Louisville’s 2025 roster tells the story of a program looking to make serious noise in the ACC, and at the heart of that ambition sits Miller Moss in the quarterback room. The senior signal-caller from Los Angeles headlines a deep quarterback group. With playmakers like Chris Bell, Dacari Collins, and Caullin Lacy at receiver, plus a veteran offensive line anchored by guys like Mahamane Moussa and Pete Nygra, the Cardinals have built something special around their new field general.

The path that brought Moss to Louisville seems almost magical, except it started with the Cardinals getting absolutely tormented. Back in December 2023, when Caleb Williams opted out of USC’s Holiday Bowl matchup, Moss stepped into his first collegiate start and proceeded to light up Louisville’s defense in ways that still make Cardinals fans wince. Six touchdown passes and 372 yards later, USC had dismantled the Cardinals 42-28. What should have been a forgettable blowout became the very performance that caught Brohm’s eye, though it would later create an awkward moment that nearly derailed the entire recruitment.

The real story emerged on Yogi Roth’s podcast, when NFL Network’s Mike Yam revealed just how that dominant Holiday Bowl showing almost backfired on Moss. “They torched Louisville. It was like video game numbers,” Yam explained, describing the performance that put Moss on Louisville’s radar. The numbers were staggering, but the recruitment took an uncomfortable turn when Yam discovered that Moss’s girlfriend, Sofia Hildebrand, had brought up the game directly to Brohm, essentially rubbing salt in the wound of that embarrassing bowl loss.

Yam said, “And I actually talked to Jeff Brohm about that. I’m like, “Yo, did you bring that up?” And I embarrassed Miller because the coach even said he’s like, ‘Hey, it came up like a little bit, but Miller’s girlfriend brought it up to me and was like kind of giving it to me a little bit.’ So I thought that was funny and I asked Miller Moss about he was like, ‘Yeah.’ And he kind of like turned a little weird shade of red.”

Jeff Brohm’s reaction to the whole situation shows exactly why players love playing for him – the man can laugh at himself even when it stings. “It was a bad memory that you bring up,” Brohm admitted with characteristic honesty about that Holiday Bowl disaster. The Louisville coach painted the picture perfectly: Moss’s girlfriend, who he described as “a very attractive young lady” they’d been dating for a while, showed up during Derby week and couldn’t resist bringing up her boyfriend’s dominance against the Cardinals.

 The moment reached peak awkwardness when she started giving Brohm grief about how great Moss had played that night. Brohm’s response was pure coaching honesty: “We were so terrible that game. Any bum could’ve completed those passes.” But he followed that self-deprecating jab with genuine respect, acknowledging that “he had a great game against us. I’m glad he’s on our team.” Now that same quarterback who made Louisville look foolish is the guy they’re counting on to deliver an ACC championship. Sofia’s bluntness might have risked Moss’s transfer, but sometimes the best revenge really is living well, or in this case, having your tormentor transfer to your team.

Moss flourishes as the Trojans face uncertainty

Louisville gives Miller Moss something USC never could: zip-fast trust on both the headset and in the huddle. Offensive coordinator Brian Brohm says Moss “has really taken it by the horns” since arriving in January, mastering a notoriously bulky playbook and emerging as “a really good senior leader” in just eight months. That kind of instant buy-in was missing in L.A., where Lincoln Riley had to rip out pages of his drive-tempo Air Raid once Caleb Williams left and the run game sputtered. Here, the Brohm brothers promise to tailor the scheme, not the quarterback. “It’s our job as coaches to play to our quarterback’s strengths,” Brian insists, and Moss clearly feels the difference, admitting, “I’m truly comfortable right now.”

The comfort comes from the horsepower behind him. Isaac Brown and Duke Watson form what analyst Tom Luginbill has called “as good as, if not better than, any [one-two punch] in the league.” It’s a backfield that lets Moss win games with decisions, not hero ball. Compare that to USC’s 2025 depth chart, built around JUCO transfer Waymond Jordan and New Mexico State import Eli Sanders, who are talented but untested backs still searching for their first Power Conference punch. In other words, Moss traded question marks for exclamation points; every third-and-two at Louisville feels like a running-back layup instead of a quarterback rescue mission.

Add in the full-circle karma from that 2023 Holiday Bowl, where Miller Moss roasted Jeff Brohm’s defense for six scores and even endured his girlfriend’s playful jab, and you can see why the locker-room vibe is electric. The coaches who once gritted their teeth through his highlight reel now build playlists around him, and the roster that once chased his throws now rallies to them. For a quarterback who wanted structure, star power, and a little redemption, Louisville checks every box; USC, right now, can only watch and wonder if it let the wrong guy walk.