Lincoln Riley gives high praise of Miller Moss' progression

Of the big names quarterbacks on the roster for the USC Trojans last season, Miller Moss is the last one standing. Spending his true freshman season under Clay Helton, Lincoln Riley has taken over as the head coach with a history of putting quarterbacks in the NFL.

Riley was asked about Moss and how the quarterback has progressed throughout spring. The USC headman provided nothing but a positive review, saying Moss has probably improved more than anybody on the roster. He said confidence is growing inside of Moss and it’s especially needed for the position he plays.

“I really enjoy coaching Miller,” Riley said. “I really have and he’s one of those guys that has gotten so many reps. He’s Exhibit A on that. He’s had 50% of the reps and he is one of the guys that has taken full advantage. He had strung together several nice days in a row right now. He’s throwing the ball extremely well. Mentally, he’s getting more comfortable every day. He’s played very efficient, made a lot of explosive plays. I’ve been extremely impressed with the way he prepares and you can just tell his confidence is really growing.

“At quarterback, probably as much as any, probably quarterback and corner — they are confident positions, man. All of them are but those two especially and he’s playing with a lot of confidence right now. That’s been fun to watch, fun to see the guy progress but he has prepared hard every day. He comes in, ready to go in meetings, he walks out to the field focused. The difference in him from practice one to, we just finished 12, but Miller maybe has improved the most of anyone on the team from one to 12.”

Of course, there is one man expected to be ahead of Moss on the depth chart this season, Caleb Williams. Riley spoke about how those two have been interacting with each other during a spring full of competition. He went on to say the entire quarterback room has been

“It’s been fun,” said Riley. “They’re both getting better, both taking advantage of the reps. I think they’ve both handled it well. They’ve both had certainly more good than bad and I think there’s a good respect and comradery in that room right now, which has been really cool. It’s a fun room having those guys in there. It’s a fun room, it is. Guys are intent on learning, there’s a lot of respect between each other in the room. Guys working together so it’s been a lot of fun this spring.”

Moss was highly rated coming out of high school, being the On3 Consensus‘ eleventh-ranked quarterback in the 2021 class. Riley is loving the improvement the youngster is making, already living up to his high potential. There’s a long way to go until the season opener and Moss will have time to prove his case to get playing time this year.