Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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GAME PREVIEW: USC "I don't think there's any question that if you have fewer players it has an impact on you, especially in practice in terms of the number of scholarship players taking reps. In the game, they would tell you it's negligible." Through 10 games, the Trojans stood at 7-3 — not bad for a team playing shorthanded — but USC came ex- tremely close to beginning the season 9-1. On Oct. 4, Arizona State pulled off a 46-yard Hail Mary as time expired to top the Trojans 38-34. Three weeks later, Utah scored with six seconds left to hand the Trojans a heartbreaking 24-21 defeat. "They've been in some games and the games they have lost, except for the Boston College game, have come down to a couple key plays where players did not execute or were not prepared by the coaching staff to ex- ecute correctly," Klein said. Sarkisian has stabilized the program following a tumultuous finish to the Lane Kiffin era in Los Angeles. The pair coached together under Carroll so a lot of their X's and O's are the same, but Sarkisian has worked on creating a winning atmosphere. "He's just kind of instituted some of his own system and procedures," Klein said. "He has some elements of [the Carroll] style and era, but I think with his years up in Washington he's kind of added some of his own touches. Access to players has changed over the years. His rules and the way they control that end of things I think continues to become more restrictive. Just in terms of his dealing with the team and offense and philosophy, they seem to be a little bit different than Kif- fin's were. "On some levels they seem to be ad- justing well, and other areas it seems to be a work in progress." The Trojans owned the nation's No. 29 scoring offense (35.2 points per contest) through Nov. 15, led by Facts & Figures NOTRE DAME VS. USC Game Info Date: Nov. 29, 2014. Site: Los Angeles Coliseum (93,607). Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. Television: FOX. Radio: This broadcast can be heard live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (channel 129). Series Facts: This is the 85th meeting between Notre Dame and USC. The Irish lead the all-time series 43-34-5. Coaches: Notre Dame — Brian Kelly (44-19, fifth season); USC — Steve Sarkisian (41-33, sixth season, first at USC). Noting USC: The Trojans and Irish are two of only three teams in the Football Bowl Subdivi- sion that have never played a Football Cham- pionship Subdivision team in their respective histories, with UCLA being the other … At age 40, Sarkisian is currently the eighth-youngest head coach in college football … The Trojans returned 16 starters (eight on offense and eight on defense) from last year's squad … USC was one of six teams to play its first six games against teams that posted a winning record in 2013, a stretch during which it went 4-2 … After losing eight straight games in the series from 2002-09, the Irish have won three of four since Kelly took over in South Bend.