I was a seventeen year old Catholic high school senior on my way to ND back in the innocent era... ie., when Notre Dame was God's team. It was my first crisis of conscience. Having suffered and mourned many ND tragic losses since then, I can deal with anything... but USC will forever be the team I most wish to defeat.
First, let me apologize for the product USC will trot out at the Coliseum in November. Only a series of fluke plays kept the USC-Utah game from being in the neighborhood of 50-0. This is quite possibly the worst USC team since Paul Hackett's final team, and frankly Paul Hackett may have had a better coaching staff.
Thus far, USC has been outscored and outgained on the season. We can't run the ball. At all. Our passing game relies entirely on low-percentage downfield throws where we hope the WR can out-jump the defensive backs and come down with the ball. We can't protect the QB. Two of the three scholarship QB's are currently injured. That's what happens when your OL lets the QB get hit on every play. And I mean every play. We've lost our only pass rusher for the season. We tackle poorly. Our defensive backs have poor technique and can't cover man-to-man. Two weeks ago, our receivers collided with each other while running their pass routes. Twice.
It won't get better. Clay Helton is incompetent. And he has primarily hired assistants who are incompetent and have no previous experience.
I'll be at the game, because I never miss a USC-ND game at the Coliseum, and I've only missed two in South Bend since 1997. But I dread what's coming.
Some years ago, when USC was rolling and ND was paying the price for hiring Ty and then Charlie, there was a game at the Coliseum where ND didn't get a first down until the fourth quarter. I think there's a reasonable chance that ND can return the favor this year. I'm not even sure Traveler will show up. I think even the horse is too disgusted to be associated with this USC team.
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For me nothing was worse than the 1970 game against USC when Theismann was phenomenal and Jimmy Jones played the game of his life especially in the first half. They were making unbelievable catches on every pass Jones threw and he was not known as a good passer. The rain in our comeback attempt was heavy and relentless or we may have pulled it out anyway.
The 1974 game was incredibly upsetting also but I was out of school by then so it hurt badly but not quite as much as 1970. I never saw a momentum switch like that one in 1974. They were probably a little better team but we had them in the first half and if we would not let them have that late touchdown in the first half they would have died.
Also Montana's great comeback in 1978 was one of the worst reffing, blatant bad calls ever made when we caused Paul McDonald to fumble and they said he was throwing. Replay would have changed it to a fumble. Oh and
The fumble by them in 1982 which we recovered and would have made Faust's record over his career against USC 4-1.
This is all in descending order but they were all influenced by momentum switches and bad reffing.
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doesn’t matter.
I also remember the monsoon game out there when a much better ND team got beat by them despite Theisman throwing for some redunckulous amount of yards.
What makes a great rivalry game. I also remember Holtz smacking their asses hard out there in 88.
individual days a ND player has ever had, especially given the heavy rain that dominated the day..