The 2024 regular season didn’t end quite as expected for USC or Texas A&M. On Nov. 30, Lincoln Riley’s Trojans scored 14 points in the second quarter against No.
5 Notre Dame to go into halftime tied at 14. Unfortunately, the Fighting Irish answered with 21 points in the third and ended up walking away with a 49-35 victory, leaving USC 6-6 on the year. There were silver linings, though; redshirt sophomore quarterback Jayden Maiava threw 27-of-48 passes for 360 yards and a trio of touchdowns.
Wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane caught all three of those touchdown tosses. Still, coming into today’s Las Vegas Bowl at Allegiant Stadium — where they’ll play Texas A&M for the first time since December 1977 — the club is missing some key contributors due to the NCAA transfer portal. Star running back Woody Marks isn’t expected to play and it’s still uncertain whether safety Kamari Ramsey, cornerbacks Jaylin Smith and Greedy Vance, offensive linemen Emmanuel Pregnon and Jonah Monheim and linebackers Easton Mascarenas-Arnold and Mason Cobb or not will take the field, according to Yahoo Sports .
Texas A&M had a similarly rough go at it to close 2024. In their penultimate game, Mike Elko’s Aggies fell short in a 43-41 nailbiter against Auburn. Things ended in an even more dire fashion in the last contest of the season, when Marcel Reed and co.
dropped the Lone Star Showdown 17-7 to Texas. “..
.it’s a great opportunity to go out and play a big school on the West Coast, and .