Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/94187
GAME PREVIEW: USC T.J. McDonald. He had a team-high 83 tackles and two interceptions through 10 games. The Trojans 18 interceptions as a team are the second most picks in the nation, one behind Fresno State. Dion Bailey, a 210-pound redshirt sophomore linebacker, leads the team with four interceptions from his spot in the flat. Advantage: USC SPECIAL TEAMS 11 field goal attempts, but his range appears to top out around 40 yards. Irish sophomore Kyle Brindza has a bigger leg but he missed six times in 23 at- tempts during his first nine games as a first-stringer. To Brindza's credit he has bounced back after each of his misses to make an important kick later in the same game. The return game is a lost cause for the Irish this USC kicker Andre Heidari made eight of his first average 9.2 yards per punt return as a unit. The threat to change a game on special teams belongs to the Trojans. Advantage: USC at creating distractions as Brian Kelly has been in deflecting them this season. Kiffin's antics, which include changing jersey numbers, have landed him in hot water when combined with an underachieving team of raw talent that was projected by many to finish No. 1 this season. Kelly has done the opposite. He managed to keep USC head coach Lane Kiffin has been as successful COACHING year. They rank 116th in punt runbacks (2.2 yards per return) and 84th in kickoff returns (19.9-yard average). Lee, who returned one kick for a 100-yard touchdown this season, and Agholor are threats to score on each kickoff that doesn't reach the back of the end zone. USC's trio of punt returners, Woods and cornerbacks Nickell Roby and Anthony Brown, Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Sept. 1 vs. Navy* (CBS) Sept. 8 Purdue (NBC) Oct. 13 Stanford (NBC) vs. Miami^ (NBC) 2012 NOTRE DAME SCHEDULE W, 50-10 Sept. 15 at Michigan State (ABC) W, 20-3 Sept. 22 Michigan (NBC) Oct. 6 W, 20-17 W, 13-6 Nov. 3 Pittsburgh (NBC) W, 29-26 (3OT) Nov. 10 at Boston College (ABC) W, 21-6 Nov. 17 Wake Forest (NBC) Nov. 24 at USC (ABC) Oct. 20 Brigham Young (NBC) W, 17-14 Oct. 27 at Oklahoma (ABC) W, 20-13 (OT) W, 30-13 W, 41-3 W, 38-0 8 p.m. * at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland; ^ at Soldier Field in Chicago his team focused on the "one week at a time" man- tra despite trying to fill several holes in the Notre Dame lineup. Kiffin and his staff outcoached the Irish in South Bend last season, but Kelly has shown more growth in his third year and Kiffin appears to be going backward. Advantage: Notre Dame INTANGIBLES on the line for Notre Dame. USC already knows its fate for the Pac-12 Championship, which will decide whether or not they play in a BCS game. Kelly and his team have already won once in Los Angeles, where distractions have overrun Southern Cal's season and robbed it of its promise. In two road games against top-10 opponents A chance for a national championship ticket is (Michigan State and Oklahoma), the Irish have won by double digits. They should enter the Coliseum confident in their ability to do the same against USC. Advantage: Notre Dame PREDICTIONS Lou Somogyi: Notre Dame 23, USC 17 Jason Sapp: Notre Dame 20, USC 17 Wes Morgan: Notre Dame 27, USC 24 Dan Murphy: USC 27, Notre Dame 21