Louisville Cardinals' Miller Moss Details USC Trojans Transfer Portal Decision

Louisville Cardinals quarterback Miller Moss transferred out of the USC Trojans football program after spending four seasons at USC. Moss spent two seasons backing up a Heisman Trophy winner in quarterback Caleb Williams, and Moss got his chance to start in USC coach Lincoln Riley's offense.

In Moss's nine games as the Trojans starter in 2024, he threw for 2,555 yards with 18 touchdowns and nine interceptions. More importantly, however, is that Moss had a 4-5 record in his limited opportunity as USC's starting quarterback.

After Riley benched Moss in favor of Trojans quarterback Jayden Maiava, Moss, a Southern California native, decided to enter the transfer portal and ultimately commit to Louisville. The newest Cardinals quarterback spoke to On3's Pete Nakos about his decision to transfer and how the recent fires in Los Angeles have played a role.

Nov 2, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; USC Trojans quarterback Miller Moss (7) participates in pregame warmups against the Washington Huskies at Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium. | Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

“I mean, it was always going to be hard to get me out of L.A., but I think that, coupled with our house burning down. I’d never lived outside of Los Angeles prior to this year. For my development as a football player, but also my development as a human being, it’s been a really important step," Miller told On3.

“All things considered, they’re good [my family]. My Grandma lost her home as well, so she and my Mom ended up living together. They haven’t driven each other nuts yet. There are two sides. We lost a ton of material stuff, but then we’re all healthy, and we still have each other. No one was injured. There’s a lesson of gratitude in that, too," Miller continued.

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Miller played high school football in Los Angeles before starting his college career at USC. The former Trojan talked to Nakos about Louisville coach Jeff Brohm and his success in developing transfer quarterbacks.

Former Cardinals passer Tyler Shough came to Brohm's program by way of Oregon and Texas Tech, and Shough played his way into being selected by the New Orleans Saints with the No. 40 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Can Moss replicate Shough's success at Louisville?

Jun 10, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints quarterback Tyler Shough (6) gives a play call at the line during minicamp at Ochsner Sports Performance Center. | Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

Before replacing Moss with Maiava in USC's offense, Riley continued to support Moss, even after the Trojans lost three consecutive games.

"I don't see one central issue like it's this position group or this player or this scheme or this coach. Like they're not doing this well and that's why we haven't closed out these games. We've sprung some leaks in different places, and we've got to keep coaching and keep progressing. Anything that we see that isn't functioning at a high level or heading that way, we're aggressively addressing it, and we'll do anything we have to do to continue to plug these leaks and get better," Riley told reporters in late October.

Nov 30, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley reacts against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the second half at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Despite the support from Riley, Moss lost the starting job shortly thereafter, and his decision to transfer was made.