The Trojans are Coming

#25 Irish Host #6 USC on Saturday

It is here. The game every Notre Dame fan has been drooling about since the season started. However, most people thought this was going to be a battle of undefeated top ten teams but Michigan and Tate Forcier ended that hope in the second week of the season while Pete Carroll’s protégé Steve Sarkisian got the best of his former boss in week 3. Nonetheless, there is a buzz on the campus of Notre Dame and there is belief that the Irish can bring home the big upset of the Trojans.

Taking a look at the offense, we know that Jimmy Clausen will get the Irish on the board but Notre Dame has never played a defense anywhere close to the talent that the Trojans have. If Michael Floyd was healthy this game would be completely different but #3 is out. That will allow the Trojans to place all their attention on Golden Tate. Robby Parris, Shaq Evans, and Kyle Rudolph need to make some big plays to keep the pressure off Tate. The USC defense is very talented and insanely fast. It all starts with their safety Taylor Mays. Mays who stands at 6’3’’ and weighs 230 pounds, is not your typical safety. Mays is 2 nd on the team with 28 tackles and has 1 interception. Clausen needs to be aware of Mays at all times and always know where he is in that secondary.

Switching to the defense, it’s all about if they can stop the USC offense something they have not been able to do very well since 2001, the last time the Irish beat the Trojans. USC has averaged 40.5 points a game against the Irish since that last ND victory in ’01 and the lowest of those games was a 34-point effort in ’05. The Irish need to hope they can put pressure on their freshman QB Matt Barkley and force him to make ‘freshman’ mistakes. Jon Tenuta and Corwin Brown need to come with a scheme that surprises the Trojans.

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Breaking Down the Trojans

QB- Freshman Matt Barkley: 63-107, 958 yds, 3 TD 2 INT

RB- Jr. Joe McKnight: 67 car. 473 yds, 7.1 ypg, long of 54, 6 TD, 11 rec. 93 yds

WR- Sr. Damian Williams: 24 rec. 359 yds, 1 TD

Defense: 2nd in the Nation in Sacks (21), 4 th in the Nation in Points Allowed per game (8.6), 6 th in the Nation in Yards per game (238.6)

When taking a look at these Stats, especially the defensive ones, something has to give. Jimmy Clausen is tops in the nation with a quarterback rating of 179.3. The USC pass defense is a lot more vulnerable that the rush defense but they know how to get pressure on the quarterback. For Jimmy and the Irish to be successful they need to complete a lot of quick pass patterns and find ways to keep the Trojans off balance. Can the Irish run on USC? If you remember back to the ’05 game, ND used Darius Walker and Travis Thomas equally to keep the Trojans off balance. With Robert Hughes running well against Purdue and Washington (69 ypg) this gives the Irish a good thunder and lightning balance with Armando Allen and Hughes.

If the Irish find a way to win on Saturday, Jimmy Clausen should be on the fast track to the Heisman and ND will have all but sewn up a BCS bowl (as long as they win out). That being said the Irish are going to have their hands full with the Trojans and there is no doubt this game will be more competitive than years past but I see USC winning by two touchdowns.

Irish Notes: Good News from the Michael Floyd front. Floyd was in pads this week running at practice but was not allowed to catch balls. Coach Weis said Floyd is ahead of schedule and keeping fingers crossed, Floyd could be back by the Pittsburgh on Nov. 14. On the recruiting front, there will be 18 players on their official visits while a handful of juniors are taking unofficial visits. The biggest name is the #1 player in the nation, Seantrel Henderson, a 6’8’’ 301 pound offensive tackle from Cretin Derham Hall in St. Paul, MN. If that school sounds familiar it should, it is where Michael Floyd went and hopefully he can work his magic on Henderson because he could start from day 1 at Notre Dame. The atmosphere will be electric for this game and hopefully it can sway a handful of them to come to ND in the fall and with an Irish win, who knows how many will come. Go Irish.

By Tim Murray
CollegeSports-fans.com Guest Writer