Notre Dame Football Schedule 2024: 5 Things to Know About USC, Early Prediction
Who knows what the world will look like on November 30th, but in the College Football Playoff race, this might mean everything to a whole lot of teams.
More on that in a moment, but it's the regular season finale for both programs that are coming into the season planning on being in the final 12 of the CFP rankings, and this game will go a long way to figuring out something.
Maybe.
At the very least it's USC vs Notre Dame, it's always going to be one of the biggest games of the college football season, and it takes on another twist this time around with the Big Ten angle.
What are five things Notre Dame fans have to know about USC? Or, more like what are five things to keep an eye on with the Trojans as the season rolls on?
5. Don't turn the ball over against this bunch
The 2022 USC defenses was awful. Bad in all phases, easy to move the ball against ... awful. But there was one key saving grace in all of that - it came up with a ton of takeaways.
The D generated 29 on the season and went 7-0 when coming up with two or more. Last year's defense was awful, too, but it only came up with 16 takeaways. USC went 4-0 when forcing two or more, and was 6-2 when at least coming up with one.
Notre Dame was +5 in turnover margin in last season's win. With that in mind ...
4. Will USC ever have a defense again?
It's not for a lack of trying. USC was 116th in total D last year and it's continuing to throw parts from the transfer portal at the problem. The talent is good, new coordinator D'Anton Lynn should be a plus, and overall this group should be a wee bit better.
This won't be a rock of a D, though. The Irish offense shouldn't have a problem unless something radically changes. USC's D won't be Georgia overnight.
3. Will Miller Moss REALLY be the USC QB?
It's a insane lineage of starting quarterbacks under Lincoln Riley going back to his Oklahoma coaching days.
Baker, to Kyler, to Jalen - that you don't need the last names tells you something - to Spencer Rattler - to Caleb. Miller Moss isn't supposed to be at that level, but UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava might be. It will be very, very interesting to see where the USC offense is at this point in the season, but no matter what, the quarterback play will be great and ...
2. The offense will still work
It's Lincoln Riley, it's offensive coordinator Josh Henson, and it's USC. This offense will be good.
The numbers might not be quite as amazing, though. Caleb Williams really was special, and a lot of the offensive production came from having to make up for the problems and points allowed on the other side.
The O line will be among the most productive in the Big Ten - yeah, braincramped and had to edit that - the receivers are explosive, and at home, this should be a far different performance than the one the Trojans brought to South Bend last year.
The 308 yards produced in teh 48-20 loss were the fewest by far last season.
1. Who will need this game the most?
Trying to speculate the last game of a college football regular season is certainly fun.
What will the stakes be?
Will USC be in decent shape after the first Big Ten season? Will Lincoln Riley be on any sort of a hot seat?
We can project that you need not apply for the new world of the expanded College Football Playoff without at least ten wins, and USC will already have played LSU, at Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State, at Washington, and on through a BRUTAL schedule before finishing up with the Irish.
Texas A&M and Florida State are the major landmines for Notre Dame. 9-2 makes this game EVERYTHING for the Irish as the last chance to impress the CFP committee, 10-1 makes this a game to potentially lock down the No. 5 seed.
There's one other scenario that I'm sticking with ...
Notre Dame vs USC early summer prediction is ...
It's been the call since the schedules came out and there's no backtracking for the moment - although this could probably change in the final preseason predictions.
Notre Dame will have a dream season, will fight through the problems, the down moments, and all the other aspects of an 11-game run to get to this point to be 11-0.
And then it'll get caught
Yeah, yeah, yeah, every game matters, but 11-0 Notre Dame doesn't need this. It can't be in the top four in the CFP - conference champs only - and it should have the 5 seed locked up, at worst the 6. USC will need this far, far more, and it'll get it.
USC 34, Notre Dame 26
- USC 2024 Preview
5 Things To Know
- Aug 31: Texas A&M
- Sept 7: Northern Illinois
- Sept 14: Purdue
- Sept 21: Miami Univ.
- Sept 28: Louisville
- Oct 12: Stanford
- Oct 19: Georgia Tech
- Oct 26: Navy
- Nov 9: Florida State
- Nov. 16: Army
PETE FIUTAK