Jayden Maiava leads USC to rout of Clay Heltons

It was a delicate gesture. A nod of respect from USC to a soccer coach who spent a dozen years in the building before an unceremonious exit. But as the public tackle announcer took the uncommon step of studying Clay Helton’s identify aloud, the frustration from his ultimate few years at USC got here pouring out in a refrain of boos from all corners of the Coliseum.

Turns out, even 4 years after his firing, Helton may still conjure difficult emotions among the Trojan trustworthy. What he couldn’t do Saturday is stop the Trojans from taking those emotions out on his soccer group in a 59-20 beatdown.

A reunion that started with courtesy shortly turned to catharsis, as the USC offense piled up yards and factors at will for the second week in a row.

After tallying 597 yards in its Week 1 blowout of Missouri State, USC moved the ball even more effectively in Week 2, racking up 755 yards, the most at USC in 20 years. They averaged 12 yards per play and ripped off a dozen big performs of 20-plus yards.

And just like last week, junior quarterback Jayden Maiava was content to sit back and decide aside an inferior protection. He threw 4 touchdowns Saturday, while his 412 passing yards shattered his profession high before the fourth quarter even started.

By that level, the Trojans have been once again trotting out their backups for a full quarter’s price of reps.

Ja’Kobi Lane and Makai Lemon, USC’s top two receivers, didn’t catch any passes after halftime … because they didn’t have to. And Maiava through two video games has had to play just 5 quarters, and still has 707 passing yards and seven touchdowns to show for it.

USC’s speeding assault didn’t face a lot resistance either on Saturday. The Trojans racked up 309 yards on the ground alone, the most of the Lincoln Riley period by a broad margin. Waymond Jordan had 5 runs of 10 yards or more on just 16 carries as he completed with 167 yards. Eli Sanders added 55 more and even walk-on King Miller broke away for another big landing run, his second in as many weeks.

It wasn’t, however, a banner day for USC’s protection, which allowed Georgia Southern to transfer the ball. The secondary had a number of breakdowns that led to big performs for the Eagles.

But on a day like Saturday, when USC’s offense may do whatever it wished, it didn’t a lot matter.

Which is humorous, contemplating how the Trojans opened the sport. Riley couldn’t have drawn up a sloppier start. Jordan, on his second carry of the day, fumbled. Then a dangerous offsides penalty saved Georgia Southern’s drive alive and the Eagles related on a 32-yard landing go on the next play.

Still, Riley went proper back to Jordan on the next possession and the working back delivered, as USC rolled down the sphere on a scoring drive behind 41 yards from the junior.

Lane punctuated the drive as Maiava lofted a go in his direction toward the end zone. Tangled up with a Georgia Southern defender, Lane needed just a single outstretched arm to pull down the Trojans’ first rating.

USC’s offense caught fire from there. The Trojans used two performs on their next possession to discover the end zone. Then three performs on the drive after that. Both possessions ended with Lemon sprinting free for touchdowns.

The first noticed Lemon slip two tackles before weaving his means through the Georgia Southern secondary for a 62-yard landing. The second, Lemon merely turned on the jets and blew past the Eagles’ protection with ease for a 74-yard rating.

It appeared USC may go away Georgia Southern in the mud after that, related to how it piled up factors a week in the past against Missouri State. But Helton’s group saved hanging around. They led 4 straight drives into USC territory, only to come up short on three of them.

The Trojans’ firepower was merely an excessive amount of to deal with. USC led another fast scoring drive, this time needing just 4 performs before tight end Walker Lyons trotted in for a landing.

By halftime, USC already had 415 yards, more than it tallied in six video games last season, while Maiava had more than 300 passing yards and 4 touchdowns.

It only received more lopsided after half. Jordan broke away for a 36-yard landing scamper. Sanders scored twice in 10 minutes of recreation time. Miller even received in on the enjoyable.

Soon enough, Helton was left to stroll back up the tunnel with a 39-point loss, while Riley had a lot to smile about in the wake of another seamless win, this time over his predecessor.