Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1509252
38 OCT. 14, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: USC BY JACK SOBLE USC RUNNING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME RUN DEFENSE Notre Dame features a respectable run defense (No. 44 in the country) with 3.5 yards per rush allowed, but USC is a different animal. Redshirt junior running back MarShawn Lloyd, a transfer from South Carolina, had the highest Pro Football Focus rushing grade in the country (minimum 50 attempts) through Week 5 at 91.5. His elusive- ness rating, which measures how difficult a run- ning back is to tackle, was third-best in the nation at 203.4. Entering Week 6, Lloyd averaged 8.3 yards per carry on 52 attempts, leading USC to the fourth-highest rushing average in the country at 6.3. It 's not just Lloyd, though. True freshman Quinten Joyner had 8.1 yards per carry on 14 attempts, while redshirt senior and incumbent starter Austin Jones entered Week 6 with a 7.4 average per carry. There's also junior quarterback Caleb Williams, and Notre Dame should remember from last season how dangerous a runner he can be when he needs to be. Tackling has been a concern for Notre Dame since Week 3 against Central Michigan, and the Irish threw up a massive red flag in Week 5 against Duke with a combined 16 missed tackles in Dur- ham, N.C. While he represents the run defense's strength right now, graduate student defensive tackle Howard Cross III tied graduate linebacker JD Bertrand for the team lead with 3 missed stops. Sophomore cornerback Benjamin Morrison and senior safety Xavier Watts had one apiece. That can't happen against the Trojans. Advantage: USC USC PASSING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME PASS DEFENSE Well, for Notre Dame fans hoping Williams would regress after his Heisman Trophy-winning sopho- more season, I have bad news. Williams leads the nation in yards per passing attempt (minimum 100 throws) through Week 5. Despite holding a three- touchdown lead in the third quarter or earlier in four out of its five games this season, USC is fourth in the FBS in passing yards per game with 382.4. The key to beating Notre Dame, which features an elite (No. 9 in opponent yards per attempt) pass defense led by star cornerbacks Morrison and graduate student Cam Hart, is bombarding the slot. Graduate student nickel cornerback Thomas Harper is a really good player, and he put up a fight against Ohio State star Emeka Egbuka, but he can't shut down an elite pass catcher one-on-one like Hart or Morrison can. Leading USC wide receiver Tahj Washington, who has 18 catches for 395 yards (21.9 yards per completion) this season, operates almost exclu- sively out of the slot. Because USC head coach Lincoln Riley operates a spread offense — not the air raid, because the Trojans still run the ball a ton, but they spread it out — productive comple- mentary wideouts Mario Williams and Zachariah Branch do the vast majority of their work in the slot as well. The Trojans are as bad a matchup for the Irish pass defense as a team can be. Advantage: USC NOTRE DAME RUNNING GAME VS. USC RUN DEFENSE The Notre Dame run game struggled against Duke, but that can be considered a bump in the road until proven otherwise. The Irish are the 15th- best team in the nation in yards per carry at 5.5, using a committee backfield led by Audric Estimé. The junior owns the No. 3 PFF offense grade in college football (minimum 50 attempts) at 90.3, and his elusiveness rating is a bit behind Lloyd's but still an elite 163.9. The Irish will stick with the run game, too. Even as Estimé and the rest of the team scuffled against the Blue Devils, they kept at it and eventually he broke one for 30 yards and the game-winning touchdown. Notre Dame knows what it wants its identity to be. It won't shy away from taking deep shots or scoring a lot of points, but everything it does stems from a multi-dimensional run game with Estimé at its center. USC's run defense has improved from last sea- son, jumping from 4.7 yards per carry against to 4.0, but 1) the Trojans have not faced a good rush- ing team yet, and 2) that 4.0 mark is still in the bot- tom half of the country. Like most Riley-led teams, USC struggles with tackling, missing 59 through five games this season. Notre Dame had 60 misses but through one additional matchup. The Irish will run the ball well against the Trojans. Advantage: Notre Dame On PaPer Redshirt junior MarShawn Lloyd, a transfer from South Carolina, leads the way for USC's potent ground attack with 433 yards rushing and 3 touchdowns. PHOTO COURTESY USC ATHLETICS