Why Notre Dame Should Be Nervous About Their Matchup With USC

Despite being an 11-point favorite against rival USC, Notre Dame has to be concerned about their matchup with the Trojans.

The USC Trojans into their matchup against Notre Dame having lost two of their five games on the season. However, they have flirted the top 25 rankings this year, a testament to the ability of this young Trojan team. Regardless of their record and the fact that USC is unranked, Notre Dame must be extremely cautious to not overlook the Trojans.

USC boasts as much talent at the wide receiver as any college football team in the nation not named Alabama.

Senior Michael Pittman Jr. is both the emotional leader as well as the receiving yards leader of this illustrious receiving corps. On the season, Pittman Jr. has 35 receptions for 501 yards and four receiving touchdowns. Junior Tyler Vaughns is second on the team with 31 receptions for 414 yards and two receiving touchdowns. Amon-Ra St. Brown, a former five star recruit, sophomore and brother of former Irish wide receiving standout Equanimeous St. Brown, is an athletic freak that rounds out the starting three wide receivers for the Trojans.

USC thought that preseason Davey O’Brien watchlist candidate JT Daniels would be the man under center slinging the football to this elite group of receivers. Instead, after a knee injury ended Daniels’ season, the Trojans have had a virtual quarterback carousel, starting freshman quarterback Kedon Slovis until he suffered a concussion, then turning to junior Matt Fink in his absence, before going back to Slovis to start against the Irish this weekend.

The lack of continuity with any one quarterback has certainly hindered the explosiveness of this talented group, but the Irish, who are lacking the playmaking capabilities and leadership of Shaun Crawford, must be cognizant of this extremely talented group or they can swing the pendulum in favor of USC very quickly.

While their record doesn’t necessarily reflect it, the Trojans of USC are loaded with elite talent on their roster. USC ranks fourth in the nation behind only Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia in terms of talent recruit level. The Trojans boast six five-star recruits, 41 four-star recruits and 31 three-star recruits.

USC has a lot of underclassmen playing prominent roles on this team, with 18 of them currently being featured in starting roles. Experience is more of a concern than talent for USC. While the Irish certainly have a major advantage in experience amongst their starters, they cannot discount the young talent of the Trojans.

When it comes to rivalry games, records and statistics can often be thrown out the window. This will be the 91st time that these two storied franchises will meet on the gridiron. The good news is that the Irish have won seven of the last ten games against USC when Notre Dame was ranked and the Trojans were not. That said, there are still three occasions where the Irish were unsuccessful against their California rivals, while they were ranked and the Trojans were not.

It is imperative that Notre Dame does not take USC lightly with the amount of talent that they have on their roster. Luckily, the Irish were gifted with some bulletin board material, courtesy of Michael Pittman Jr. to give them added incentive to stay focused on their opponent, when Pittman Jr. told Los Angeles Times reporter Ryan Kartje that he gave his younger teammates advice on playing Notre Dame by stating “I told them to embrace the suck. It’s going to be cold. But it’ll be fun when we’re running up the score”.

Undoubtedly, Brian Kelly will have his team ready to maintain their possession of the Jeweled Shillelagh.