Sometimes it can feel to Notre Dame fans like USC goes out of its way to embarrass itself. It's hard to fight that reputation off when the school’s social media team tried to jump on the Odyssey movie bandwagon and did so in the most hilariously historically illiterate way possible.
In celebration of The Odyssey's release in theaters earlier this week, USC sent out a post on social media that has them getting roasted by everyone, including Fighting Irish fans. The post showed one of the helmets made famous by the film and the message, “Our Odyssey begins August 29.”
The problem with the post is that USC’s mascot is the Trojans. For those who might not have seen the movie or read The Odyssey, the story is primarily about Odysseus's return home after his forces won the Trojan War. They won it in the most brutal way possible, by sneaking their forces into Troy using a wooden horse disguised as a gift. When the city had gone to sleep, they snuck out of the horse and slaughtered the Trojans.
Does anyone who works on the Notre Dame rivals’ social media team know they just signaled that they’re essentially saying they’re all going to get crushed on August 29? Certainly, it's tempting to play into the hype of the movie, knowing how big and popular it is.
Our Odyssey begins August 29 ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/Y0i2wYdfh2
— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) July 17, 2026
USC Odyssey post gets roasted by Notre Dame fans over Trojan War irony
Still, there is no school that should stay away from reminding people they lost, and lost badly. Not when Lincoln Riley isn’t jam-packed with supporters and believers to begin with.
“You guys do know what happened to the Trojans yeah?” one follower wrote.
“Clearly USC is not teaching history.....” another posted.
“I’m not one to engage in negative recruiting, but if academics matter as much as football, there’s always the ☘️” yet another Notre Dame fan wrote.
The comments went on and on, and it appears that USC either can’t or won’t take the post down despite the bodying they’re taking from the comments.
All this goes to show that maybe it’s good Notre Dame has had to distance itself from USC. The Trojans seem to want to make themselves a joke on social media, and the Irish have had their way with them on the field. Maybe it’s time for Marcus Freeman and Co. to just take Texas Tech up on its offer to start putting them on the schedule. Or better yet, they stay away from that mess and keep someone like BYU around instead of USC.
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