USC comes into Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday night, sporting the nation’s 109th-ranked total defense and just having surrendered 505 total yards and five passing TDs Saturday night at home to an Arizona offense powered by a 5-foot-9, 175-pound backup quarterback.
And, as an added bonus, the Trojans continued their slide down the polls while concocting a 6-0 record.
Now-10th-ranked USC still had a much better weekend — with its 43-41 triple-overtime survival of Noah Fifita and the unranked Wildcats (3-3) and one-spot poll drop — than their next opponent, the now 21st-ranked Irish (5-2).
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After a 33-20 road thumping from Louisville Saturday, the Irish fell to that position Sunday from No. 10 in the Associated Press writers poll and No. 11 in the Coaches poll. Notre Dame slipped completely out of the FWAA-NFF Super 16, though the Irish and UCLA share the status of top vote-getters among unranked teams, so technically a tie for 17th.
Not even former Irish coach Lou Holtz included ND on his Super 16 ballot, though he was impressed enough with the Cardinals that he ranked them fifth.
Louisville (6-0) was 13th in the Super 16, 14th in the AP poll and 15th in the Coaches poll.
Among other ND opponents in the AP poll, Ohio State is third and Duke 17th.
USC completes Notre Dame’s run of four straight top 25 opponents, a first for the Irish since 2000 and the sixth time in the AP poll era (1936-present), and the unprecedented run of four straight Irish night games.
Kickoff is 7:30 EDT on NBC/Peacock.
Offset by reigning Heisman Trophy winner and national leader in pass efficiency, quarterback Caleb Williams, USC is equally inept on defense against the run (89th out of 130 FBS teams) and the pass (89th in team pass efficiency). The Trojans are even worse in the red zone (120th).
What they are good at defensively is making tackles behind the line of scrimmage, ranking No. 1 nationally in tackles for loss and No. 5 in sacks per game, a tough matchup for a disheveled Notre Dame offensive line that gave up a season-high five sacks at Louisville, had an indirect hand in a season-high five turnovers and helped produce a season-low 298 total yards.
“We’ve got to take ownership as a coaching staff, and as the head coach first,” Notre Dame second-year coach Marcus Freeman said on Saturday night. “Our guys weren’t prepared for whatever reason. We've got to take a deep dive and figure out what it was.”
FWAA-NFF Super 16 poll
AP and Coaches polls
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