{"id":364034,"date":"2025-11-08T07:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T07:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/364034\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T07:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T07:38:10","slug":"no-20-usc-pulls-off-fake-punt-after-the-trojans-3rd-string-qb-switches-to-punters-uniform-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/364034\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 20 USC pulls off fake punt after the Trojans’ 3rd-string QB switches to punter’s uniform number"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 No. 20 Southern California pulled off a remarkable fake punt in its 38-17 victory over Northwestern on Friday night<\/a> by sending out third-string quarterback Sam Huard in the same uniform number as the Trojans\u2019 punter.<\/p>\n

Wearing a No. 80 jersey, Huard came on the field with the punt team in the second quarter and completed a 10-yard pass<\/a> to Tanook Hines. The first down extended the drive that ended with Jayden Maiava\u2019s TD run.<\/p>\n

This bit of trickery was quite legal, apparently: Huard wore No. 7 earlier this season, but he is listed as No. 80 on the USC roster for this week after coach Lincoln Riley\u2019s team quietly made the change.<\/p>\n

Punter Sam Johnson also wears No. 80. College football teams frequently feature two players wearing the same number.<\/p>\n

Northwestern coach David Braun credited Riley and special teams coordinator Ryan Dougherty for their creativity, describing it as a \u201clesson learned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid not show up on the roster online. Had not shown up anywhere else,\u201d Braun said. \u201cBut they did legally submit that. Was on the game day roster that was here present at the Coliseum. And the lesson I\u2019ve learned in that for the rest of my career is we arrive at a facility, we will go over that with a fine tooth comb and look for any of those potential issues,\u201d Braun said.<\/p>\n

Huard, who is a couple of inches shorter than the 6-foot-3 Johnson, grinned widely as he high-fived his teammates on the way off the field. He is a former five-star recruit who began his college career at Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a well-thought-out thing,\u201d Riley said. \u201cHad it at the right time, and we had confidence in it, and Sam stepped in there and made a good throw. Had a guy kind of in his face. \u2026 We have some creative guys on our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley said USC had the play in its pocket for the past several weeks, changing Huard\u2019s number in accordance with the rules, but no one noticed it on the game day flip card that includes team rosters and depth charts.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys got to pay attention,\u201d Riley said. \u201cSeriously, it\u2019s been on there for three weeks. I\u2019m glad none of y\u2019all put it on Twitter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowling Green pulled off a similar stunt in last season\u2019s 68 Ventures Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.<\/p>\n

Third-string Falcons quarterback Baron May switched his uniform number before the game from 8 to 18 \u2014 very similar to punter John Henderson\u2019s No. 19 jersey.<\/p>\n

Late in the first quarter, May came on the field instead of Henderson and threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Malcolm Johnson Jr. \u2014 although Arkansas State overcame it for a 38-31 victory.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 No. 20 Southern California pulled off a remarkable fake punt in its 38-17 victory…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":364035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[276,1428,1369,1318,1819,1818,82156,176317,176318,1380,174069,176319,176315,176316,176314,173458,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-364034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-college-sports","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-il-state-wire","13":"tag-illinois","14":"tag-jayden-maiava","15":"tag-john-henderson","16":"tag-malcolm-johnson-jr","17":"tag-northwestern-wildcats","18":"tag-northwestern-wildcats-football","19":"tag-ryan-dougherty","20":"tag-sam-huard","21":"tag-sam-johnson","22":"tag-southern-california-trojans","23":"tag-southern-california-trojans-football","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115512941241171394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}