Notre Dame football: Will Irish continue dominance over USC in 2021?
Notre Dame football: Will Irish continue dominance over USC in 2021?
Bottom Line on the Trojans
If there is one thing that you can always say about USC, it’s that they’re talented. Even when Alabama and Clemson are taking the best quarterbacks out of California, the Trojans are putting a talented team on the field. Kedon Slovis is a great quarterback and he has weapons to work with.
The question on offense is if they’re going to be balanced enough and if the offensive line will tighten up. On defense, it’s going to be almost impossible to throw into them, but can the talented but raw front seven create issues at the line of scrimmage.
The most pressing question for USC is always going to be Clay Helton, though. Can he recruit at a high enough level? How is his player development? Is he going to get out schemed by every good coach he faces?
So far all signs point to USC eventually needing to move on from Helton to get back to where they want to be. Still, a relatively easy schedule in 2021 might save his job for another year.
Too Early prediction
Given how the schedule breaks for USC, they could very well be unbeaten when they come to South Bend off a bye week. So, it’s a good thing Notre Dame football gets a bye week beforehand and is hosting their biggest rival. Ultimately, this game is going to come down to a couple of key plays, turnovers, and who the better coach is.
Brian Kelly is the better coach, and Notre Dame is much better on the line of scrimmage and running games.
After that, there could be issues. Kyle Hamilton can’t be everywhere at once, so someone in the secondary needs to step up to stop Slovis. Jack Coan is also going to have a hard time throwing into this secondary, especially if the Irish fall behind. Still, Notre Dame is the better all-around team. They’ve been there before, and they rarely lose at home.
Notre Dame 28 USC 24