jayden maiava

When John Beck first watched Jayden Maiava throw a football up close this summer, he could see pretty quickly why USC might hang its hopes on Maiava’s rocket right arm.

“He spins the ball really well,” Beck said. “The talent is there. The ability is there.”

Few are as qualified as Beck to make that assessment. A former NFL quarterback and private quarterbacks coach for 3DQB, he has helped fine tune some of the best passers in the sport, from Tom Brady and Drew Brees to Matthew Stafford and Justin Herbert. And this summer, over “a handful” of sessions at 3DQB’s training facility in Huntington Beach, Beck turned his attention to the mechanics of the Trojans’ starting quarterback.

Beck already had a general idea of how Maiava had risen into the starting role. He knew after impressing as a freshman at Nevada Las Vegas that Maiava had transferred to USC, where, last season, he started at quarterback over the final four games. He knew, too, that USC won three of those four, all while Maiava’s performance oscillated between breathtaking and anxiety-inducing.

That variability is part of what led Maiava to 3DQB — and to Beck.

As he watched Maiava throw for the first time, Beck saw that spectrum. He noticed certain types of passes weren’t maximizing the potential of Maiava’s arm. The later into the progression, the less efficient his mechanics often would be.

“He would make some throws, and you’d go, ‘Oh wow, there’s some real arm talent there,” Beck said. “Then you’d see some others, and the question would be, ‘Why isn’t that arm talent, that efficiency showing up in the same way on those specific throws?’”

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava warms up during practice on July 30.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

All quarterbacks go through that process, Beck said. And while Maiava has plenty of natural talent at his disposal, he hadn’t worked with a dedicated quarterback coach until last spring. That first private coach, Ryan Porter, told The Times last fall that Maiava was “super raw” and was still digesting USC’s offense at the start of last season.

But as Maiava enters this season as USC’s unquestioned starter, his plan was to do everything to elevate his game. That didn’t stop at working with a private coach. Maiava set out to get stronger, to get faster. He devoured cut-ups of past Lincoln Riley quarterbacks, like Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray and Caleb Williams. He started reading motivational books, recommended to him by USC’s new strength coach, Trumain Carroll. He even started meditating.

“Just doing anything I can to be smarter and get more knowledge,” Maiava said. “Because knowledge is power.”

When it comes to his mechanics, Riley insists there were no “radical problems” for the folks at 3DQB to fix. Beck said their focus with Maiava was largely on the finer points of his mechanics; like how to be more efficient with your footwork; or how to transfer your weight to deliver different types of throws with the same zip.

Maybe most importantly, they repped Maiava in as many different scenarios as possible.

“They just did a great job of putting me in situations that I could be most prepared for,” the junior quarterback said. “Football is a game with a lot of possibilities. Anything can happen within a play.”

A season ago, that certainly felt the case with Maiava at the helm of USC’s offense. He completed fewer than 60% of his passes and threw six interceptions. Two of those picks sank USC’s hopes of upsetting rival Notre Dame, as the Irish returned both for touchdowns. A month later, in the Las Vegas Bowl, Maiava threw three interceptions before leading a wild comeback win over Texas A&M.

The bowl game ran the full gamut for Maiava, the good and the bad. But in the fourth quarter, he believes he found something that can help him going forward.

One of the books he read this offseason, “Winning: The Unforgiving Race to Greatness” by Tim Grover, stresses the importance of maintaining a “neutral mindset,” never allowing oneself to get too high or too low emotionally.

USC quarterbacks Jayden Maiava, left, and Husan Longstreet, center, take part in passing drills at practice on July 30.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

That resonated with Maiava, who had a tendency to dwell on mistakes. Against Texas A&M, he brushed off his performance in the first three quarters to lead USC on three touchdown drives in the fourth. On the final drive, Maiava completed eight of nine passes for 78 yards, including the winning touchdown, with eight seconds remaining.

“That’s something I like to reflect on,” Maiava said. “Just having that neutral mindset and going out there for that last drive.”

That’s the version of himself Maiava is hoping to hold on to this season. So far, the difference in him has been distinct, according to teammates and coaches.

“You can just feel Jayden being more comfortable in his own skin and more comfortable being one of the leaders of this football team and operating this offense,” said Luke Huard, USC offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. “You just feel an improved and elevated level of confidence with the way he’s going about his business.”

That was the goal when Maiava set out this summer to take himself seriously — reading and meditating and drilling down the finer points of the position.

“This was his first opportunity to really be trained like a pro,” Beck said.

“Now, it’s just about tying it all together.”

LAS VEGAS — While the rest of the college football world spent the summer whipped into a frenzy, swept up by the specter of revenue sharing or congressional intervention or one of the many other landscape-altering changes looming over the sport, Lincoln Riley was able to actually step away and take a breath.

In four years as USC’s coach, Riley hasn’t had many chances to really unplug. There was the sprint ahead of his first season, and the heavy portal push ahead of his second. The third came with a new conference, new defense, new expectations, new pressure.

The fourth, by comparison, is starting on a more relaxed note than Riley is used to. There were no phone calls taking up half a day of his family vacation. His fly fishing went mostly unbothered. He even golfed at Pebble Beach in May.

“I’d say I’m feeling as refreshed and recharged as I’ve been in a long time,” Riley said Thursday during Big Ten media days.

Never mind that the pressure for Riley to win at USC has perhaps never been so high, coming off a 7-6 campaign in which the Trojans needed a comeback bowl win to scrape past .500. The path to winning has arguably never been so uncertain, either, with the advent of revenue sharing completely upending how championship rosters are constructed.

In spite of that backdrop, this past summer still felt less daunting to Riley than the rest. He says he didn’t feel the offseason chaos that some of colleagues have described in the wake of the House settlement. Some of that added calm he credits to Chad Bowden, USC’s new general manager, and his handpicked front office, who have taken personnel matters largely off Riley’s plate. Immediately laying claim to the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class for 2026 hasn’t hurt in building that trust, either.

But it’s more than that, according to Riley.

“There are less big fixes going on right now, you know?” he said. “It’s like you’ve got the house built, and it’s kind of all about the finishes now. You’re not trying to put up a wall or anything like that.”

Whether USC is actually that close to being a finished product is up for debate. The Trojans’ win total has declined in each of Riley’s first three seasons, during which his record is worse than that of his predecessor, Clay Helton. Now the Trojans enter his fourth with a raw, unproven commodity at quarterback, a threadbare linebacker room, and an inexperienced offensive line that could already be down a projected starter.

There’s also the matter of their fourth-quarter issues last season, which saw the Trojans inexplicably cough up leads in five of their six losses.

But Riley looks at it differently.

“It’s the first time where we had an opportunity at the end of the game to win every single game that we played,” he said.

“The really good teams separate in a lot of their games, and they win the close games they end up in. That’s typically how it happens, and that’s what we’ve got to become. And so the way to do it, every part of your program has to be pretty strong.

“We’ve graduated from being way behind in this area, and being pretty decent in this area to, like, every right now is either good or pretty darn good. Now it’s just about taking those small steps in all those areas to, I guess, hypothetically push you over the hump.”

USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn walks on the sideline during a game against Nebraska at the Coliseum in November.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The biggest leap in that regard could once again be on defense, where USC went from one of the worst units in the nation in 2023 (121st in scoring defense) to respectable (56th) under defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn.

That was no small feat, considering where they came from. And the Trojans have added considerable talent to its defense since. The front seven should benefit greatly from the return of linebacker Eric Gentry and defensive end Anthony Lucas from injury. And on the interior, USC brought in two massive transfers on the interior, as well as a five-star freshman.

“I think the depth, the talent level, and the size of the defensive line, I mean, there’s honestly really no comparison to this time 12 months ago,” Riley said.

But the Trojans’ path will inevitably, at some point, come down to their quarterback. Riley reiterated his confidence in Jayden Maiava as the Trojans’ starter, even as he once again heaped praise on five-star freshman Husan Longstreet.

Left tackle Elijah Paige said Thursday that he has seen a major change in Maiava since he entered the offseason as the presumptive starter.

“He’s taken a complete 180,” Paige said of USC’s quarterback. “[In the spring,] he commanded the offense, and that’s what this team needs.”

Of course, everyone is feeling optimistic this time of year, with more than a month still remaining before USC kicks off against Missouri State.

But Riley isn’t the only one who feels those finishing touches underway.

“We’ve gone and gotten some of the very best people in the business,” Riley said. “They’re not going to attach themselves to something where they don’t see the progress.

“And you do not get a recruiting class like this unless there’s a crazy amount of momentum within the program. Like, I don’t care what else you have. If you don’t have momentum, you do not get a class like we have.”