Notre Dame football: USC not your typical unranked opponent for Irish
By Brad Weiss
The Notre Dame football team has dominated unranked opponents under Brian Kelly, but the USC Trojans are not your typical unranked team.
The Notre Dame football team will kick off the second half of their 2021 college football season with a 5-1 record, and are currently ranked No. 13 in the latest AP Poll. For many other programs, that would be an excellent start to the season, but this is Notre Dame, where the team is expected to make the College Football Playoff every season.
The problem is, the Irish have not looked like a top-5 team all season long, and their only loss was a bad one at home against No. 2 Cincinnati. That makes making the CFP a long haul for the Irish, but they can still have a tremendous season, as their final six games are all against unranked opponents.
If they can run the talent, and teams continue to get picked off from week to week, you never know how things will shape up at the end. All the Irish can do is punish these unranked teams, and it starts Saturday night against a hated rival in the USC Trojans.
Notre Dame football has dominated unranked opponents
The USC Trojans go into this game unranked, and when it comes to teams of that status, the Irish have been dominant. In fact, they go into this matchup with an FBS-best 36-game winning streak against unranked teams, a staggering number by any means.
The problem is, this is not your ordinary unranked team, as USC is loaded with five-star talent, and have the weapons to win this game outright. For Notre Dame football to beat the Trojans, they are going to need to stop the Air Raid passing attack led by quarterback Kedon Slovis, as they try to shut down the electric Drake London.
This is USC, so it is not like the Irish are trying to extend their incredible run against unranked opponents against a Toledo or Purdue. The Trojans will be coming for their first win against a Kelly-led Irish team for the first time since 2011, but they will need to be perfect to do so.