Notre Dame has four remaining home games, and the next two are against opponents that started the season ranked in the top 15 of the Associated Press Poll.
Those foes, USC and North Carolina, have not nearly lived up to their preseason hype.
The Trojans enter Notre Dame Stadium this season having fired head coach Clay Helton after two games and bouncing around to a 3-3 record with two of the wins and two of the losses coming under interim head coach Donte Williams' control.
The Tar Heels were upset by the same Virginia Tech team Notre Dame beat two weeks ago in their season opener. They've stumbled to a 4-3 overall record going into their bye week.
These two matchups, both of which are in prime time at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, won't be the ranked games with potential playoff implications many thought they'd be two months ago. USC and UNC are both still talented and dangerous if they're able to put it all together, though.
So which team poses the biggest threat to knocking off No. 13 Notre Dame (5-1) in the next two weeks? BlueandGold.com's Tyler Horka and Todd Burlage debate that topic below.
Tyler Horka: Don’t Overlook The Up-And-Down Tar Heels
At the beginning of the season, there were two games on the Notre Dame schedule Irish fans should have been particularly worried about — Cincinnati and North Carolina. The former lived up to the billing. The Bearcats beat the Irish at Notre Dame Stadium and did so rather dominantly, especially in the first half.
Meanwhile, North Carolina does not seem nearly as formidable as it once did. The Tar Heels have fallen victim to the same issue that has haunted Notre Dame this season: an offensive line seemingly incapable of keeping its quarterback upright.
Junior Sam Howell still managed to throw for 1,851 and 18 touchdowns and just six interceptions through UNC’s first six games. Senior running back Ty Chandler ran for 588 yards and seven touchdowns during that span as well.
Much like Notre Dame, if the North Carolina offensive line ever puts it all together then the Tar Heels could be a totally different team. Of course, the defense has to play better too. That group just gave up 42 points in a three-point win over Miami. Both of those things could very well happen on Oct. 30, though.
The Irish go into that matchup one week after the emotionally draining experience that comes with playing against USC. The Tar Heels will head to Notre Dame Stadium fresh off a bye week, just as Cincinnati did. Everyone knows how that turned out.
The season hasn’t played out the way UNC head coach Mack Brown wanted or expected it to, but there is still time to salvage it, and beating Notre Dame on the road would go a long way in doing that.
Todd Burlage: USC is still a threat
USC has underachieved so far this season. Just ask Clay Helton.
Ranked No. 15 in the Associated Press preseason top 25, the Trojans were picked to win the Pac-12 South Division and play Oregon in the conference championship game. Instead, USC was upset at home by Stanford in the second game and Helton was fired.
But Helton’s dismissal wasn’t because of a talent shortage, not hardly.
Interim head coach Donte Williams inherited a roster full of future NFL players, and that list starts with quarterback Kedon Slovis, a first-team All-Pac-12 selection in 2020 after he threw for nearly 2,000 yards and 17 touchdowns in a pandemic-shortened six-game season.
Now in his third year as a starter, Slovis — a certain first-round 2022 NFL Draft pick — led the Trojans to the 2020 Pac-12 championship game, his offense to 33.4 points a game and himself to some 2021 Heisman Trophy projections.
Slovis is the real deal and has plenty of playmakers around him, most notably junior wide receiver Drake London, who enters this week's game against Notre Dame second in the nation with 138.7 receiving yards per game and second with 10.7 receptions per game.
Brian Kelly is 7-3 against USC as Notre Dame’s head coach but four of those wins came by seven points or fewer.
Kelly will be favored to win his fourth straight in this series, but the firepower USC features on offense and the fresh start Helton’s dismissal brought to the team make this a dangerous game for the Irish.
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