Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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poll. The victories occurred in 1947 (38-7), 1949 (32- 0), 1966 (51-0), 1988 (27-10), 1989 (28-24) and 2012 (22-13). The losses were in 1938 (13-0) and 1964 (20-17). The Irish won the national title after four of those first five victories against the Trojans, and finished No. 2 in 1989 with a 12-1 record. BY THE NUMBERS 6-2 Notre Dame's record against USC when it is ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press the ball on offense and didn't waste any time picking up the tempo and going directly at USC. After starting on the Irish 25-yard line, sophomore kicker Kyle Brin- dza was spotting up at the USC 9-yard line just nine plays and 3:35 later to put his team on the board first. The 10 points Notre Dame scored in the first What Worked • Fast out of the blocks. Notre Dame started with quarter were the most for an Irish team at the Coliseum since the 1988 squad put up 14. • Battle in the trenches. Games against tough opponents are won on the line of scrimmage, and Notre Dame scratched and clawed its way to a victory against the Trojans to clinch a spot in the national title game. The defensive effort was led by junior nose guard Louis Nix III, who collapsed the pocket on multiple occasions and helped limit the USC ground attack by playing sideline to sideline. In addition, USC linebacker Hayes Pullard — who led his team with 13 tackles — said in an interview after the game that Notre Dame was a tougher opponent than Oregon, crediting the play of the offensive line. • Rhythm nation. Although there were some BY LOU SOMOGYI The Fighting Irish outscored their foes 85-9 during that time, never yielding a touchdown. The last time Notre Dame had any quarter where the opposition didn't score a touchdown the entire regular season was the fourth quarter in 1970 — and that was dur- ing a 10-game regular season. 9 Times in 12 games this year Notre Dame held its opposition to zero points in the first quarter. TAKING A CLOSER LOOK led down and stayed true to form in stopping the run, holding USC to 95 rushing yards total, but the surge by the Trojans to start the game with four rushes for 26 yards caught Notre Dame's defense off guard and caused some adjustments. Allowing the Trojans to establish a run game opened up op- portunities through the air. • Speed kills. As Nix pointed out heading into What Didn't Work • Stopping early gains. The Irish eventually buck- the game against the Trojans, USC typically gets the "best of the best" when it comes to recruit- ing. Notre Dame has done its fair share of work in recruiting as well, but what comes with highly ranked class after highly ranked class is a great deal of both talent and speed. Notre Dame missed some opportunities with its questionable plays in the red zone after senior run- ning back Theo Riddick marched the Irish down the field, head coach Brian Kelly and offensive coordina- tor Chuck Martin called a great game. Notre Dame not only controlled the pace on offense, but also won the time-of-possession battle by more than nine minutes (34:38 to 25:22). points, but the margin of victory could have been much more comfortable considering the amount of trips the Irish made to the red zone. The Irish had drives of 66, 67, 70 and 54 yards, but came away with only three points each time. The Irish hit pay dirt in the opening quarter with a nine-yard scamper by Riddick, but couldn't score a touch- down after that. zone-blocking scheme due to fast USC defenders breaking through the wall, but it's difficult to be too critical of an otherwise strong effort by the offensive line and Riddick. • Finishing touch. Notre Dame won by nine — Jason Sapp