USC quarterback Jayden Maiava named semifinalist for Davey O'Brien Award

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The 2025 college football regular season is entering its home stretch. And with it, award semifinalists are beginning to be announced. Last week, USC safety Bishop Fitzgerald was named a semifinalist for the Thorpe Award. Then this week, the Trojans followed it up with quarterback Jayden Maiava being named a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien Award.

Through nine games on the season, Maiava has completed 66.2 percent of his pass attempts for 2,614 yards, the second-most in the Big Ten. He has also thrown 17 touchdown passes and six interceptions, while adding 113 yards and six touchdowns on the ground.

Through USC’s first four games, Maiava was looking like a legitimate contender for the Heisman Trophy. While an increase in interceptions over the past few games has likely ended that possibility, he has still had a very good season overall.

The Davey O’Brien Award is presented annually to the top quarterback in all of college football. Interestingly, despite having three Heisman Trophy QBs, USC has never had a Davey O’Brien Award winner. In their respective Heisman seasons, Carson Palmer was beaten out by Iowa’s Brad Banks, Matt Leinart by Oklahoma’s Jason White, and Caleb Williams by TCU’s Max Duggan.

Lincoln Riley did have two Davey O’Brien Award winners during his time at Oklahoma with Baker Mayfield winning the award in 2017 and Kyler Murray in 2018. Now, Maiava is looking to become the first player to take the award home with the Trojans.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC football’s Jayden Maiava named Davey O’Brien Award semifinalist

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