SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame linebacker JD Betrand offered shortly after Notre Dame’s 48-20 defrocking of USC on Saturday night that freshman scout team quarterback Kenny Minchey had done such a good job during practices of emulating USC’s Caleb Williams, his teammates unofficially changed Minchey’s name.
To Kenny Williams.
“The scout team did an unbelievable job,” said Bertrand, who did an unbelievable job of sorts on game night with a game-high 11 tackles while on the sideline for only two of the 80 defensive snaps.
“We say that every week, but they really took it personal this week. Kenny did awesome. He just extended every play. So, whether he got sacked or not, he was still extending the play and making sure that in the back end we were finishing. Those boys did an unbelievable job.”
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And then the Irish defense Saturday night at Notre Dame Stadium sacked the real Caleb Williams six times and pressured him into a career-high three interceptions among USC’s five turnovers in the most lopsided Top 10 victory by an ND team in 28 years.
It was the second time in five tries a Notre Dame team had taken down a reigning Heisman Trophy winner, with the other win coming against Navy's Roger Staubach in 1964. The losses were heartbreakers, to USC's Matt Leinart in the 2005 Bush Push Game and Florida State's Jameis Winston in 2014. The Irish deadlocked with Army and Doc Blanchard, 0-0, in 1946.
All of which seemed to confuse voters in the three major polls, a week after Notre Dame’s 33-20 loss at Louisville, with the Cardinals then falling at Pitt, 38-21, on Saturday night.
The highest Irish poll position Sunday was No. 14 in the FWAA-NFF Super 16, a re-entry after falling out last week. Next was their No. 15 placement in the AP poll, a climb of six spots and a placement ahead of two teams they recently beat — Duke (16), USC (18) — and one they lost to, Louisville (21).
The coaches voted the Irish 18th, a modest jump of three spots. In that poll, Notre Dame trailed both USC (16) and Duke (17). Louisville was also No. 21 in the coaches poll.
Notre Dame (6-2) now not only gets to eat proverbial cheeseburgers (a reference from the Charlie Weis Era) during their bye week, they don’t have to go to class. It’s fall break at Notre Dame. The Irish return to action Oct. 28 at home against Pitt (2-4).
The first set of College Football Playoff rankings comes out three days later, on Halloween night. While the Irish are out of CFP contention, the CFP selection committee also assigns teams to the at-large slots in the New Year’s Six bowls. And Notre Dame would be very much in play should the Irish win out.
“We have great coaches and great players that believe,” Bertrand said of Notre Dame’s resounding bounce-back against the then-No. 10 Trojans (6-1). “I mean, it was just the next step forward. I think it showed how we could get better.
“Crazy thing is we can still get better from this game and we can take it a step up.”
FWAA-NFF Super 16 poll
AP and Coaches polls
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