quarterback

Warning: This story contains information some readers may find distressing

Quarterback Dak Prescott says the Dallas Cowboys’ players are “hurting” following the death of team-mate Marshawn Kneeland.

Defensive lineman Kneeland, drafted by the Cowboys in the second round in 2024, died aged 24 on Thursday.

Frisco Police Department in Texas said Kneeland appeared to have taken his own life after a vehicle pursuit and multi-agency search on Wednesday night.

Kneeland, in his second season with the Cowboys, scored his first NFL touchdown by recovering a blocked punt on Monday in a loss to Arizona.

Prescott and his team-mates had a team video call in the wake of Kneeland’s death which the 32-year-old said had been “very tough” following a “tragic loss”.

“I hurt for Marshawn, I hurt for his family, I hurt for his girlfriend, I hurt for every single one of my team-mates,” Prescott told CBS Texas.

Prescott’s own brother Jace died by suicide, external in 2020 and he has worked with mental health initiatives in the past few years.

He acknowledged Kneeland’s death had been “triggering” and it was “hard to balance” his emotions.

“This is a pain that you don’t wish upon anybody,” he said.

“You wish none of us had to go through this. You wish Marshawn didn’t have to go through what he went through.

“Tough moment for this team. I feel and hurt for everybody that’s involved in this and Marshawn’s family and loved ones.”

The Cowboys have a bye this week on the NFL schedule before they return to competition on 17 November at Las Vegas.

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With the second bye behind them and USC’s season at a crossroads, Lincoln Riley has spent the better part of two weeks focusing his team on what’s in front of them — a stretch of three winnable games — and not behind them — a demoralizing defeat at Notre Dame.

In doing so, the Trojans coach borrowed a well-worn rallying cry, one that traces back 2,000 years. Riley told his team, they had to “burn the boats.”

“We’ve put ourselves in great position, and we’ve got to be a really forward-focused team right now,” Riley said. “Things can get pretty fun from here if you really get on a run. This team is capable of that. They know it. We know it.”

Considering the stakes, it’s an apt enough metaphor. Any hope of USC staying alive in the College Football Playoff conversation hinges on leaving Lincoln, Neb., with a win. And that will, at the very least, require presenting a much better product than before the bye, when USC’s defense gave up over 300 yards on the ground to Notre Dame.

That loss has left a notably bitter taste with the Trojans — especially on defense. This week, sophomore linebacker Jadyn Walker said he felt the group “didn’t come out ready to play” and wasn’t “hungry” enough against Notre Dame. Defensive tackle Jide Abasiri said fixing USC’s issues on defense meant “having our minds right.” For the second time in three weeks, USC returned to the basics on defense during the bye in an effort to iron out those issues.

“You study for a test, you’re not gonna be nervous,” Abasiri said. “Just keep studying, I guess.”

The time for studying is over. The final exam for USC and its defense is a five-game gauntlet, starting on the road in one of the Big Ten’s more hostile environments. It’s just as much a critical test for the team as its coach, who has won just two true road games — at Purdue and at UCLA — during the last two calendar years.

“We continue to put ourselves in position to win these, and I feel like we’re doing the things on a daily basis that ultimately lead to winning,” Riley said. “We’re here and we’re pushing that notion, and I just see us getting closer and closer to that as we go on. That’s where my confidence is.”

Here’s what you should watch for when No. 23 USC (5-2 overall, 3-1 Big Ten) faces Nebraska (6-2, 3-2) on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. PDT (NBC, Peacock).

A heavy dose of Emmett Johnson

Nebraska running back Emmett Johnson carries the ball against Northwestern on Oct. 25.

(Bonnie Ryan / Associated Press)

After watching Notre Dame’s duo of Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price steamroll USC’s defensive front, Nebraska offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen surely smells blood in the water. In Emmett Johnson, he has one of the Big Ten’s best backs, a bruising tackle-breaker who has become a bigger part of the Husker offense as the season has worn on.

He’ll no doubt be a huge part of the plans for Holgorsen, who knows Riley better than most any other coach in college football, save maybe his brother, Garrett, at Clemson. Presumably, Holgorsen will hope to keep the ball out of USC’s hands, grinding out long drives with Johnson.

“We set ourselves up the rest of the season to see a lot of run game,” safety Bishop Fitzgerald said. “This week, making sure we can stop that will be huge for us.”

Johnson isn’t easy to bring down. His 44 missed tackles forced, per PFF, ranks third in the Power Four among running backs.

“He runs really hard,” Fitzgerald said. “He’s usually always going to break the first tackle. He just plays with an edge. He’s not necessarily a blazer, but once he hits that edge, he can make a guy miss and he can get a lot of yards. So I think it’s about stopping him and surrounding the ball.”

It’s just that easy. Or maybe not.

Pick up the pressure

USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn stands on the sideline during the third quarter of a win over Michigan State on Sept. 20.

(Luke Hales / Getty Images)

USC led the nation in sacks through the first month of the season. But in both of the Trojans’ losses, the pass rush — or lack thereof — was part of the problem. After producing 24 pressures in a win over Michigan State, USC tallied just 25 in its next three games combined.

Nebraska offers a golden opportunity to get that right. The Huskers have allowed 26 sacks, second-most in the Big Ten.

“I do think we’ve shown growth and we’ve gotten better,” defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn said of the pass rush. “But we’re not satisfied.”

Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola has been sharper this season than when he came to the Coliseum in 2024. His completion rate is up almost 6%, and he already has 17 passing touchdowns, compared to just 13 last season.

But Raiola has a tendency to hold the ball too long. At times, that has paid off with big plays. Other times, it has derailed drives.

“It puts a lot of pressure on us,” Lynn said. “When he’s holding onto the ball, he’s not looking to scramble. He’s keeping his eyes downfield.”

The key to counteracting that for USC? Putting as much pressure on him as possible.

Something has gotta give

USC has the top passing offense in the nation, averaging 10 yards per attempt and 326 yards per game. Nebraska boasts one of the nation’s best pass defenses, with just one opposing quarterback even reaching the 160-yard mark against them.

The Huskers have yet to face a quarterback quite like Jayden Maiava. Maiava’s first start at USC came last season against Nebraska, and he has improved leaps and bounds since — notably in his ability to avoid crippling mistakes.

That’ll be at a premium against a Nebraska defense that has swallowed up quarterbacks this season.

“He’s making a lot of right decisions right now,” Riley said this week of Maiava. “If he keeps doing that, we’re going to have a chance to win every game.”

It’s the third season of girls’ flag football in California, with athletes and teams getting better and better, which raises expectations for the Southern Section Division 1 semifinals on Saturday. Unbeaten JSerra plays at Dos Pueblos and defending champion Orange Lutheran hosts Huntington Beach.

Dos Pueblos (24-2) faces the most difficult task, trying to defeat a 26-0 JSerra team that owns two wins over No. 2-seeded Orange Lutheran. The good news for Dos Pueblos is that it has already proven it can compete against the best, having taken Orange Lutheran to overtime early in the season before losing.

“We definitely get to say we’ve faced the top,” Dos Pueblos coach Doug Caines said. “They have some crazy athletic girls.”

Dos Pueblos will have to avoid turnovers, relying on quarterback Kacey Hurley to stay away from interceptions. She has 4,603 yards passing and 84 touchdowns. Brooklyn Hendricks is the team’s standout receiver.

The other semifinal matchup involving Orange County teams will determine if Orange Lutheran can repeat as champion behind quarterback Makena Cook. Huntington Beach is 25-1. The Oilers’ only loss was to Newport Harbor. Roxie Shaia has made an impact at quarterback and on defense.

The winners advance to next weekend’s final at Fred Kelly Stadium next to El Modena High.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

USC had lost four of five, its season already all but lost, when Lincoln Riley made a bold move early last November that would have lasting ripple effects. He benched starting quarterback Miller Moss, in favor of backup Jayden Maiava, whose big arm and mobility gave the Trojans’ offense a different, more dynamic look.

The sudden switch made for a tense two weeks leading up to last season’s meeting with Nebraska. Not everyone in the locker room, you see, was thrilled with Moss’ removal.

But the move paid dividends in the end. Maiava injected life into the offense, USC returned from its bye and won three of its last four to finish the season. More critically, Riley found his quarterback of the future.

“The way that Jayden handled both when he wasn’t the starter, then when he was, I think set the stage for the player he has started to become and what he means to this program and this team right now,” Riley said this week. “He handled it with class both ways, and that makes a huge difference.”

USC starting quarterback Jayden Maiava throws a pass against Notre Dame at Notre Dame Stadium on Oct. 18.

(Justin Casterline / Getty Images)

A season later, USC is once again searching for answers coming out of its second bye, with Nebraska looming in November. Though, none of the questions this time concern the quarterback, who has been one of the best in the Big Ten. Nor are they as easy to solve as plugging in one player.

USC’s defensive front was just steamrolled for over 300 yards by Notre Dame’s run game. The offensive line is still dealing with nagging injuries. And the Trojans own rushing attack left a lot to be desired in their last outing.

Nevertheless, USC is 5-2, still within conceivable reach of the College Football Playoff conversation. The Trojans should be favored in four of their final five games, the lone exception being a trip to Eugene in late November. You don’t have to squint too hard to see a potential path to the Playoff … assuming USC can iron out its issues, first. That’s more encouraging than the circumstances were at this time last year.

“We’re still in a good place,” tight end Walker Lyons said. “We still control our destiny where we’re at right now.”

That’s been the message since USC left South Bend in bitter defeat. But control could slip through their hands in a hurry if Riley can’t right the ship this week on the road at Nebraska. A single loss, especially one outside of Oregon, would all but sink those hopes.

“I think we’ve learned a lot about ourselves with some of these really good matchups we’ve had as of late,” Riley said. “We know what we’ve gotta do. It’s very clear to us. Now we’ve just got to do a great job of it.”

That part hasn’t been so easy for USC as it unraveled down the stretch in each of its last three seasons. The Trojans are 6-11 in October and November since winning seven of eight during that stretch of Riley’s first campaign.

Adding a hostile road environment to that equation this week only makes matters more complicated. The Trojans haven’t won a true road game in October or November outside of Los Angeles since Oct. 28, 2023.

Nor do they seem to have pinned down precisely what’s ailing their defense at the moment. A week after one of USC’s best defensive performances of the season in a win over Michigan, the Trojans suddenly had major errors in execution, leading the Irish to rack up 306 rushing yards, the most allowed by a D’Anton Lynn-led defense. Lynn, the Trojans’ second-year coordinator, called the mistakes “extremely” frustrating.

But like Riley, he’s confident a week away will have done USC’s defense well.

“At the end of the day, when we’re on the same page, we know we can be a good defense,” Lynn said. “But we have to be on the same page and trust that the guy next to us is going to do his job, and we don’t have to overcompensate for anything.”

Notre Dame’s Jadarian Price (24) carries the ball and pulls away from USC’s Bishop Fitzgerald (19) on Oct. 18 in South Bend, Ind.

(Paul Beaty / Associated Press)

That trust comes much easier now for Maiava, after a full year as USC’s starting quarterback. Though, Nebraska and its top-rated pass defense won’t make it easy, per se. The Huskers are giving up a mere 127 yards passing per game through seven games.

It all makes for a test that the Trojans can’t afford to fail, one where its quarterback will be critical.

“Keep your head down, keep fighting,” Maiava said. “Just stay in it no matter what. We had this bye and we got to rest up a little bit which is great. But we need to be that beast every single day.”

Injury update

Left tackle Elijah Paige and center Kilian O’Connor both dressed for practice on Tuesday, but Riley expressed some doubt that USC would have its full starting offensive line available in time for Saturday’s game.

“We’re better,” Riley said, “but we’re not at a point where I’m like, ‘Yeah those guys are ready to go.’ We’re just not to that point yet.”

In four days, the Chargers’ defense went from rattled to relentless.

The Minnesota Vikings were the victims, unable to move the ball Thursday night against a unit that looked shaky and unsure of itself in a humbling loss to Indianapolis the previous Sunday.

That, along with the consistently excellent play of quarterback Justin Herbert and a solid ground attack, paved the way for a 37-10 victory by the Chargers before a national audience.

The game marked the first time the Chargers scored 30 points or more. They didn’t punt all game, something that hadn’t happened since Week 16 of 2021. They had 29 first downs to 12 by the Vikings.

The performance looked much closer to one the Chargers might have turned in last season, when they led the AFC by allowing just 18.5 points per game. In the previous three games, the Chargers had allowed an average of 30.6.

The Chargers turned in the defensive gem without the services of All-Pro safety Derwin James Jr., the team’s leading tackler who left in the first half with an ankle injury. His backup, Tony Jefferson, was hobbled by a hamstring injury, leaving the duties to rookie R.J. Mickens, who had an interception early in the fourth quarter.

The decisive victory propels the Chargers into their mini-bye on a high note, washing away some of the bad taste of three losses in the previous four weeks. Their next game is at the one-win Tennessee Titans on Nov. 2.

That means the Chargers will have more time to heal, vital for a team so banged up.

The Chargers rushed for 207 yards, the most since coach Jim Harbaugh’s first two games with the team last season. Running back Kimani Vidal ran for 117 yards and a touchdown.

Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert throws during the second half against the Vikings on Thursday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

The emphasis on the run was far more Harbaugh’s style than the 55 pass attempts Sunday in the 38-24 loss to the Colts, when the Chargers spent all game trying to claw their way out of a ditch.

Herbert threw for 227 yards and three touchdowns.

Minnesota was hurting at quarterback with Carson Wentz playing with a brace on his left, non-throwing shoulder. At various times, he was holding his limp arm and wincing on the sideline. He was under near-constant pressure from the Chargers’ pass rush.

Late in the fourth quarter, Wentz was leveled from the blindside by blitzers Cam Hart and Troy Dye. The quarterback lay on the ground in what looked to be excruciating pain for a moment, got up, ran to the sideline and flung his helmet in frustration.

Rookie quarterback Max Brosmer finished the game for the Vikings, who dropped to 3-4. J.J. McCarthy is nursing an injured ankle but is likely to return at quarterback soon.

Chargers safety R.J. Mickens (27) shows his excitement after intercepting a pass from Vikings quarterback Carson Wentz in the second half Thursday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Khalil Mack, wearing a brace on his injured elbow, was a nightmare for Vikings blockers and spent much of his time in the Minnesota backfield.

As well as the Chargers played, they got off to a terrible start. On their second snap, Herbert threw a short pass to his left that apparently was intercepted by diving cornerback Isaiah Rodgers and returned for an 18-yard touchdown.

The play was nullified, however, when replays showed the football move when Rodgers hit the ground before climbing to his feet.

Having survived that scare, the Chargers took advantage of their new life with a 14-play drive capped by an eight-yard touchdown reception by rookie Oronde Gadsden II.

Herbert has been pressured and hit more than any NFL quarterback, yet he got much better protection Thursday night, thanks in no small part to the return of left tackle Joe Alt.

Also key was the ball carrying of Vidal, promoted from the practice squad in Week 6 because of injuries to the top two Chargers running backs, Najee Harris and Omarion Hampton. Herbert got some big yardage on scrambles as well.

Vidal would score a touchdown in the second quarter, as would Ladd McConkey, and the Chargers had a 21-3 lead at halftime.

In a bit of near-synchronicity, this came four days after the Chargers trailed Indianapolis, 23-3, at halftime.

Just about everything went well for the home team in the first two quarters, with Herbert completing 14 of 18 passes for 191 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The only blemish was an errant 49-yard attempt by kicker Cameron Dicker, his first miss of the season.

More than a month after he was arrested on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon with great bodily injury, UCLA backup quarterback Pierce Clarkson has taken a major step toward being able to resolve his case while avoiding charges altogether.

After the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office referred the case to the L.A. City Attorney for possible misdemeanor consideration, the latter agency has decided to handle the matter via a city attorney hearing, according to Ivor Pine, deputy director of communications for the City Attorney.

A city attorney hearing is an informal proceeding that allows individuals who face certain misdemeanors to resolve their situation with a hearing officer without a criminal filing.

The resolution of such hearings, including conditions imposed to remediate and rehabilitate, are fact-dependent and vary matter to matter, according to Pine. If the participant successfully complies with the conditions, the case is diverted and no charges are filed. If the participant fails to comply, then criminal charges may be filed.

A UCLA athletic department spokesperson said Tuesday evening that there was no update on Clarkson’s status with the team. He had been suspended from all team activities pending the resolution of legal proceedings after his Sept. 5 arrest.

Before his suspension, Clarkson had been one of the top backups to quarterback Nico Iamaleava. The son of quarterback guru Steve Clarkson, Pierce Clarkson had transferred to UCLA this offseason after having spent last spring at Mississippi. The former St. John Bosco High standout spent his first two college seasons at Louisville, where he played sparingly.

Luke Duncan has been UCLA’s top backup in Clarkson’s absence, playing briefly at the end of the Bruins’ victory over Michigan State.

Colin Creason’s journey to become the starting quarterback at Los Alamitos High in his senior year has been anything but smooth.

He went to Mater Dei as a freshman. He went to Los Alamitos as a sophomore. He briefly went to Long Beach Poly for two days at the start of his junior year before returning to Los Alamitos, which forced him to sit out all last season.

In his first varsity start on Aug. 15, he guided the Griffins to a 20-12 win over Inglewood. The team has won eight consecutive games under Creason, who has become more comfortable and confident with each game. He has passed for 1,292 yards and 11 touchdowns and rushed for 239 yards and eight touchdowns.

He grew up knowing and playing with most of his Los Alamitos teammates in youth ball. Somehow, someway, he got through all his starts and stops and concluded, “Of course, the grass isn’t always greener.”

His ability to run and pass and stay cool under pressure has been important for the offense, and he’s adopted the attitude of his teammates.

“We’re not scared of anybody,” he said. “This team is so close.”

His father, Brandon, was an All-CIF basketball player at Oak Park in 1994. Colin played basketball, baseball and flag football since he was 8 with many of his teammates.

Remember when Dorothy was saying in “The Wizard Of Oz”: “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.”?

Creason has come to understand there’s no place like Los Alamitos.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

ESPN writer Seth Wickersham and Phoebe Schecter explain the thought processes behind the likes of legendary quarterback Tom Brady transforming themselves from backups to Super Bowl winners.

WATCH: The Whole 10 Yards – Being an NFL backup (Available to UK users only)

Was it a fluke or fundamental change?

A week after its monumental upset of Penn State, UCLA could get some answers about the trajectory of its season.

A road game against an opponent with plenty of its own urgency should tell the Bruins whether they’re on the road to redemption or merely picking up speed on a route to nowhere.

Michigan State (3-2 overall, 0-2 Big Ten) needs a win as badly as UCLA (1-4, 1-1) given that it’s staring up in the conference standings at a team that lost its first four games of the season.

Spartans coach Jonathan Smith, the Pasadena native and Glendora High graduate whose name has been among those linked to UCLA’s vacancy, might need to win this game just to help secure his future with his current team after compiling an 8-9 record almost midway through his second season.

Meanwhile, the stock of UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper and offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel — let’s dispense with the official yet insulting playcaller title, please — could reach new heights with a second consecutive victory.

Skipper equated Neuheisel’s success in his playcalling debut to giving players answers before a test, which was all the more impressive considering that Neuheisel had just a couple of days to install his new scheme after replacing departed offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri.

What might UCLA’s offense look like with a full week of prep work? Here are five things to watch when the Bruins face the Spartans at Spartan Stadium at 9 a.m. PDT in a game televised by Big Ten Network:

It’s showdown time in City Section girls’ flag football. Unbeaten Eagle Rock (13-0) plays at unbeaten Panorama (19-0) at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Eagle Rock is a little bit of a surprise. The Eagles lost to graduation perhaps the No. 1 player in the City Section, Haylee Weatherspoon, but they are showing they are not a one-person team.

Basketball players Nyla Moore and Kyla Siao have become standouts on the football field. Moore, only a junior, is the quarterback. Siao, a shooting guard, is a top receiver and safety.

Coach Julie Wilkins said, “We don’t have an all-star like Haylee, but everyone contributes.”

Eagle Rock relies on receivers who don’t drop passes. The 5-foot-11 Moore uses her height, mobility and arm to find her receivers.

This will be the first big test for Panorama, which is aiming to be an Open Division playoff team this season.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

Marshawn Lynch had “I’m just here so I won’t get fined.”

Bill Belichick had “We’re on to Cincinnati.”

Now Shedeur Sanders has come up with an equally inventive way of responding without responding to reporters’ questions: silence.

Sure, the Cleveland Browns rookie moved his mouth and gestured when he was asked Wednesday about remaining the team’s No. 3 quarterback after fellow first-year QB Dillon Gabriel was promoted to starter.

But no actual words came out of his mouth.

Essentially, Sanders hit the mute button on himself — which is what made the response so brilliant.

Sanders was a star college quarterback for Colorado, playing for his father and NFL legend Deion Sanders, and was considered by some to be a first-round pick going into the 2025 draft. Instead, he dropped to the Browns in the fifth round (No. 144 overall) after Cleveland had already selected Gabriel out of Oregon in the third round.

For the first four weeks of the 2025 season, Gabriel was the Browns’ No. 2 quarterback and Sanders was No. 3, both behind 18-year veteran Joe Flacco.

But Flacco has been ineffective in leading Cleveland to a 1-3 start, which prompted the Browns to announce Wednesday that Gabriel will be their Week 5 starter. Flacco dropped to No. 2 with Sanders remaining at No. 3.

Later Wednesday in the Browns locker room, Sanders was asked by a reporter for his thoughts on not moving up on the depth chart. He smiled broadly and proceeded to give a voiceless answer. Reporters tried at least four more times to get Sanders to answer similar questions, eliciting only a similar pantomimed response.

Sanders’ behavior may have been in response to critical remarks made Monday by former NFL coach and current analyst Rex Ryan.

Last week, during an interview with ESPNCleveland, Sanders was asked about his feelings on being a backup quarterback in the NFL. During the course of the conversation, he made some comments — including “if you see the quarterback play in the league right now, I’m capable of playing better than that” and “a lot of teams would be playing me, but that’s not in God’s plan right now” — that rubbed Ryan the wrong way.

“This kid talks and he runs his mouth,” Ryan said days later on ESPN’s “Get Up.” “Like he said, ‘I can be a starting quarterback’ with his arms crossed like this. Get your a— in the front row and study and do all that. If I know, the whole league knows. Quit being an embarrassment that way. You’ve got the talent to be the quarterback, you should be. You should be embarrassed that you’re not the quarterback now.”

Through four games this season, Jayden Maiava has done just about all he could to dispel any lingering doubts about him as USC’s starting quarterback.

Maiava is averaging 12.7 yards per pass attempt this season, higher than any other quarterback in college football. His completion percentage has risen more than 11 points since last season (to 70.8%). He has thrown nine passing touchdowns, plus added four on the ground, and has yet to turn the ball over after throwing nine picks during the same number of starts in 2024.

Granted, during the Trojans’ 4-0 start, Maiava has yet to face a pass defense that ranks inside the top 100 in passing yards allowed per attempt. Nor has he or anyone on USC’s offense faced much in the way of adversity. The Trojans have scored more than 52 points per game and won their first four by an average margin of 32.

But the level of competition ratchets up this week. Each of USC’s next three opponents are ranked in the top 25, while three of its next four games come on the road, beginning Saturday with No. 23 Illinois, which was ranked in the top 10 before it was trounced by Indiana last weekend.

If USC has any hope of making the College Football Playoff, it’ll need Maiava to prove his fast start in September wasn’t a fluke. USC coach Lincoln Riley doesn’t want Maiava to change much from his first four weeks.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing,” Riley said.

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava evades a tackle attempt by Michigan State defensive back Armorion Smith at the Coliseum on Sept. 20.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

“He’s been steady. He’s been in a good head space. There will be different challenges. You’re gonna have mistakes here and there. That’s where your experience is going to show up. We just need him to be the steady, efficient leader he’s been and keep playing really good, efficient ball. I think he’s in a really good head space to do that.”

Illinois hasn’t had much success rattling capable quarterbacks this season. Duke’s Darian Mensah threw for 356 yards and two touchdowns in Week 2, while Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza dropped five scores on the Illini secondary last Saturday. Injuries have only made matters worse for the Illini secondary as it lost All-Big Ten slot corner Xavier Scott to a potential season-ending injury, have one safety in concussion protocol and another cornerback in a walking boot. Two other defensive backs also exited Illinois’ last game with some sort of injury.

The stage is set for Maiava to make a major statement Saturday, in one of the marquee matchups of the week. Here’s what else you should watch for when USC plays to Illinois.

A look at this week’s top high school football games in the Southland:

THURSDAY

Oxnard Pacifica (4-0) at Hamilton (2-2), 4 p.m.

It’s a last-minute game put on the schedule after both schools had opponents drop out. But what a quarterback matchup it features. Pacifica’s Taylor Lee vs. Hamilton freshman Thaddeus Breaux. Lee has 15 touchdown passes in the last two games. The pick: Pacifica.

FRIDAY

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (2-2) at Culver City (3-1), 7 p.m.

Basketball standout Tyran Stokes came out last week to play receiver and he has been cleared to make his football debut. Also expected to play is USC commit Luc Weaver, another receiver who has been sidelined because of a leg injury. The Knights want to challenge for a top-three spot in the Mission League and Culver City offers a good challenge. The pick: Notre Dame.

SATURDAY

Bishop Gorman (4-1) vs. Santa Margarita (3-1) at Tesoro, 7 p.m.

Bishop Gorman, after losing to Mater Dei last week in Las Vegas, travels to face another Trinity League opponent. The Eagles are trying to stay healthy before the grind of league play. The pick: Bishop Gorman.

“Is football a game or a religion?” the sports broadcaster Howard Cosell once asked with exasperation. The horror film “Him,” a striking but vacuous gridiron Grand Guignol by Justin Tipping (“Kicks”) takes it as faith that the answer is both. Any fan with a sacred good luck ritual and any player who’s thanked the man upstairs for a touchdown knows the two overlap as tightly as a freshly laced pigskin.

In the home of young elementary schooler Cameron Cade (Austin Pulliam), the fictional San Antonio Saviors quarterback Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans) is the messiah. Next to the TV, there’s even a shrine with devotional portraits of their icon. When White wins a game while suffering a nasty injury, Cameron’s father seizes the moment to deliver a sermon: “That’s what real men do,” he insists. “They make sacrifices.” The candles on the altar flicker ominously.

Tipping, working from a Blacklist script by Skip Bronkie and Zack Akers with Jordan Peele as his producer, considers the sports-as-religion idea so obvious that the film doesn’t bother analyzing why it exists. Instead, “Him” wonders what kind of spiritual practice it is: hero worship or a sinister cult?

Fourteen years later, Cameron (now played by Tyriq Withers) has grown up to become a star college quarterback in line to be the NFL’s top draft pick and take over Isaiah’s position on the Saviors. A violent concussion knocks him off course, but Isaiah, a living legend still leading the team, offers to vouch for the kid if he passes a private training camp at his intimidating desert estate. It couldn’t be more obvious that Isaiah doesn’t have Cameron’s best interests at heart if he blared a warning on the Jumbotron.

The film’s title comes from a bit of braggadocio — “I’m him” — that started sprouting up in sports leagues during the last five years. (It’s why you’ll sometimes see Lakers shooting guard Austin Reaves called “AustHIM” Reaves.) Anointing someone the GOAT, as in “Greatest of All Time,” has been around longer, but the silly thing about both compliments is they’re getting handed out like Halloween candy. Whether Cameron can become the next GOAT is the movie’s main obsession. Yet it resonates, albeit vague and unexplored, with biblical references to goat offerings and images of Jesus as a sacrificial lamb and the movie’s visual allusions to the goat-headed occult idol Baphomet. Plus, it offers us in the audience the thrill of wondering if someone will get spit-roasted.

Cameron enters Isaiah’s home to discover his host surrounded by what looks like taxidermy sheep skins. Nearly all of the film takes place in his compound, a circular warren that looks like a combination of an ancient temple and the Superdome. We’re continually happy to discover all the menacing delights that production designer Jordan Ferrer has concocted. Inside, there’s unnerving minimalist furniture, dramatic saunas and ice baths and an indoor football field with a throwing machine powerful enough to knock out a tooth. Even more terrifying, there’s Isaiah’s lifestyle-influencer wife, Elsie (Julia Fox), who stomps around with a pointy shard of jade that Cameron is supposed to stick up his rear. (You know, for peak performance.) Meanwhile, outside the gates, Isaiah’s cult followers — like visibly brain-fried Marjorie (Naomi Grossman) — are furious that their champion may retire.

Like “Kicks,” Tipping’s excellent 2016 feature debut about a kid who risks his neck for a pair of Nikes, “Him” is about the bloody quest for respect. It wants to be “The Substance” with jockstraps: a Satanic-tinged, steroidal “Rosemary’s Baby.” The film is so stylishly done that I could accept it on those plain terms. Every shot is a stunner, from stark images of eerily spinning footballs to goalposts that loom like devil’s horns. Editor Taylor Joy Mason and cinematographer Kira Kelly have put together queasy-brilliant montages with some kind of an eye-popping camera technique — a mix of thermal imaging, X-ray footage and visual effects — that seems to see right inside the actors’ bodies to their gristle and goo. Bobby Krlic (a.k.a. the Haxan Cloak), who also composed the music for “Midsommar,” wows us with a tragic, thundering score.

But the movie’s thoughts about pain and devotion and locker-room manipulation are still gestating. After I made it to the end of the story and ran it back, little of the plot hung together. I couldn’t with any conviction answer rudimentary questions such as how much does Cameron even want to play football? Or what in Hades will happen to the surviving characters?

Part of the issue is that Tipping and Withers have created a rising football player who might be too authentic. Withers moves with physical confidence and perfect posture and drilled obedience. Participating in a mock media training day, you buy that he was born to sell sneakers.

He speaks with an athlete’s guardedness, too, that post-game interview cadence where each wooden sentence tries to bore the camera into leaving them alone. Cameron describes his football career clinically and neutrally like he’s a product; he refers to himself “performing,” not “playing,” as the latter would imply he’s on the field to have fun.

Surrounded by trainers and doctors and his childhood hero, he acquiesces to pretty much everything, from receiving random injections to a brutal bludgeoning. (At least he doesn’t do you-know-what with that jade crystal.) I’m willing to blame some of that passivity on his head injury, but it’s hard to care about a character who only has a personality for three minutes.

At least Wayans gets to cut loose. His bullying Isaiah sprints from pep talks to threats in the same breath and runs around in nifty outfits covered in weighted beads. He’s in such peak physical condition that you believe Isaiah’s conviction that it’s possible to outrace Father Time. Realizing afterward that Wayans is 53 — almost a decade older than Tom Brady when he retired after announcers even more bold than Cosell treated him like Methuselah — you just might be tempted to bow down to Baphomet yourself.

USC coaches like recruitng former high school quarterbacks because they boast deeper understanding of how plays develop.

Fitzgerald, who is in his first season at USC, leads the nation in interceptions with three so far this season.

Bishop Fitzgerald stood inside the 5-yard line at Ross-Ade Stadium, watching the eyes of Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne, waiting for the right moment to pounce. It was a critical third down Saturday, midway through the fourth quarter,

during Big Ten road games.

Fortunately, Fitzgerald knew exactly where the play was headed. The USC senior safety recognized it from film clips he studied of Purdue’s red zone offense. He knew not to bite on the play action fake and that the receiver would, in a matter of seconds, cut across the center of the field on his route.

He also knew to be patient, to lure the quarterback into a false sense of security. So when Browne finally did fire his third-down pass over the middle, Fitzgerald was there at just the right moment to snag his second interception of the game.

“I fell back on my training,” Fitzgerald said of the pick, “and I made the play that came to me.”

Arguably no defensive back in college football has made as many plays through three games as Fitzgerald, who leads the nation with three interceptions during that span. Coaches have raved about his instincts and marveled at how quickly he has picked up USC’s defensive scheme.

His high school coach says that’s a testament to his training. Just maybe not the training you’d expect.

“He could have been a college quarterback — and a good one,” says Tony Keiling, Sr., who coached Fitzgerald as a quarterback in youth football and at Gar-Field High School in Woodbridge, Va.

“He could make every throw. He could understand defenses. He could roll out and run. He was dynamic.”

USC defensive back Bishop Fitzgerald carries the ball after intercepting a Missouri State pass intended for Dash Luke at the Coliseum on Aug. 30.

(Luke Hales / Getty Images)

Past experience as a passer isn’t entirely unique on USC’s roster. In fact, it’s become a coveted trait in recent years for coach Lincoln Riley.

“It’s something we’ve always paid attention to,” Riley said. “That’s kind of a feather in anyone’s cap that they’ve been able to run an offense, execute plays, understand and communicate to all 11. You know they’ve had to have some understanding of all 22 and what’s going on on the field to be able to play quarterback, no matter what offense you’re in. So it’s typically a good omen.”

DeCarlos Nicholson, who starts alongside Fitzgerald in USC’s secondary, was a Mississippi state champion quarterback in high school and for one season at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College before flipping to the defensive backfield. On the other side of the ball, freshman running back Harry Dalton III boasts the most career yards (11,282) and touchdowns (160) of any quarterback to ever come out of Richmond, Virginia.

Fitzgerald may not have been as prolific as that pair. But Keiling, who coached him at quarterback since youth football, is still convinced that Fitzgerald could have continued at the position, if not for the unfortunate timing of the pandemic.

When Fitzgerald took over as Gar-Field’s quarterback as a sophomore, the team was coming off an 0-10 season. By his senior year, Fitzgerald led the Indians to a district title, the school’s first since 1994. He played almost every snap in the process, starting both under center and at safety.

But it was his play at quarterback that willed Gar-Field past Freedom High to win the district in 2021. In a 14-9 win, Fitzgerald threw a go-ahead, 97-yard touchdown pass down the seam from the shadow of his own end zone and also ran for an electrifying 39-yard score to knock off Freedom, a team Gar-Field hadn’t beaten in almost a decade.

Fitzgerald was named district offensive player of the year soon after that performance. In any normal year, that would’ve led to attention on the recruiting trail. But because of the pandemic, high school football in Virginia hadn’t started until February and most colleges had already finalized their recruiting classes.

“It was all just bad timing,” Keiling said.

Fitzgerald was dynamic with the ball in his hands. He could throw across his body on a bootleg. But realistically, at 5-foot-10, Fitzgerald didn’t have ideal size for the position at the college level. Even he figured his future was at safety, where at least his instincts as a quarterback could still be put to use.

So he spent the next two seasons at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas focusing on the finer points of the safety position. It took him a while, he said, to feel comfortable.

“It was a whole switch of mentality and culture and footwork,” Fitzgerald said. “JUCO is … a dog-eat-dog world. So I think that kind of heightened everything and the sense or urgency to learn it.”

North Carolina State’s Bishop Fitzgerald breaks up a pass intended for North Carolina’s Jordan Shipp on Nov. 30, 2024, in Chapel Hill, N.C.

(Grant Halverson / Getty Images)

Fitzgerald had seven takeaways in his sophomore campaign at Coffeyville, then added five more over two seasons at North Carolina State.

At USC, Fitzgerald has had to learn a scheme under defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn that’s entirely different than the one he knew at NC State. But so far, it hasn’t seemed like much of a learning curve.

Fitzgerald credits Lynn for his quick acclimation, while Riley has likened the safety’s offseason arrival to adding “a veteran in the NFL” to the secondary. Through three games at USC, Fitzgerald has been the highest-graded safety in college football, according to Pro Football Focus.

“He has a feel for the game,” safety Christian Pierce said. “He’s always at the right place, right time.”

Finally, it seems the timing is right for Fitzgerald, too. Though his next step from here is still uncertain. Keiling said it’s not clear, with the legal turmoil around junior college eligibility, whether Fitzgerald could get a waiver for another season at USC after this one.

But considering how quickly he’s progressed at the position, there’s no telling how fast Fitzgerald’s NFL stock will rise.

“To be doing something completely different your entire career and come and learn this in one offseason is hard,” Lynn said.

“He’s done an outstanding job.”

“Wait your turn.”

Those three words are repeated again and again by parents trying to teach their young sons and daughters good manners, whether it’s at the dinner table, the amusement park or the ice cream shop.

So why do parents suddenly forget or ignore their words of wisdom when their kids become teenagers, find themselves in sports competitions, lose out on a starting job or don’t receive the attention they think they deserve and decide to flee rather than “wait your turn.”

At least the Lee family stuck to old-time parenting. Taylor Lee was a huge talent at quarterback after enrolling at Oxnard Pacifica as a freshman. He got to play a little when needed as a freshman and sophomore, but he wasn’t the starter. He stayed and waited his turn and what a reward he’s received.

In the last two games, the junior has thrown 15 touchdown passes for 4-0 Pacifica. He’s passed for 1,356 yards and 22 touchdowns with no interceptions this season. He’s picking up scholarship offers. He’s become an example for his coach, Mike Moon, though who knows how many will learn the lesson.

“For all these kids who transfer around and with not a ton of success, maybe the old-school way of grinding and waiting for your time is best,” he said.

Yes, patience is hard. Passing up an opportunity offered elsewhere is hard. Accepting the decision of a coach is hard. Listening to third parties with agendas speak glowingly of your talent is hard.

As many stories as there are of successful player movements, there’s many others of those who remember the wisdom, of “wait your turn.”

Luke Fahey of Mission Viejo.

(Craig Weston)

The No. 1 quarterback in Southern California, Ohio State-bound Luke Fahey of Mission Viejo, accepted sharing time for two seasons, trading off every other series with his teammate. He and his parents were patient and supportive. This season, on his own, he’s led the Diablos to an unbeaten record and keeps adding to his reputation as a great quarterback with great character.

Years ago, in a different era, Matt Cassel became an NFL starting quarterback without ever starting a game at USC as the backup to Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.

The environment has changed with the introduction of the college transfer portal. No one is saying there’s anything wrong with switching schools while looking for an opportunity when someone’s path is blocked, but there’s also the old-fashioned way of staying and competing, waiting your turn, trying to get better and being ready when opportunity beckons.

It’s the quarterback position, in particular, where athletes and their parents are unwilling to be backups. Only one person gets to start. But the failure to recognize there’s other positions to try (tight end, receiver, defense?) is also a forgotten alternative.

The responsible thing is to never try to take away a dream from a passionate, committed teenager. Let them keep grinding if that’s what they want to do. But sometimes someone has to be the adult in the room, just like when they were four or five and rushing ahead in the line for an ice cream cone and mom or dad says, “Wait your turn.”

There’s proof that option still works.

Thursday marks the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that saw two planes flown into the Twin Towers in New York, killing nearly 3,000.

Kevin Danni was there. The St. Francis High graduate and father of Golden Knights linebacker Luke Danni reflects back every anniversary on how he escaped from the 61st floor of the South Tower.

“I’m so lucky there were so many who sacrificed to save me,” he said.

Danni told his story to a rapt audience earlier this week at a meeting of the YMCA of the Foothills QB Club, where he is president.

He was 22 years old, a recent graduate of Occidental College and had been sent to Morgan Stanley in New York to begin training at the Twin Towers on Sept. 10, 2001. The next morning, a training meeting ended up being 15 minutes late because a speaker went too long, so during a break, he decided not to go to the observation deck on the 107th floor.

Instead, he looked out a window and saw what he thought was confetti flying around, It was papers from the aftermath of a plane running into the North Tower. Soon he saw a fire. At first, evacuation from the South Tower was not recommended. But Danni said the head of security, Rick Rescorla, overrode orders and told everyone to leave.

When Danni reached the 55th floor walking down the stairs, he heard an explosion. “The walls cracked,” he said.

It was a plane hitting the South Tower.

“I knew it was a terrorist attack,” he said. “I started to descend and passed firefighters going up the stairs. It took 45 minutes to evacuate.”

When he went outside, he said, “I saw both on fire.”

He went to find a pay phone so he could call his loved ones and tell them he was OK. Then the towers started to collapse.

“I heard a rumble,” he said. “It was 57 minutes since the plane hit. I saw the dust cloud. I turned and ran.”

Danni said he learned the security man, Rescorla, after escorting employees outside, went back up to make sure all had been evacuated from the office. The security man and 343 firefighters perished trying to help others.

“I got to see so many acts of heroism,” Danni said.

He was dating his future wife, Helena, at the time. They eventually married and their son, Luke, was born. This week he’ll be having fun watching Luke play quarterback for St. Francis on Friday night against Muir.

“Every 9/11, he says, ‘Dad, I’m glad you’re here,’” Kevin said.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

Dominick Catalano waited four years to be the starting quarterback at Corona Centennial. He’s taken control of a team that’s 2-1 and facing No. 1 Mater Dei at home on Friday night.

Catalano, though, got a start in the season opener last season because of an injury to Husan Longstreet and made the most of his debut against one of the best defenses in the state — Mater Dei. He completed 17 of 32 passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions in a 42-25 loss.

He’s more mature and confident going into Friday’s game. He still gets all A’s on his report card and is headed to Pomona-Pitzer, which isn’t exactly easy to get into.

His brother, Anthony, served as Centennial’s interim coach two weeks ago against Santa Margarita, and the Catalano brothers almost pulled off a victory in overtime.

Coach Matt Logan appreciated Dominick’s loyalty waiting his turn to be a starter, but it was inevitable. He’s a former Centennial ball boy. He’s passed for 757 yards and eight touchdowns and must deal with the expected Mater Dei pass rush on Friday.

It’s the third Trinity League team the Huskies are playing in nonleague games, having beaten Servite and lost to Santa Margarita.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

UCLA backup quarterback Pierce Clarkson was arrested Friday on unspecified felony charges and has been suspended indefinitely from the team pending the outcome of legal proceedings.

The arresting agency was the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southwest Division and bail was set at $30,000, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department website. Clarkson’s first court hearing is set for Oct. 3.

“We are aware of the charges against Pierce Clarkson,” a UCLA athletic department spokesperson said in a statement. “He has been indefinitely suspended from all team activity pending the outcome of the legal process. This situation will be evaluated by the UCLA Office of Student Conduct and any further action taken will be in accordance with that evaluation and University policy.”

One of the top backups to starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava, Clarkson was not spotted on the field before the Bruins lost to Nevada Las Vegas 30-23 on Saturday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

The son of quarterback guru Steve Clarkson, Pierce Clarkson joined the Bruins this offseason after having spent last spring at Mississippi. The former St. John Bosco High standout had played sparingly in two seasons at Louisville.

Thursday might be an off-day for the Dodgers.

But for their most intriguing recent draft pick, it’s also the opening day of a different kind of season.

In the 17th round of last month’s MLB draft, the Dodgers took a flier on University of Missouri pitcher Sam Horn, a 6-foot-4 right-hander with a big fastball, a promising slider and an athletic, projectable build.

Like most late-round prospects hoping to become a diamond in the rough, Horn came with questions. He pitched just 15 innings in his college career after undergoing Tommy John surgery as a sophomore. His limited body of work led to a wide range of scouting opinions.

In Horn’s case, however, the biggest unknowns had nothing to do with his potential as a pitcher.

Because, starting Thursday night, he will also be under center as quarterback for Missouri’s football team.

Horn is not only a two-sport athlete, but someone still undecided on whether his future will be on a mound or the gridiron. As a quarterback, he was a four-star recruit in Missouri’s 2022 signing class. And this fall, he has been locked in a battle with Penn State transfer Beau Pribula, jockeying for first-string signal-caller duties at an SEC program coming off a 10-win season.

When Missouri opens its 2025 football schedule Thursday night against Central Arkansas, Pribula will play the first half, and Horn will play the second half. As for the rest of the season, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz has yet to hand either player all the keys to the offense.

“I think both quarterbacks have done an excellent job of doing the things that we’ve asked them to do, and there wasn’t enough separation that I felt like there was a clear-cut starter,” Drinkwitz told reporters this week. “And so the next-best evaluation is in a live football game to see how guys respond, not only to preparation and a game plan, but also respond to a crowd, also respond to being tackled and being hit.”

It’s a QB battle that Dodgers officials have followed with fascination throughout Missouri’s fall camp.

Already, the club has signed Horn to a baseball contract with an almost $500,000 signing bonus (well above the norm for the 525th overall pick).

The question now is whether he ever ends up playing for them.

“We’re pleasantly hoping he does,” Dodgers vice president of baseball operations Billy Gasparino said this week. “We think there’s a whole window of opportunity to get him much better, and quickly.”

Once upon a time, the Dodgers viewed Horn as one of college baseball’s better pitching prospects. Even in a limited sample size as a freshman in 2023, Gasparino said the team evaluated him as having potential future first-round talent.

“He’s a tremendous athlete,” said Gasparino, the longtime point man for the Dodgers’ draft operations. “He has really good arm action. I think that part was very elite.”

By the time Horn actually became draft-eligible this summer, though, uncertainties about his future made his scouting process unique.

All along, Horn signaled to MLB teams that he wanted to play football this fall. As a redshirt junior, he will have another season of eligibility in football next year as well. Gasparino said the narrative around Horn, who is originally from Lawrenceville, Ga., is that “baseball is his first love.”

“But,” Gasparino added, “he definitely seemed split on what he wanted to do going forward.”

This is not the first recent example of the Dodgers drafting a power-conference college quarterback.

Two years ago, they used their final 20th-round selection in the 2023 draft on then-Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, a former two-sport star at St. John Bosco. Uiagalelei, however, never signed with the team. As a highly-touted five-star talent with NFL aspirations, he never made the switch to baseball either, his draft rights with the Dodgers lapsing after he transferred to Florida State for the 2024 football season.

Horn’s situation appears to be different. Unlike Uiagalelei (who never actually pitched collegiately), he spent the last three years on Missouri’s baseball team. And if he doesn’t win the starting quarterback job with the Tigers football squad this fall, his odds of reporting to the Dodgers next spring figure to be much more realistic.

That’s why, as Missouri’s QB battle has unfolded this preseason, Gasparino scoured Missouri recruiting site message boards and local news outlets, looking for any indication of which way the program was leaning.

“The coach is going to give nothing,” Gasparino said jokingly. “So you kind of have to go on the message boards, and to the local writers, to figure out, ‘Alright, who is winning? What is going on?’ It’s been kind of a hard read.”

Leading up to the draft, Horn’s situation also required extra scouting legwork. The Dodgers dusted off his old freshman year and high school evaluations, after he pitched just 10 ⅔ innings in Missouri’s spring baseball season coming off his Tommy John procedure. They also reached out to NFL scouting departments and college football recruiters, “just to figure out how talented he was at football,” Gasparino said.

The Dodgers do have downside protection if Horn ultimately decides to stick with the football, with Gasparino noting that “to actually get his signing bonus, he has to come to us.”

But in the meantime, they’ll be keeping a close eye on Missouri’s football season — starting with Thursday night’s opener in which Horn is slated to see the field.

“Definitely gonna be watching,” Gasparino said. “I mean, I guess first, it’s like, don’t get hurt. But also just hoping that the right answer becomes very clear on what he should do sport-wise … Of course, we’d be disappointed if it’s not baseball. But would hate another year of in-between.”