Notre Dame football: Ranking the Irish's 2021 schedule game-by-game

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SOUTH BEND, IN – OCTOBER 12: Cole Kmet #84 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish gets tripped up after catching a pass against Kana’i Mauga #26 of the USC Trojans in the second half of the game at Notre Dame Stadium on October 12, 2019, in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame defeated USC 30-27. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Notre Dame football: Ranking the Irish’s 2021 schedule by entertainment value

No. 3: USC, Week 8

Oh, Clay Helton is still at USC? That’s unfortunate for them. Of course, that also means it’s good for Notre Dame. Though it would have been fun to make Helton play Alabama and Notre Dame to bookend their schedule, hopefully getting him fired, that wasn’t to be because of the pandemic.

Now, Notre Dame football gets to host the Trojans in the middle of the season, and there is an upswell of hope in L.A.

Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised. USC has an above-average quarterback in Kedon Slovis. So, it’s high time we all pretend that USC is going to compete at a high level. The truth is that USC is always going to have great athletes. That’s not a surprise. They’re just not well-coached enough to consistently win.

Clearly, just as USC quarterbacks are always pushed as the next great draft prospect, we aren’t going to see any change in how they’re treated.

This is a great rivalry, and clearly Notre Dame’s biggest. That means that it’s always going to be one of the biggest games of the year. USC might be a borderline top-25 team to some people, but whether one team is elite and the other is terrible, or they’re both great, this is always going to be a must-watch game.

Notre Dame leads the all-time series 47-36-5. They last met in 2019, when the Irish won 30-27.

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