LAS VEGAS—Lincoln Riley had a flashback to three years ago when he coached Oklahoma.
The Sooners were driving against archrival Texas in a tie game when a 33-yard run into the end zone with 3 seconds left beat the Longhorns.
“I told someone on the headset, ‘It wouldn’t surprise me if he creases this,'” Riley said. “And, of course, it happened.”
Miller Moss passed for 378 yards and a touchdown, and his 20-yard completion to Kyron Hudson and a subsequent targeting penalty on LSU with 18 seconds to go set up the winning score by Marks in the season opener for both teams. It was Marks’ second TD run.
“We worked really hard throughout the offseason to build the identity of a tough team that really cares about each other,” Moss said.
Moss outdueled LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, who completed 29 of 38 passes for 304 yards with two touchdowns and an interception on the final drive. Moss was similarly efficient in going 27 of 36 in a battle of quarterbacks who waited their turns after sitting behind the two most recent Heisman Trophy winners, LSU’s Jayden Daniels and USC’s Caleb Williams.
USC, in its first season of Big Ten Conference play, sent a message with this victory in the teams’ first meeting in 40 years that the Trojans could be a factor after going a disappointing 8–5 last year.
“That was some pretty good Big Ten football today,” Riley said with a smile.
And it came against a Southeastern Conference opponent hoping to show it belongs in the College Football Playoff. LSU will still have its chances to make that case, but this is the Tigers’ third consecutive season-opening loss under Coach Brian Kelly and fifth straight overall. LSU also had its four-game winning streak going back to last season snapped.
“We didn’t play complementary football,” Kelly said. “But the thing that is most concerning for me are the personal fouls, the penalties that are selfish. They’re undisciplined penalties. That falls back on me. We take pride in running a disciplined program, but we have clearly not done a good enough job there because it impacted the game.”
Tigers supporters represented about 60 percent of the crowd, an Allegiant Stadium announced record gathering of 63,969 that sometimes felt like Baton Rouge West. There was some star power, too, with LSU greats Shaquille O'Neal and Daniels with his Heisman Trophy in tow. Former USC Heisman winners Marcus Allen and Matt Leinart also were on hand.
Two tremendous catches helped define the first half.
Both teams also missed opportunities—the Tigers were turned away on downs after driving to the USC 3, and Trojans kicker Michael Lantz missed a 29-yard field-goal attempt to the right as the first-half clock expired. The Trojans could’ve had an extra 30-40 seconds on that final possession, but Riley opted not to call timeout before LSU tied the game on 45-yard field goal by Damian Ramos with 1:08 left.
The game went back and forth with the Trojans taking a 20–17 lead with 5:44 left in regulation when Moss found Ja'Kobi Lane for a 28-yard touchdown. A 31-yard field goal from Ramos tied it, but left 1:47 on the clock.
It was too much time as Moss led the Trojans on an eight-play, 75-yard drive to win.
