Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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third win over USC in four years, saying that a decision won't be made until after the regular season. He expressed satisfaction from his performance and the unit's second-half shutout after the headline-grabbing week. "It's awesome," he said. "Winning is hard, and to get a win, especially against a rival, is awesome. "[The second half] was great. USC is a great team. A great, powerful team. They're our rival, so they're going to come in and play hard. To stop them was awesome. It was a great team effort, a great defensive effort as a whole." Notre Dame held USC to 121 second-half yards and repeatedly overcame adversity to avoid its second home loss in as many games. With 6:27 remaining in the fourth quarter, USC recovered junior running back Cam McDaniel's fumble and took over at the Irish 34-yard line. After a holding penalty, Kessler completed a 16-yard pass for a first down to reach the 21-yard line, but the Trojans went in reverse after that play. On fourth-and-20 from the 31, Tuitt eliminated any scoring chance with a sack of Kessler. "Thirty years from now I'm going to look in a frame and be like, 'I got that ball,' " Tuitt said of earning the game ball. "I'll just keep it and put it up somewhere." Kelly pointed to the stop as a critical moment in notching the tight victory. "We turn the ball over, and we just keep playing," he said. "Late in the game when most would succumb to that, it doesn't faze our group. They just keep playing and keep competing, and that's really what's special about this group. They just keep playing." Offensively, the Irish moved the ball effectively in the first half behind Rees. Notre Dame marched down the field with relative ease on its first drive and attempted to convert on fourth-andgoal from the USC 1-yard line before freshman safety Su'a Cravens halted McDaniel for a three-yard loss on the final play of the drive. The 12-play, 71yard march went for naught with the Trojans' goal-line denial of the Irish. Backed up at its own 4-yard line after the fourth-down stop, USC's offense rode the legs of senior running back Silas Redd — who missed the team's first five games of the season with a knee injury — on a 13-play, 96-yard drive for the opening touchdown. Redd gashed the Irish defense for 40 yards on six carries during the drive. However, after Redd's 14-carry, 91yard performance in the first half, he managed just 26 yards in the final two quarters. "Silas is a great player — it was everyone defending his gap," said freshman Dog linebacker Jaylon Smith, who recorded his first career interception, in the third quarter. "If I have to set the edge, I have to do my job. When everyone does their job, they're going to be successful." After a fast-paced first quarter in which the teams combined for 216 yards of total offense, USC settled for a field goal on its second possession of the second quarter. USC sophomore wide receiver Nelson Agholor displayed the speed that attracted Notre Dame to him during