Game Day: No. 1 Notre Dame vs. USC

The Irish have invaded Southern California.

A biennial pilgrimage that usually doubles as a short vacation for Midwesterners looking for one last long weekend of sun before winter, there’s a different feel to this year’s game, and for good reason. Notre Dame is playing for its shot in the national title game.

As usual, we’ll host a live blog tonight. But before we head into South Los Angeles for the year’s most high-profile football game, let’s run through some final questions before the Irish battle the Trojans not just for the Jeweled Shillelagh, but for a chance at the crystal ball.

Will Notre Dame’s defense stop the run? The Irish defense has stopped just about everybody running the football, but USC has plenty of talent in the backfield. While Lane Kiffin usually doesn’t discuss injuries, Silas Redd is still limited by a high-ankle sprain, a good break for the Irish. But Curtis McNeal, who ran for 118 yards last year against Notre Dame, is averaging better than six yards a carry again this season.

Winning the line of scrimmage will be imperative for Notre Dame, and it’ll also allow Bob Diaco to commit man-power to stopping the Trojans passing game.

Can Notre Dame win the turnover battle? This will likely be the story of the evening, with redshirt freshman Max Wittek piloting an offense that already ranks 113th in turnovers with 29. Sure, Notre Dame doesn’t have much tape of Wittek, but they did recruit him when he was at Mater Dei, where he threw 15 interceptions in 13 games during his senior season.

On the flip side of the equation, Monte Kiffin might be the current scapegoat for the Trojans’ problems, but he’s a great game-planner, and does a terrific job forcing turnovers, where USC is a top ten team taking away the football, with 29 of their own.

This will likely come down to Everett Golson and his decision making. If he can be judicious with the football, and rely on the Irish ground game to create passing opportunities, then things should work out just fine for Notre Dame.

Can the Irish figure out USC’s playaction passing attack? USC has been running the same offense since Pete Carroll took over Troy. But that hasn’t helped the Irish solve anything, with the Trojans routinely putting up big numbers through the air, with playaction passing providing huge chunks against Irish secondaries over the years.

In Bob Diaco’s system, Notre Dame’s linebackers have given up yards through the air, caught moving downhill in anticipation of the run. While Manti Te’o has done a tremendous job improving in the pass game, Carlo Calabrese is still a work in progress. Expect Dan Fox to see the field quite a bit tonight, and Fox and outside linebacker Danny Spond will be key in pass coverage.

Will Notre Dame’s pass rush help out the secondary? Nobody is asking KeiVerae Russell and Bennett Jackson to run one-on-one with Marqise Lee, Robert Woods, or Nelson Agholor. The Irish will keep two safeties deep throughout the evening, giving away the underneath throws to prevent the vertical attacks down the field.

That said, expect Lane Kiffin to take his shots down the field anyway, with Max Wittek’s big arm an upgrade over the injured Matt Barkley. And while the Trojans are certainly the most explosive passing game the Irish have seen, there’s no better solution to stopping an aerial attack than a suffocating pass rush.

In his first start, you can’t expect Wittek to make the snap decisions that Barkley did so well last year in picking apart the Irish defense. And don’t expect Stephon Tuitt, Prince Shembo and company to afford him much time. Wittek has decent feet for a big man, but Notre Dame will get after him with pressure, challenging the young quarterback to read a defense designed to bring confusion.

Can Notre Dame’s running game break the Trojans defense? Simply put, the Irish have the ability to break the backs of the Trojans by getting their power running game on track. The Trojans have struggled mightily against spread running teams, with the outside zone giving USC major problems. That’s one of four bedrock run plays for the Irish, and what Cierre Wood does very well, so it’s a match-up that Notre Dame absolutely needs to exploit.

Can Notre Dame capture the moment? There’s a lot of room for a “Win one for the Gipper,” pregame speech tonight. But don’t expect it to come from Brian Kelly. Storylines be damned, the Irish need to treat this like any other road test, and not let themselves succumb to the expectations that are heaped on the No. 1 team in the country.

After three months of football, there’s no reason to be nervous. For the Irish, this is more like a tremendous opportunity, a chance to be rewarded for all the hard work that’s gone into turning around a football program that seemed close to broken last December.

For Irish fans, buying into the moment is important as well. After years of flinching at every shadow, they’ve come by the thousand to Southern California, ready to bask in the glow of a championship run under the Coliseum lights. But don’t expect it to be easy. There will be ups and downs this evening, a season playing out in four quarters of football.

But that’s what makes games like this so much fun.