Quarterback Sam Huard took the field wearing a No. 80 jersey in the second quarter as USC was ready to punt the ball. The number 80 is the number worn by bettor Sam Johnson.
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Huard took the snap as if Johnson had to punt and completed a pass to Tanook Hines for 10 yards and a first down. Starting quarterback Jayden Maiava capped the drive with a six-yard touchdown run.
College football teams have so many players that it is incredibly common for multiple players to wear the same number. And it’s not a problem as long as they’re not together on the field. No. 20 USC is also one of the few schools in the country that does not have player names on its jerseys.
That, and a subtle roster change, helped USC pull off the fake.
The Trojans officially changed Huard’s number to No. 80 on the game-day roster sent to Northwestern. While Huard is still listed as #7 online, that’s not official. Northwestern coach David Braun admitted after the game that Huard was ranked 80th on the list given to his team.
“One of his backup quarterbacks, No. 7, was wearing No. 80, the same number as his punter. It didn’t appear on his online roster, it hadn’t appeared anywhere else, but he filed it legally,” Braun said. “It was on the game day roster that was here at the Coliseum and the lesson I’ve learned from that for the rest of my career is that when we get to a facility, we’re going to take a hard look at it and look for any of those potential issues. If we had known their backup quarterback was in the game in that situation, we would have been safe (punt coverage) or called a timeout.”
The Trojans racked up 482 yards of offense on 64 plays in the victory that moved them to 7-2 overall and 5-1 in the Big Ten. Northwestern fell to 5-4 and needs a win in its last three games against No. 21 Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois to reach a bowl game.