Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1529781
GAME PREVIEW: USC 38 NOV. 30, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED their stats all season, and still are to a degree, but Love nudged his nose out in front with the best performance of his career against Virginia — 16 carries for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns. With that, he paced Notre Dame with 114 carries for 720 yards and 12 touchdowns through Week 12. He was one of five players in the FBS to score at least one touchdown in every game he had played in at that point. And yet, his quarterback did him one better in the scoring department with 13 rushing scores in 10 games. With two more, Leonard would have the all-time Notre Dame record for rushing touch- downs by a quarterback in a single season. Bran- don Wimbush set the record of 14 in 2017. It's Love. It's Leonard. It's Price. It's all too much for the nation's No. 50 rushing defense to stop. Six of Notre Dame's first nine opponents were even worse than USC at stopping the run in terms of yards allowed per game, with the Trojans giving up 132.0 per game through 10 games, but that's a number the Irish should be able to go over with all of their weapons. Advantage: Notre Dame NOTRE DAME PASSING GAME VS. USC PASS DEFENSE In the College Football Playoff era it's a common exercise for fans to compare what their team has in a certain area against others. Notre Dame fans, for instance, do not believe Penn State has a very capable offense. Irish fans would love for the Nit- tany Lions to go up against Al Golden's unit. Well, what about when they went up against USC? They gouged the Trojans through the air for 400 passing yards. Then Maryland hit USC with 373 through the air the next week. Even Rutgers had success throwing the ball against USC with 313 passing yards the week after that. Notre Dame did not throw for 300-plus yards in any of its first 10 games. Heck, 248 was the high-water mark in that span. The Irish sat 98th in passing yards per game through Week 12, even worse than USC's 87th place in passing yards al- lowed per game. But the Irish have still been efficient in averaging at least 7.0 yards per pass six times in 10 games and at least 8.0 yards per throw four times. This isn't a Notre Dame team that's going to throw the Offense Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. WR-X 10 Kyron Hudson 6-1 205 R-Jr. or 2 Duce Robinson 6-6 220 So. WR-H 1 Zachariah Branch 5-10 175 So. 9 Jay Fair 5-10 185 Jr. WR 8 Ja'Kobi Lane 6-4 195 So. or 81 Kyle Ford 6-1 225 R-Sr. WR-Y 6 Makai Lemon 5-11 190 So. 44 Josiah Zamora 5-8 180 R-Jr. WR-Z 8 Ja'Kobi Lane 6-4 195 So. or 81 Kyle Ford 6-1 225 R-Sr. LT 72 Elijah Paige 6-7 320 R-Fr. 59 Micah Banuelos 6-2 310 R-Fr. LG 70 Emmanuel Pregnon 6-5 320 R-Sr. 66 Gino Quinones 6-3 302 R-Sr. C 79 Jonah Monheim 6-5 310 R-Sr. 67 Kilian O'Connor 6-1 291 Jr. RG 77 Alani Noa 6-4 335 So. 75 Amos Talalele 6-4 340 R-Fr. RT 76 Mason Murphy 6-5 315 R-Jr. 73 Tobias Raymond 6-7 315 R-Fr. TE 87 Lake McRee 6-4 250 R-Jr. 88 Kade Eldridge 6-4 250 R-Fr. QB 14 Jayden Maiava 6-4 220 R-So. 7 Miller Moss 6-2 205 R-Jr. RB 4 Woody Marks 5-10 208 R-Sr. 0 Quinten Joyner 5-11 216 R-Fr. Defense Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. DE 34 Braylan Shelby 6-5 265 So. 58 Solomon Tuliaupupu 6-3 247 R-Sr. NT 91 Gavin Meyer 6-3 290 R-Sr. 97 Jide Abasiri 6-5 290 Fr. DT 98 Devan Thompkins 6-5 285 R-So. 99 Nate Clifton 6-4 295 R-Sr. DE 44 Sam Greene 6-1 255 R-Fr. 10 Jamil Muhammad 6-1 260 R-Sr. Mike 4 Easton Mascarenas-Arnold 6-0 231 Sr. 23 Desman Stephens II 6-3 233 Fr. Will 13 Mason Cobb 6-0 230 R-Sr. 57 Roman Marchetti 6-2 217 R-So. NB 21 Greedy Vance Jr. 5-11 170 R-Sr. 16 Prophet Brown 5-11 190 R-Jr. CB 14 Jacobe Covington 6-2 200 R-Sr. 19 John Humphrey 6-2 196 R-Sr. S 0 Akili Arnold 6-0 200 R-Sr. 27 Bryson Shaw 6-0 190 R-Sr. S 7 Kamari Ramsey 6-0 204 R-So. 8 Zion Branch 6-2 210 R-So. or 24 Christian Pierce 6-1 195 So. CB 2 Jaylin Smith 5-11 190 Sr. 17 DeCarlos Nicholson 6-3 195 R-Sr. Special Teams Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. P 16 Eddie Czaplicki 6-1 207 Sr. 48 Ryon Sayeri 5-11 180 Fr. K 96 Michael Lantz 5-11 190 R-Sr. 46 Denis Lynch 5-8 185 R-Jr. KO 96 Michael Lantz 5-11 190 R-Sr. 46 Denis Lynch 5-8 185 R-Jr. LS 31 Hank Pepper 6-1 215 R-Jr. 47 Devin McDonough 6-1 225 Jr. H 16 Eddie Czaplicki 6-1 207 Sr. PR 1 Zachariah Branch 5-10 175 So. 6 Makai Lemon 5-11 190 So. KR 1 Zachariah Branch 5-10 175 So. 6 Makai Lemon 5-11 190 So. USC TROJANS TWO-DEEP DEPTH CHART Through 10 contests, senior linebacker Easton Mascarenas-Arnold had compiled a team-high 82 tackles with 4 stops for loss, 2 sacks and 2 interceptions. PHOTO COURTESY USC ATHLETICS