Brian Kelly takes slight jab at USC inconsistency

Notre Dame and USC share a less-than-desirable commonality this season: inconsistency.

But when Irish head coach Brian Kelly spoke with the media on Monday, he didn’t see USC that way. He views USC’s inconsistency as the consistency, and if their current trajectory continues, it could be an issue for his team when they welcome their rival into Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday night. 

“No, they’ve been consistent,” Kelly said when asked about USC’s disparate performances. “They play great one week and then not quite as well the next, but [they’re] talented as a football team. If you go with win, loss, win, loss, this should be the best version of themselves this weekend against us.”

Kelly is referencing the fact that USC has yet to win consecutive games this season despite having been favored in all six contests. They have beaten San Jose State, Washington State and Colorado and fallen to Stanford, Oregon State and Utah. They were double-digit favorites against Stanford and Oregon State.

As Kelly alluded to, if the pattern continues, they will put up a fight against the Irish on Saturday night. The Trojans have won their away games by a combined 54 points.

USC’s offense is largely not the issue for interim head coach Donte Williams, as they have put up no fewer than 26 points all season, and quarterback Kedon Slovis continues to be decent, although he is not living up to the lofty expectations the program had of him. Wideout Drake London leads the Pac-12 in receiving yardage by a wide margin, and he has been held under 100 yards just once all season.

USC’s defense has absolutely crumbled in their losses, allowing 41.3 points per game. In last weekend’s home loss to Utah, USC’s first defeat at the hands of the Utes in Los Angeles since 1916 (This was not even in the Coliseum. It was not built yet.), the Trojans allowed 306 passing yards and three touchdowns to Utah’s Cameron Rising, who entered the game with just 319 passing yards all season. USC allowed 28 unanswered points. 

The defense allowed seven pass plays of greater than 15 yards, four of which exceeded 25 yards. The Trojans missed tackles left and right, a problem which could continue against big bodies on the Irish squad like Michael Mayer and Kevin Austin. 

Trojans inconsistencies meet Irish inconsistencies

Notre Dame has also been wildly unpredictable at times, which is why the 5-1 Irish are only favored by a touchdown at home against a 3-3 opponent. 

A shaky defense against Florida State and Toledo to start the season came together in wins over Purdue and Wisconsin, only to crumble a bit once again against Cincinnati and Virginia Tech. To be fair, the defense was put in several bad positions thanks to offensive mishaps against the Bearcats, but the Irish third down defense in Blacksburg was awful. Wisconsin and Cincinnati were a combined 3-25 on third down. Virginia Tech was 8-17.

How an offensive drive is about to go when Notre Dame takes the field is really anyone’s guess, especially after quarterback Jack Coan led the Irish to an unlikely victory against the Hokies. He started the game leading three drives of 13 total plays and 17 yards, then ended the game going 7-for-9 with five completions of 10+ yards in a 32-29 victory. 

Kelly announced Monday that Coan will remain the starter, but freshman dual-threat Tyler Buchner will continue to see playing time. 

USC-Notre Dame kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET, the sixth-straight primetime contest in South Bend between the two storied rivals who did not play last season for the first time since 1945 due to COVID-19. Notre Dame leads the series 49-36-5.