Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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first trip to the hostile Coliseum. "After that missed field goal some fans were heckling me," Brindza said. "My team- mates were there to pick me up. They have confidence in me, and I have confidence in myself. They helped me pull through, and then I helped them pull through." Such has been the you just need to look at Theo Riddick," Kelly said. "He broke count- less tackles and got us the tough yards that we needed today. You just look at his jersey after the game, and there's no wonder why this team has the toughness it does." USC responded to order of operation for Notre Dame this year — a team that found ways to pull each other to wins on a weekly basis. No one on offense carried more weight in the final win than senior running back Theo Riddick. Riddick set up Brind- za's final kick with runs of 20 and 14 yards that both looked doomed to be losses at the start. He carried 20 times against the Trojans, spinning and churning his way to 146 hard-earned yards. His nine-yard draw and dive through the middle of the USC defense gave Notre Dame its only touchdown of the game and a 10-0 lead midway through the first quar- ter. "If you want to know about the Fighting Irish, successfully until his late bomb to Lee in the fourth quarter, which set up a dramatic goal-line stand for the Irish. The loss stripped Riddick's score by rid- ing its own offensive workhorse to its sole touchdown of the game. Junior wide receiver Robert Woods made three catches on the drive that followed, in- cluding an 11-yard re- ception in the middle of the end zone on the first play of the second quarter. Woods torched the Irish in South Bend a year ago and led his team again with seven catches for 92 yards and a score. Wittek, despite his two turnovers, played fear- lessly against a team that came into the game with the top-ranked scoring defense in the nation. He completed 14 of 23 passes for 186 yards and took two sacks. He tested the Notre Dame defensive backs with deep balls early and of- ten, but never connected USC and Kiffin of its last chance to salvage a stormy season in Southern California. A program bursting with talent that right- fully started the season as the No. 1 team in the country and a favorite to win a national cham- pionship fell to 7-5 with the loss. Instead, Notre Dame switched places with the Trojans. The Irish were sup- posed to be the team an- swering questions about hot seats and disap- pointing 7-5 records on this night. They certainly weren't supposed to be clinching a seat in the fi- nal game of the year and storming the Trojans' field to celebrate as the last seconds ticked away. "It's easy to say I'm surprised," Kelly said. "But when you go in that locker room and you're around the guys that I'm around, you're not sur- prised. With the commit- ment that they've made, they've done everything I asked them to do. Ev- erything." ✦