Reality hit the USC football team hard on Saturday night.
Despite outgaining No. 21 Notre Dame, 302 total yards to 251, the No. 10 Trojans ultimately couldn’t overcome five turnovers, four of which led directly to 28 points, while being handed their first loss of the season, 48-20.
The 94th meeting between the Trojans (6-1) and Fighting Irish (6-2) extended Notre Dame’s winning streak against USC in South Bend to five games. The last time the Trojans beat the Irish at Notre Dame Stadium was 2011. The Irish, energized by a raucous sellout crowd of 77,622, improved their all-time record in the series to 51-38-5.
“I’m certainly disappointed that we weren’t able to play nearly good enough football to win tonight,” Coach Lincoln Riley said. “The team had great resolve at halftime, very much believed at halftime that we were going to win the football game.”
Notre Dame led 24-6 at the half, which also happened to be the halftime score of the teams’ 1974 matchup at the Coliseum in which the Trojans battled back to score a stunning 49 unanswered points in the second half en route to a historic 55-24 victory.
To start the third quarter on Saturday night, a 31-yard touchdown run by MarShawn Lloyd gave the Trojans some hope that USC’s second-half surge from nearly 50 years ago might repeat itself.
The Fighting Irish, however, had other plans.
Sixth-year quarterback Sam Hartman hit senior wide receiver Chris Tyree six plays later on a slant across the middle for a 46-yard catch-and-run touchdown, pushing the Trojans back into an 18-point deficit.
But USC showed signs of life as standout freshman Zachariah Branch, who returned after missing the last two games due to a reported knee injury, took a Notre Dame punt 60 yards to set up a short field for Trojan quarterback Caleb Williams. Five plays later, Williams found a familiar touchdown target, senior receiver Brenden Rice, who reached over the goal line for a gritty 7-yard score.
Now trailing by a manageable 11 points, 31-20, with 9:04 left in the game, the Trojans’ special teams had a major blunder, allowing a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by redshirt freshman Jadarian Price.
Game over.
“It felt like all the way up until the kickoff return for a touchdown, we were right there,” Riley said.
Notre Dame finished the game on a 14-0 run, including a 15-yard fumble recovery for a score by redshirt junior safety Xavier Watts with 3:27 left.
Although giving up 48 points would typically indicate poor defensive play by the Trojans, who have struggled on that side of the ball all season, Riley said he thought USC’s defense played well enough to win the game.
“The defense stepped up and did a lot of great things there, but we put them in some terrible positions,” Riley said.
Those “terrible positions” came courtesy of five turnovers by the USC offense – three of which were first-half interceptions thrown by Williams. His first two picks, both by Watts – a converted wide receiver – set up short fields of 12 and 2 yards.
“We were able to capitalize off of what I’m sure he [Williams] would call mistakes,” Notre Dame Coach Marcus Freeman said. “Instead of just having PBUs [passes broken up], our guys turned those into takeaways, which were huge for our entire team.”
The Fighting Irish turned each Williams interception into a touchdown, uncharacteristic for the Heisman Trophy winner, who came into the game with 22 touchdowns against only one interception.
“I made mistakes that I usually don’t make,” Williams said. “Nights like that happen.”
Williams finished 23 of 37 passing for a season-low 199 yards. Hartman, the Wake Forest transfer, was 13 of 20 for a modest 126 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Riley emphasized his belief that the Trojans will gel in the coming weeks as USC continues its most challenging stretch of the season in the highly competitive Pac-12 race.
“We play in, right now, what I think is the best conference in college football,” Riley said. “Every opportunity that we want is waiting for us, including a big one seven days from now in Los Angeles that we’ll be excited to get back and prepare for.”
Next Saturday, USC returns home to face two-time defending conference champ Utah, which beat the Trojans twice last season, at 5 p.m. at the Coliseum.