a 34-32 loss to Illinois<\/a> \u2014 a game that twisted and turned until the Trojans\u2019 fourth-quarter lead was squashed by a last-second, 41-yard field goal.<\/p>\nThe 151 receiving yards were a career-high for the Los Alamitos product, and Saturday marked his third multi-touchdown game of the season. Many experts are projecting him to be a first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n
Regardless of play-calling, clock management or score deficit, Lemon executed on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely a lot is, I would say, God-given talent,\u201d Lemon said earlier this season of his abilities, \u201cbut it\u2019s a lot of the hard work that I put in. I just fall back on my training and I feel like that\u2019s most natural during the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
His back-to-back touchdowns in the fourth quarter \u2014 plus Ryon Sayeri\u2019s successful PAT attempt \u2014 were enough to give USC (4-1 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) its first lead of the game. USC gained a 32-31 advantage as a result with 1:55 remaining in the game.<\/p>\n
But it was his first touchdown that truly showed why Lemon is such a valuable piece of this team, especially when the team\u2019s second-leading receiver, Ja\u2019Kobi Lane, is limited and the defense can\u2019t keep the opponent off the board.<\/p>\n
Lemon beat a defender up the left seam to give himself the slightest of openings deep left in the end zone, which allowed Maiava to throw the ball directly into his solar plexus.<\/p>\n
The pair teamed up for a successful 2-point conversion immediately after, and Lemon once again demonstrated his physicality. Maiava\u2019s eyes scanned the end zone as he dropped back, and, meanwhile, Lemon had shoved a defender off of him to break loose and battle for another catch.<\/p>\n
\u201cDude just makes the routine plays routine,\u201d Scott said. \u201cAny time he was thrown the ball \u2014 it doesn\u2019t matter if it was contested or if it was uncontested \u2014 he was catching it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maiava is playing well this season, partly because he can turn to Lemon in times of need. The quarterback completed 60% of his passes in the first half and threw his first interception of the season before recovering in the second half to hit 77% of his targets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team, they rallied around me,\u201d Maiava told reporters after the game. \u201cThey told me they got my back. They just encouraged me just to go out there and keep firing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Illinois\u2019 defense outperformed USC\u2019s and held the Trojans to a season-low 126 rushing yards. Maiava managed to pass for 364 yards and two touchdowns, but the Illini took some pride in forcing his first turnover of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat dude has an arm,\u201d Scott said. \u201cAny time he tried to scramble, he\u2019s scrambling to throw. And then a lot of times they were running RPO\u2019s today. As soon as he was putting the ball down, he was popping straight up.\u201d<\/p>\n
For every play that Maiava starts, Lemon is there to end it. And that chemistry could hold this offense together as the Big Ten Conference schedule only gets more competitive.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time you\u2019re able to throw the ball in the receiver\u2019s vicinity and he\u2019s somehow catching the ball,\u201d Scott said. \u201cYou\u2019ve gotta give him his props.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: September 28, 2025 at 11:50 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHAMPAIGN, Illinois \u2014 Deep in the end zone. Smothered between two defenders. After a fake handoff. While losing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[61,331,339,7,49,48,9,8937,24416],"class_list":{"0":"post-404389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-big-ten-conference","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-college-sports","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-usc-football","16":"tag-usc-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115283621719554386","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}