What they’re saying about Notre Dame’s 48-20 victory against USC
Notre Dame bounced back after its loss against Louisville last week with a beatdown against arch rival USC on Saturday night, ending the Trojans’ undefeated record in a 48-20 contest.
In this article, we’ll take a look around at what the media is saying about Notre Dame’s triumph against USC, including Blue & Gold’s Mike Singer and Tim Hyde giving their instant reaction in a postgame YouTube live show. You can watch the replay of the show in the video player below.
Make sure to subscribe to the Blue & Gold YouTube channel here and tune in to The Mike Goolsby Show, which will be live on the page Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.
Tyler Horka, Blue & Gold: Notre Dame football punched back in critical moments vs. USC
Louisville left Notre Dame lifeless on the mat like Sonny Liston after Muhammad Ali knocked him to the canvas in 1965. It took Liston over a year to get back in the ring. Notre Dame was forced to regroup in a week. That’s college football for ya.
But man, did the Fighting Irish ever counter.
It wasn’t just that head coach Marcus Freeman had his team ready to go for its full bout with No. 10 USC, from start to finish. It’s that both times the Trojans landed a body blow in the second half, Notre Dame returned the favor with haymakers. The Irish were the more energized and more responsive fighters Saturday in South Bend, and it showed when it mattered most.
USC running back MarShawn Lloyd scurried his way around the Notre Dame defense for a 31-yard touchdown with 7:20 left in the third quarter. What was once a 21-point Irish lead was down to 11.
Graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman fired a 46-yard scoring strike to senior wideout Chris Tyree six snaps after the Lloyd touchdown. Hartman said Notre Dame had been scheming up a slot post to Tyree in practices. The Irish enacted it at the perfect time, immediately after four rushes from junior running back Audric Estimé in a span of five plays.
Jack Soble, Blue & Gold: How Notre Dame came out on fire in win over USC
One week ago, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman admitted his team was not prepared to play.
He didn’t know why. He knew it was unacceptable. And he was set to challenge himself and his coaching staff to do a better job entering a home matchup against USC.
They did. What changed?
“I wish I had the answer,” Freeman said. “You always go back and look to your preparation and say, ‘Okay, how can we enhance the way we prepare?’”
Particularly on defense, Notre Dame came out on fire. On the first snap of the game, graduate linebacker JD Bertrand saw USC redshirt senior left tackle Michael Tarquin pulling through his gap, ready to deliver a block. Bertrand read it, reacted and boom, he laid a hit on Tarquin in the hole. He and graduate defensive end Jean-Baptiste combined for the tackle for a gain of 1.
It might have seemed small at the time, but Bertrand’s downhill attack set the tone for the rest of the game. That, just like last week, was a reflection on the coaching staff.
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“It’s always the coaches’ fault,” Freeman said. “We have to own that and always coach better. We have to take pride in that the production you see on the field is a result of how we coach.”
“We have great coaches and great players that believe in it,” Bertrand said.
Adam Rittenberg, ESPN: Notre Dame responds to ‘adversity,’ authors win over USC
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — After trading places at the podium with coach Marcus Freeman late Saturday night, Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman paused as a chant began near the main stadium tunnel.
“We love Marcus! We love Marcus!”
“Me too,” Hartman said with a smile.
The week had not started with an outpouring of support for Freeman, the second-year coach whose team had dropped two of three games to essentially fall out of the College Football Playoff race. A 33-20 loss at Louisville, not long after a heartbreaking home defeat to Ohio State, had stirred some doubt about the 37-year-old Freeman and Notre Dame’s direction.
The week ended in decidedly different and dominating fashion, as No. 21 Notre Dame clobbered No. 10 USC 48-20, the Fighting Irish’s most lopsided win against a top-10 opponent since beating USC by the same margin in 1995. Notre Dame scored on offense, defense and special teams to finish with its most points against an AP top-10 opponent since piling up 54 against No. 9 Boston College in 1992.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman
On the play of the Notre Dame secondary:
“They battled their tails off, man. I know Xavier Watts had some crazy stats, and you know, I think about — I don’t know if it was the last takeaway that Cam Hart had. I kind of saw it on the video board, and it’s something that we practice, the ability to stab the ball out. We talked about if we have awareness, you can stab the ball out, stab it out, and it was a teach tape, and Xavier returned it, which is another coaching point. You sprint through the end zone. Don’t start jogging, celebrating. That could have been a play that’s on Sports Center in a bad way.
“We always got to learn. I kind of think about the teaching plays and Jaylen Sneed; we can’t rough a punter. We know that. He played great. He played phenomenal. We can’t rough the punter in the first half, and we can’t celebrate as they’re getting ready to snap the ball. Same thing with Xavier, make sure you finish the ball through the end.”
USC head coach Lincoln Riley
On USC’s performance against Notre Dame:
“Incredibly disappointing night. Didn’t play good enough to win the game here on the road in a rivalry game against a good opponent. I mean that’s the simple matter. I mean, the obvious thing is, you lose the turnover battle five to nothing. And you give up a kickoff return for a touchdown, you have a penalty that takes a touchdown off the board, a number of negative plays. That’s that’s the name of the game right there. I think they had maybe 250, 260 yards of offense. Thought our defense played good enough to win the football game, thought we stepped up and did a lot of great things there. But we just put, we put our defenses in some terrible positions.”
