Jayden Maiava threw two touchdown passes in the second half and walk-on redshirt freshman King Miller ran for two touchdowns as USC overcame sluggishness for a 29-10 victory over UCLA Saturday evening.
After trailing 10-7 at halftime and being forced to punt after three plays on their first second-half possession, the Trojans took the lead for good on Maiava’s 32-yard touchdown pass to Makai Lemon with 25 seconds left in the third quarter to complete a 10-play, 91-yard drive.
The Trojans (9-3) also scored touchdowns on each of their next two possessions as Maiava threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Lake McRee and Miller ran 41 yards for a touchdown in front of a crowd announced at 69,614 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
“That was a fun night in the Coliseum right there,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said after his team completed its season at home 7-0. “Another phenomenal atmosphere. A tremendous win. Proud of the response there in the second half, another dominant performance defensively there in the second half. Special teams and offense were able to finish some plays there.”
Maiava completed 21 of 29 passes for 257 yards and was sacked twice. Miller ran for 124 yards on 17 carries, including a 5-yard run for a touchdown on the game’s opening possession.
The Trojans, ranked 19th in the latest Associated Press poll, outgained UCLA, 388 yards to 308, led 22-20 in first downs but trailed 33:16-26:44 in time of possession.
Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane, USC’s two leading receivers, did not play in the first quarter because of what coach Lincoln Riley said after the game was due to “a violation of a team policy.”
The Trojans were held scoreless for the remainder of the first half after Miller’s touchdown. Ryan Sayweri’s 38-yard field goal attempt on their its second possession was blocked and his 30-yard attempt on their third went wide right.
USC’s fourth possession of the first half consisted of two plays to conclude the half.
The Bruins tied the score on their second possession on Nico Iammaleava’s 2-yard touchdown pass to Kwazi Gilmer. On their next possession, Mateen Bhaghani kicked a 38-yard field goal 18 seconds before halftime.
Iammaleava completed 27 of 38 passes for 200 yards. He was sacked four times.
“In the first half, we were controlling the pace of things, it was going the way we wanted to go,” UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper said. “The second half and the third quarter were kind of a seesaw battle. And in the fourth quarter, penalties started adding up on us, and we just didn’t make enough plays. We started moving and then we went backwards.”
Oddmakers made the Trojans a 21 1/2-point favorite. ESPN Analytics gave USC a 94.9% chance of winning, the Bruins a 5.1% chance.
UCLA (3-9) ended its season with a five-game losing streak after beginning it with a four-game losing streak to equal its losingest season.
The Bruins’ first nine-loss season came in 1940, when their quarterback was Jackie Robinson, who seven years later would break Major League Baseball’s color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers. UCLA lost six games by seven points or less in 1940 — two each by three and seven and one each by two and six — completing the season 1-9.
The Bruins’ other nine-loss season was 2019, when they were 3-9 in Chip Kelly’s first season as coach.
The victory increased the Trojans’ lead in the series to 52-34-7, not including victories in 2004 and 2005 that were vacated as part of the penalties issued by the NCAA for improper benefits accepted by 2005 Heisman Trophy-winning running back Reggie Bush and his family.
UCLA has won just seven of the past 27 meetings.
USC retains possession of the Victory Bell with the victory. The 295-pound bell that originally hung atop a Southern Pacific freight locomotive and was given to the UCLA Alumni Association in 1939. In 1941, it was taken by a group of USC students who hid it in a variety of locations for more than a year.
Following an intervention by school administrators, the student body presidents of both schools signed an agreement in 1942 providing that the winner of the football game would keep possession for the next year, a tradition that has continued, along with painting the bell’s carriage in the school color of the winner.