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The Athletic Compares Jayden Maiava To Caleb Williams
After winning Mountain West Freshman of the Year at UNLV, quarterback Jayden Maiava transferred to USC this offseason. With the Trojans in the heat of spring ball, Maiava is currently battling the become the successor to this year's likely first overall draft pick Caleb Williams.
People don't make comparisons to Heisman winners lightly, but David Ubben of The Athletic seems to think Maiava and Williams may have more in common than uniform colors.
"Jayden Maiava was one of the more interesting quarterback transfers," Ubben said on the most recent episode of Until Saturday, one of The Athletic's College Football Podcasts. "You know who he kind of reminds me of in terms of skillset, playing style, just running style? A lot like Caleb Williams. Like there's a lot of commonality there."
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Of course, with just one season as a starter, it's hard to know how accurate the comparison really is. Maiava completed 63.5% of his passes in 2023 for 3085 yards with 17 touchdowns through the air and ten interceptions. Williams completed over 68% of his passes for 3633 yards with 30 passing touchdowns and five interceptions in 2023. Under Lincoln Riley's direction though, maybe Maiava can get to a similar point.
Maiava will still need to win the starting job over Miller Moss, who threw six touchdowns for the Trojans in their 2023 Holiday Bowl win.
