88ND said:

USC ...
Playing with nothing to lose.

Spoil our season.

FYI...

Every USC loss but one they've led the game heading into the 4th quarter.

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This is the second thread you've started about the USC game. You make it sound as though they're some kind of juggernaut. Yes, it's a rivalry game and they have nothing to lose, but they're not as good as you may think.

Here are their losses:

27-24 to Michigan (a 6-5 team, soon to be 6-6)
24-17 to Minnesota (another 6-5 team)
33-30 to Penn St. (okay, they're a good team)
29-28 to Maryland (4-7)
26-21 to Washington (another 6-5 team)

If Notre Dame lost all those games, people on this board would be going ballistic and calling for Freeman to be fired. Yet Lincoln Riley is sitting pretty raking in $10 million/year. He's made a career on offense with no defense whatsoever, kind of like Charlie Weis.

The ND defense is something they haven't seen. The ND running game is going to be too much for them to handle and ND wins 38-17.

sjb75 said:

USC IMO doesn’t play “…really poor D.” UCLA scored 13 points.

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Irish should run all over them

NDblitz said:

Every ND home game was a 3:30 kick. Body clock is identical.

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In the last 3 weeks we had FSU at 730PM and Army at 7PM. Not sure when we fly out there

Without a doubt SC would like nothing more than to ruin another ND season. Different eras, different coaches and different players. It doesn’t matter. SC is still SC with a lot of talent. ND will. need their A+ game for this team.

NDblitz said:

Every ND home game was a 3:30 kick. Body clock is identical.

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👍

Chitown11 said:

No shit! We fricking know it was an awfull loss. How many f...king times are you going to say it? You obviously havent watched any Penn St games, ND is clearly better. One $hit game doesn't define a season. Give it a break. Why don't you hang out on some sorry usc forum?

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IF it did, PSU beat Bowling Green inter alia by one score,

Golson5 said:

If he is injured like he was against NIU, then yes

If he isn't injured, hell no

Not even a debate. Very dumb question

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That a boy...
More Xbox chat...

Allow me a moment to remind you of a situation with your REAL FAVORITE TEAM ALABAMA...
...and guess what. Nobody was injured.

Jalen Hurts benched in College Football Playoff title game​

Hurts led Alabama back to the CFP championship game the following season, but the Tide's regular-season loss to Auburn in the Iron Bowl and the emergence of freshman Tua Tagovailoa had created a quarterback controversy in Tuscaloosa.

Georgia led 13-0 at halftime and Hurts was 3 of 8 passing for 21 yards. In the third quarter, Alabama coach Nick Saban pulled Hurts for Tagovailoa, and the move worked. Tagovailoa threw the game-winning TD in overtime to DeVonta Smith in a 26-23 thriller. Hurts gained respect for how he handled his postgame interview with ESPN.

echowaker said:

Leonard is clearly the best choice unless injured. It's laughable to think otherwise. ND has solid balance in the running and passing game. It's a formula that works well. Dance with who brung ya.

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Dance with who brung ya like above?

Solid balance?
You mean like the #3 rushing team in the country based on yards per carry...
And the #69th ranked team on yards per passing attempt?
Or the #95th ranked team on passing yardage per game ?
Or the RL ranked #71 in touchdown passes?

This team can run. YES! We'd lead the nation if not for the passing plays to Jumpstart RL.
We are not a balanced offense.

I hope you realize the competition will get better starting next week and should we prevail we aren't skating our way through all the playoffs with a bad passing day to which RL has had his share.

christophero said:

We get it. You don't like Leonard. You don't have to start a new thread every week about it.

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And yet you can't help yourself but reply. 🙄

ZibbyQuinn said:

Clearly?

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Yes. It's not even close. You lose the staple of your offense with Angeli.

Patrish said:

ND is only a 3.5 to 6.5 favorite

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With that spread I would bet both sides

kev2225 said:

I mean looking at a schedule before the season starts and seeing games that you just can't wait to see. If you look at this years schedule, only the Texas A&M game was one of those games. If we were in the Big 10, we'd be excited about games vs Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Oregon, Indiana, and MSU for starters. I don't know about you, but I'd rather see that schedule than Northern Illinois, Louisville, Virginia, Navy, and Army.

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Preseason you are looking at the historical footprint of the school, meaning not IU. We had marquee matchups against A&M/FSU/SC. Some traditionally good games against Purdue and Gtech. Navy, Stanford and the recent thorn_in_side Louisville formed a fine middle. The body bag games are now part of any deal.

I would quite pessimistic if we joined the BUG and got all of the blue bloods in one year. There are teams like UF that are not bad but got impossibly hard schedules.

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sjb75 said:

USC IMO doesn’t play “…really poor D.” UCLA scored 13 points.

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I think that's a bit deceiving. Still gave up 376 yards. 6.8 yards per play. Also gave up enough points over the season.

I just don't see a good team here. But, we will see.

banmate6 said:

I watched USC unconvincingly beat UCLA. Took a late drive. Big red zone troubles. Really poor D. Riley doesn't look confident.

The Trojans have O big play capability. Speed. Maiava is an athletic QB, but seems an inconsistent passer.

I expect ND to comfortably handle USC. Even in an away different TZ rivalry game. Too big a gap.

The Irish seem well capable of routing USC. At worst, USC causes some early trouble, with ND managing to close it out by 10+ points.

I just can't see USC upset ND...although I will take nothing for granted.

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USC IMO doesn’t play “…really poor D.” UCLA scored 13 points.

I watched USC unconvincingly beat UCLA. Took a late drive. Big red zone troubles. Really poor D. Riley doesn't look confident.

The Trojans have O big play capability. Speed. Maiava is an athletic QB, but seems an inconsistent passer.

I expect ND to comfortably handle USC. Even in an away different TZ rivalry game. Too big a gap.

The Irish seem well capable of routing USC. At worst, USC causes some early trouble, with ND managing to close it out by 10+ points.

I just can't see USC upset ND...although I will take nothing for granted.

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ND approaches the Ivies in % of elite students, > than the academies. But: West Point football players are representative whereas NDs' are not...major difference. West Point football players still need to be near the median SAT, GPA, etc.

Army football players have an extra hard schedule. Standard cadet training is rigorous, complex, and time consuming. Studies. And football on top of that.

Ex-West Pointers often told me how much they respected their football players. Managing all that was tough. Not to take anything away from Notre Dame football players, but it really is an entirely different context...as I find it remarkable the academies can still feature competitive enough teams.