Lincoln Riley had nothing but praise for Miller Moss following his performance in Wednesday’s Holiday Bowl.

The sophomore quarterback threw for 6 touchdowns and 372 passing yards in USC’s win over No. 15 Louisville. Moss accomplished the feat as he replaced projected top NFL draft pick Caleb Williams under center.

“He did a great job. He was awesome,” Riley said at the Holiday Bowl post-game conference.

Riley said football is a “performance game,” and for players like Moss to perform well is vital to the program.

“I’ve said this before, and our local guys know this, it’s really important to me the longer I coach,” Riley said. “Having people like (Moss) in this program is incredibly important to me.”

Riley said locking in guys like Moss in recruiting, and sometimes the transfer portal, is key to the future success of a program.

“In this day and age with all the movement, when you have guys like that it’s even more of an advantage than it was 5 or 10 years ago,” Riley said. “It becomes a little hard to fight.”

Riley dodged a question about USC’s consideration at QB next season, despite Williams entering the draft and Moss setting up a potential return to the university for his junior year. More than anything, Riley doesn’t want to commit with several variables still unknown heading into next season.

This was always going to be his answer:

“(Moss) was a great leader for us tonight. I’m excited to see what the future holds for him,” Riley said.

Hear more from Riley regarding Moss and the Trojans’ play against the No. 15 Louisville Cardinals below: