhouses of Los Angeles football couldn’t have presented themselves more differently upon their arrival to the Big Ten at conference media days in July.

Riley told a group of reporters, with emphasis, that USC is at the “top of any conference.”

Foster stuttered his way to the start of the press in Indianapolis with the now infamous mantra, “We’re in LA.”

And yet, four months later, USC and UCLA both sit at 4-5, and the Bruins — at 3-4 — suddenly sit higher than USC in their first year in the Big Ten. After looking completely hopeless offensively for two months, UCLA has won three straight, riding a strong and suddenly improved secondary on a trip to Washington this weekend.

A month ago, this game looked like a mismatch for USC. But UCLA is getting better and the rivalry game is never a given. It can determine which team is bowl eligible and which is not.

November 30: Notre Dame

There’s a reason Riley has eventually suggested moving the historic Notre Dame rivalry from USC’s schedule.

If USC splits contests with Nebraska and UCLA, it finds itself in a brutal spot at the end of its regular season, with the Fighting Irish ranked 10th as a potential bowl game keeper for the Trojans. After USC faced a consistent lineup of Big Ten defenses that looked to beat USC in the trenches and limit possessions, this Notre Dame program brings an evolved version of the exact same flavor: It currently ranks fifth in the FBS in rushing . -yards-per-carry and second in passing yards-per-game.