The USC Trojans needed a win Friday night against Northwestern to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive, and head coach Lincoln Riley was ready to pull out all of the stops to make it happen.
Early in the second quarter of its 38-17 victory, USC executed a wild, fake punt play that should remind defenses everywhere that they have to prepare for anything.
With the game tied at 7 and 14 minutes, 27 seconds left in the second quarter, the Trojans faced a fourth-and-6 at their own 46-yard line. A player wearing a No. 80 jersey jogged onto the field to set up for a punt. All seemed to be normal.
However, when No. 80 took the snap, instead of booting the ball downfield, he swiveled his hips to pass and found freshman wide receiver Tanook Hines for a 10-yard completion and the first down. The play kept alive a drive that led to a USC touchdown, and the Trojans never looked back.
USC punter Sam Johnson usually wears No. 80, but he didn’t throw that pass to Hines. It was third-string quarterback Sam Huard. USC’s coaching staff made a legal number change before the game, listing Huard as No. 80. The senior had worn No. 7 in previous games this season.
tricky tricky
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“I don’t think Coach Riley has faked a punt since 2017,” said Northwestern head coach David Braun after the game. “And ultimately, it 100 percent falls on me. It didn’t show up on their roster online. It hadn’t shown up anywhere else, but they did legally submit that.
“It was on the game-day roster that was here present at the (Los Angeles Memorial) Coliseum. The lesson I’ve learned from that for the rest of my career is that we will go over that with a fine-tooth comb, and look for any of those potential issues.”
In college football, two players often share the same number. Johnson and Huard were both listed as No. 80 on the game-day roster. Riley insisted that the number change isn’t particularly new.
“You guys got to pay attention,” Riley said to the media, prompting a series of laughs. “No, seriously, that’s been on there for three weeks. So I’m glad none of you all put it on Twitter.”
Huard is listed as 6 foot 1, two inches shorter than Johnson, the punter. However, his height was similar enough to avoid detection. Riley credited his assistant coaches for the creative play.
“It was a well-thought-out thing,” Riley said. “Several of our staff members were involved in it and had it at the right time, and we had confidence in it. Sam stepped in there, made a good throw.”
USC wasn’t the first program to pull off this trick play. Bowling Green executed it last season during the 68 Ventures Bowl against Arkansas State. Baron May, the Falcons’ third-string signal caller, changed his number from 8 to 18. This created confusion with punter John Henderson’s No. 19, and May threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Malcolm Johnson Jr.
