Jayden Maiava reportedly flips commitment from Georgia to USC
Just over 24 hours after committing to Georgia, UNLV transfer quarterback Jayden Maiava looks to have flipped his commitment to USC. The Mountain West Freshman of the Year took visits to both schools and had plans to head to Athens. That has reportedly changed according to Scott Schrader of WeAreSC among others.
Maiva, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound native of Las Vegas, redshirted in his first season on campus with the Rebels. He then took over the starting job in Week 4 of the 2023 campaign after a big day versus Vanderbilt, leading UNLV to a win over the SEC opponent. He threw for 261 yards in the victory with a touchdown and an interception in relief of the Rebels’ starter, injured in the first quarter.
With Maiava at the helm, UNLV went 7-2 to close out the regular season and earned a spot in the Mountain West Championship Game. The Rebels fell to Boise State there and Kansas in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl. Still, the takeover by Maiava and job he did was impressive as he totaled 3,085 yards and 17 touchdowns on the season.
Maiava was set to join a Georgia quarterback room that returns starter Carson Beck, rising redshirt sophomore Gunner Stockton and incoming freshman Ryan Puglisi. Beck finished the 2023 season, his first as the UGA No. 1, third in the NCAA for passing yards with 3,941 on a school-record 72.4% completion percentage. Meanwhile, Stockton showed promise in his limited action, and there’s obvious excitement about the potential the four-star, top-150 prospect Puglisi brings to the table.
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It remains unclear at this time whether Georgia will attempt to pursue a fourth scholarship quarterback for 2024, however, head coach Kirby Smart made it clear that the team was below its quota at the position on National Signing Day.
“That’s something we have to think long and hard about,” Smart said when asked about adding another quarterback after initially having two committed for the Class of 2024. “Our hard number is four. We want to be at four, and we’re not at four. So again, we’ll look at our options and see what we can do there. We would like to be at four, but that’s our goal.”
“I don’t think Carson’s decision had any impact on our quarterback recruiting situation,” he added. “I think it was a lot of independent variables there. We’ve felt pretty good that Carson was coming back the entire time. He’s communicated with us. He did his research. He certainly had options, but he communicated that he wanted to grow and continue to get better. So he made that choice.”
