USC Signal-CallerJayden Maiava Defends his Head Coach

USC Football quarterback Jayden Maiava recently appeared on the “Outta Pocket” podcast hosted by former Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III.

Maiava defended Lincon Riley on the show as the national media has placed Riley on the hot seat.

USC is 6-1 this season while ranked No. 19 in the country. For many fan bases this would be acceptable. For USC fans who are in the fifth year of the Lincoln Riley experience, 6-1 is not enough.

Most fans are emotionally scarred from the 41-27 loss to the Oregon Ducks. Riley is now 0-3 against Oregon head coach Dan Lanning.

With an upset loss to Oklahoma State and shaky win against Boise State, many thought this was the year USC gets over the Oregon hump.

The loss to Oregon caused a national attack on Riley. On the podcast Griffin asked Maiava what he thought about ESPN’s Paul Finebaum referring to Riley as a fraud. Maiava stated “Coach Riley is the best coach in college football”. 

Griffin asked “what has Riley done to help the team improve”?

Maiava stated that “the team feeds off of his (Riley's) confidence”.

Maiava went on to say that “Riley thinks he's the best in the country”. Maiava would then say that “Riley’s belief in himself gives the players the confidence to believe that they are the best team in the country”.

Much of the issue with the Oregon loss is not the loss itself. It’s the way they lost.

Even with USC coming back to tie the game in the fourth quarter 27-27, USC could not close the door at home. USC was on a ten game home win streak. 

Specifically, the fact that Oregon's backup quarterback came into the game and threw for nearly 300 yards while throwing two touchdown passes was a gut punch.

The story of the offseason was the new defensive coordinator Gary Patterson and what his new defense would look like.

For many, USC fans they saw the same defense against Oregon as last year which was not good.

Riley spent the offseason telling USC fans that the "championship window is open”. Nothing about the game against Oregon suggested that USC's defense is any better than any other Riley lead team.

Maiva’s most recent performance was his greatest testament to who he believes Riley is as a coach.

USC were road underdogs against an unranked Penn State team and pulled off the upset in front of a record crowd of 114,000 fans.

Maiava and his USC teammates will have five more opportunities to show the Paul Finebaums of the world that Riley is the coach Maiava says he is.

A win on the road against the Wisconsin Badgers on October 24 will be the next chance for Maiava and his team to quiet the noise.