The biggest long term national rivalry is ND/USC. There have been some truly great games in this series. In my lifetime, I've seen Ara lose several Nat'l Championships at USC starting with his 1st one in 1964. That 1988 game at the Coliseum was one of the all-time great ND/USC games and the win propelled us to the Title. I was at the game the following year in 1989, also a ND win but this one was at ND Stadium. This game isn't likely to reach those levels, but it's still a big game for the Irish, with the 1 loss to the #2 team in Cincinnati we are barring unforeseen circumstances out of the CFP but if we can win out, which is possible, we'll have a good New Years Six Bowl game. The Irish aren't without their problems, injuries, OL play, no running game, QB is still a week-to-week situation. Wah, Wah, Wah. USC also has it's own problems, with Clay Helton being fired and working with an interim, they have struggled this year. They still have great talent/speed on the outside and a QB who can get them the ball. From what I read their OL is , like the Irish, suspect. Plus of course it's a rivalry game and no Irish fan wants to do anything other than beat the hell out of USC. We don't care if USC has no HC, beat the living daylights out of them! Injuries, boo hooo, we've got them as well. Beat the hell out of them even if they are 2nd or 3rd string. I fully expect that Jack Coan will be the starter with Tyler Buchner coming off the bench for some series to give the USC defense a different look and get some running game going. I hope he's been working on the passing game the last couple of weeks. He did hit some big plays against Va.Tech but then also had 2 horrible INT's. If he's going to be the starter next year he needs to work on the passing game. Should be cool and dry in South Bend for the game, perfect football weather. Here's a clip from one of my favorite USC wins in South Bend. The 1995 game, the Keyshawn Johnson game, Keyshawn the USC WR not known for keeping his mouth shut did a lot of talking before that game. USC came in to the game ranked #5 and this clip was indicative of how the Irish treated them that day in a 38-10 win with Ron Powlus at the helm.
FWIW the ACC pre-season basketball stuff has been going on with media days and the like. Both the Men and the women's Irish are middle of the pack in terms of prediction. Irish men have some buzz around them with a fairly veteran team and addition of a couple of good freshmen ( who Brey tends to not play) and a Grad Trans from Yale who didn't play last year but had a good Ivy League career. Early chatter about him is that he looks good and fits well with what Brey likes to do. Irish women have a solid lineup of really good players, who last year were very young and didn't know how to finish out games. I watched a number of games where good leads were just frittered away in the final 10 minutes. That experience should help a lot. They have a legitimate shot at being one of the better ACC teams and getting back to the NCAA tournament this year. They will still be young, but young and talented. Coach Ivey's coaching was constantly being called into question by the online fans last season. This year I will be surprised if that is the case.
Tim is no doubt on top of this! Over the summer there were 3 OL's from Wisconsin that the Irish had targeted and hoped to sign. Now it's tough to get OL's from Wisconsin away from Wisconsin and 2 of the 3 did verbal to the Badgers. This guy hasn't and he would be a big win for embattled OL Coach Jeff Quinn. ______________ The 247Sports Crystal Ball prediction is a great tool to use to show the pulse of a recruitment. With this prospect in particular, there have been some twists and turns. On Tuesday, both myself and 247Sports National Director of Recruiting changed our predictions for a Top247 talent to land with the Fighting Irish. Our latest pick has Fond Du Lac (Wisc.) St. Mary’s Springs four-star offensive lineman Billy Schrauth ending up at Notre Dame. Both of us had initial predictions in for the Irish when they were far and away the leader. However, we flipped them to Wisconsin back in September when we were told matter of factly that the Badgers had pulled ahead following an official visit to Madison. Notre Dame sources had confirmed as much as well. That said, the Irish never stopped pushing for the 6-5, 285-pounder from the class of 2022. Based on the latest intel we’ve received, we believe Schrauth would pick Notre Dame today if he was ready to announce a commitment, which is why we like the Irish to win this recruitment. As we reported last week, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees stopped by St. Mary’s Springs high school during the team’s bye week to check in on the No. 8 interior lineman this cycle. Although it’s not a time where coaches and prospects can speak in-depth beyond a quick hello, we’re told they have had long conversations over the past few weeks that have tipped the scales back in favor of Notre Dame. Offensive line coach Jeff Quinn has also been involved here, but it should be noted that Rees has been leading the way with the program’s emergence in the race for Schrauth. We’re told Schrauth and his family are working very hard to lock in a visit to Notre Dame this weekend. We expect him on campus if they can secure lodging following the late kick against the USC Trojans. Either way, visit this weekend or even next week vs. UNC, we like where the Irish stand at this point.
USC Defense? A blessing to the Irish OL/Running Game/QB's? Irish Illustrated: Defensive coordinator Todd Orlando’s intended approach seems out of sort with USC’s statistical weaknesses (lack of TFL, havoc rate, etc.). What’s the story of the Trojans 2021 defense to date and can they improve? It also seems a tad askew that they’re solid on third down but poor on first down? RA: I thought the USC defense would be much improved this season and it has actually been quite the opposite. The defense has been terrible, like legitimately horrible. Those three blowout losses were high water marks in points for USC’s opponents, all in the Coliseum. The three Notre Dame QBs should be lobbying for the start on Saturday because they will likely have a great shot at some big numbers. It starts up front where USC’s lacked the size on the interior of the defensive line. It has resulted in a lack of pressure and lack of sacks, with the Trojans not bringing the quarterback down in the backfield in half of its games so far. But they have had a lack of production from the linebackers and the secondary has been pretty bad in most of the games. My feeling is that with the defense and likely the rest of the team, once Helton was fired and the team was blown out a couple more times, guys would be playing for themselves and coaches would be coaching for themselves and they wouldn’t be doing that together as a true team.
Big recruiting weekend for the Irish. Including hosting the #1 rated 5 star QB, Walker Howard, who is currently an LSU verbal. We already have a QB in this class who is very good but not an elite level QB as far as recruiting goes in Steve Angeli from New Jersey who is a 4 star #15 rated QB. He's been committed to the Irish for quite awhile, hard to imagine he'll be very happy if somehow Howard decides to flip on LSU due to the unsettled coaching situation. But it would be hard to turn down a #1 QB, that is one thing all the "elite" programs have going now, they have 5 star QB's like Bryce Young, JT Daniels, CJ Stroud, and last year with Justin Fields. Of course Mac Jones who had about as good a year as any QB was not a highly rated 5 star kid, nor was Joe Burrow. Also that Guard, Billy Schrauth, from Wisconsin will be at the game. He's a much needed OL, hopefully he'll sign with us in Dec and it'd be nice if he gave us a verbal sometime real soon!
It really shows you how hard it is play big time football beyond high school. This kid led his undefeated team to a state title in Virginia (?) and threw like 37 TD passes against 1 Int.
My nephew was 52-2 as a starter in HS as a QB, won 4 state HS championships...best he could do is he is now a walk-on at QB for Oklahoma.
The all 105 ND football players got a NIL deal with a company called Iknoick who sells artwork online. I don't think any of them will be making big bucks out of this deal, but a few bucks in their pockets I'm sure will be appreciated. The deal, in principle, is simple. Ikonick allowed Notre Dame players to pick out one piece of art and in return, the student-athletes posted it on Social Media with a discount code. The participating players will then get compensation from the promotion. "He reached out to his team to see if they liked the product, and we got the green light the same day." said Mastrandrea. "The website has over 1,000 pieces, so we wanted the athletes to choose the one that resonated with them most." Canvas Art: Motivational, Inspirational & Modern Canvas Art - Ikonick
An interesting review of the Kyren Williams TD run vs Va.Tech by Brian Kelly on his coaches show. It was a great run by Kyren, showed grit and determination to reach the endzone. But a different view showed that there was an easier path going the other direction.
Yeah it was a pretty good first half, but I couldn't believe we had to settle for a FG on Bauer's interception return to the 4. Also came up empty on the opening drive with the missed FG, which looked to me like a poor snap made it hard for the holder. I am concerned that USC moved the ball and the RB, Ingram who transferring from Texas is making yards after contact. Not to mention that Drake London seems almost unstoppable. But 17 - 3 at half is hard to complain about, but the offense needs to do more and the defense has to come up with an answer to London and do better stopping the run.
USC scores again, way too easily. It's almost automatic that quick throw to the sideline for London, he's a tough runner after the catch.
Offense got that needed score and then the defense really came up big in the last series. Nice win for the Irish.
God I love beating usc! The exclamation at the end of the game was the Foskey sack rolling Slovis on his ass and Brown taking the ball on the fumble!