Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 23, 2021 37 GAME PREVIEW: USC Up front, junior defensive end Isaiah Foskey has been every bit as disruptive as advertised working off the edge. Foskey's five sacks through five games led the Irish, and he also had three quarterback hurries, with one forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Advantage: Notre Dame NOTRE DAME RUNNING GAME VS. USC RUN DEFENSE A problem clearly lingers when Notre Dame's 84-yard rushing outing against Cincinnati was the third-best performance in five games this season. Entering the Virginia Tech game, Notre Dame's poor offensive line play had dropped the Irish to No. 124 nationally in rushing offense (80.8 yards per game) out of 130 FBS teams, and their 2.4 yards per carry ranked fourth-worst in the country. Junior tailback Kyren Williams — a 2021 pre- season All-American on some lists — was averag- ing only 57.8 rushing yards per game after the Cincinnati loss, due in large part to an unsettled blocking unit that allows about nine tackles for loss per game. Through the first five games in 2020, Williams posted a 104.8-yard rushing average. Showing balanced tackling, USC had five play- ers record between 24 and 27 stops through five games. And with a team-best four tackles for loss, along with one forced fumble and a fumble recovery, junior linebacker Drake Jackson — an All-Pac-12 honoree each of the last two seasons — is the big- play leader of the Trojans rush defense. Redshirt junior safety Chase Williams and senior linebacker Kana'i Mauga have also played well and remain among USC's leaders in tackles. Replacing the production void of graduated safety Talanoa Hufanga — the 2020 Pac-12 De- fensive Player of the Year and a fifth-round NFL Draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers — remains a project in progress. USC ranks in the middle of the NCAA in rushing defense but almost dead last in the country in team tackles for loss. Advantage: USC NOTRE DAME PASSING GAME VS. USC PASS DEFENSE At the time this story was written, passing de- fense was a strength for USC while Notre Dame was still trying to settle its quarterback quagmire. Void of a rushing attack, Notre Dame has be- come more pass-reliant in 2021 than it has in any of the previous 11 full seasons under head coach Brian Kelly. Through five games, the Irish pass-to-rush play- call ratio was split at about 50/50, yet, Notre Dame's aerial attack posted more than three times as many yards than its ground game had (1,402 to 404). Sophomore tight end Michael Mayer continues to soldier through a nagging groin injury but still easily leads the Irish in receptions. In fact, heading into the Virginia Tech game, the All-America candi- date had 32 catches, which was more than twice as many as any other Irish pass catcher. Beyond Mayer, graduate student wide receiver Avery Davis has been a consistent and reliable target all season. Steady improvement is providing senior wideout Braden Lenzy increased targets and production, while senior wideout Kevin Austin, Jr., has recently seen his numbers slip, in part because of multiple dropped passes. USC's secondary is filled with NFL prospects, though the team statistics have yet to validate those projections. Redshirt senior safety Isaiah Pola-Mao is coming off a 40-tackle season in 2020 and had made 24 stops in four games played this season. Senior all-conference cornerback candidate Isaac Taylor-Stuart recorded 13 tackles through four games and was one of seven different Trojans with an interception. Junior outside linebacker Drake Jackson compiled 17 total stops, 4.0 tackles for loss and 3.0 sacks dur- ing USC's 3-2 start. PHOTO COURTESY USC ATHLETICS