Miller Moss talks leadership role and a key for 2024 USC success

There’s little doubt that USC’s defensive performance will be the key to the Trojans’ 2024 season. But how quarterback Miller Moss plays in replacing a Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall NFL draft pick in Caleb Williams will be a major storyline as well.

Moss has never been one to seek out the spotlight. But it always has a way of finding the starting quarterback at USC. Recently, Moss was a guest on Next Up with Adam Breneman and spoke on a variety of topics. Notably, Moss dove into his responsibilities in terms of leadership, and what has to go right for this USC team to fight for a championship.

It became pretty clear last December that Moss was ready to step up for this USC team. Coaches and players offered very positive reviews regarding his leadership. Breneman, who played tight end at Penn State, asked Moss about taking over a leadership role without a season’s worth of production to stand on.

“I think the biggest thing for me is trying to be whoever this team needs me to be to put us in the position to have success,” Moss said. “We had certain shortcomings the year before and I think those areas need to be addressed, and I try my best. But we also have a great supporting cast of leadership.”

Moss then pointed to other players who will serve as leaders for their position groups and the team, including offensive lineman Jonah Monheim, wide receivers Zachariah Branch and Kyron Hudson, and safety Kamari Ramsey.

“I don’t think that responsibility solely falls on my shoulders,” Moss said. “I think, yes, I’m a big part of that, and I want to be a big part of that. But I think there’s a general, great supporting cast of leadership on this team that we can all rely on.”

Moss said his main focus this offseason was balancing the need to take a step into a leadership role with focusing on “handling everything I need to do for myself and get ready myself.”

“The player I was in December, I want to be a completely different player walking into that stadium in September,” Moss said.

If Moss can indeed help lead USC to a win over LSU to open the 2024 season, national conversation around this Trojans team might change overnight. This USC team clearly believes they are capable of playing with anybody this season and Moss said he thinks there’s one specific area of improvement over last season that will help them.

“I think we absolutely have the staff and the player to do so,” Moss said of competing for a championship. “I think it’s all about how we come together as a team and how we face adversity. I think that’s one thing that we didn’t do well last year. Once we had kind of a couple tough games, you saw that team, in the face of difficult circumstances, wasn’t able to respond well. I think that’s really the crux of whether our team will succeed. Because those moments come up in games. There are very pivotal inflection points in those games where you go one of two ways. I think training ourselves and putting ourselves in those difficult situations as much as possible, so when the time comes, we can have that correct response. I think that’s the biggest thing for us.”

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