They say winning is hard. Notre Dame never trailed in a nervy-filled back and forth regular season finale against USC that morphed into a 2nd half shootout. In the end, a bruised Irish secondary came up with a pair of back-breaking long pick sixes to seal the win and Notre Dame’s spot in the first 12-team college football playoffs.
Let’s recap the wild win over USC, the highest scoring game in series history.
QUARTERBACK: B+
An ugly interception was a blight on this performance but the Irish would get a stop and go up 35-21 anyway, with Leonard completing the drive with a beautifully thrown touchdown to Mitchell Evans. As usual, the explosiveness in the passing game didn’t really exist (Tyler Buchner’s fake punt pass for 23 yards was the longest play through the air for the Irish!) but Leonard did a good job keeping his composure and running the offense while making some timely plays.
With his interception, there were only 4 other incompletions (including the weekly drop by Beaux Collins) to go with a couple of accurate touchdown passes to tight ends. Also, with sacks removed he rumbled for 59 yards on 10 carries.
I’m not sure if baby steps matter at this point in the season. We did see a couple of 3rd down conversions through the air, too. Both were to Kris Mitchell, by the way.
RUNNING BACK: A+
Let’s hope Jeremiyah Love is fine and will feel 100% for the playoffs! My goodness what a performance he and Jadarian Price gave to the nation in the Coliseum. Love played into the 2nd series of the 3rd quarter before injuring his knee after being tackled on his 17-yard catch. Going almost an entire half without him could’ve been a big problem.
This angle of the Jeremiyah Love hurdle is wild 🤯@NDFootball
📺 CBS pic.twitter.com/s6yiAuYgoB
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 30, 2024
The Irish had 7 explosive run plays on the afternoon and all but 1 came from the combination of Love and Price.
On jus 25 carries, they scorched the USC defense for 210 yards at 8.4 yards per carry. Price needs special mention for picking things up after Love left with his injury.
WIDE RECEIVER: D
I’m going to submit a veteran 5th year senior simply cannot lose a fumble in a game like this during a testy rivalry game. That’s just me, though! Elsewhere, this game did not go well for the wideouts. I mentioned the 2 conversions for Mitchell and those would be his only catches on the afternoon. The receivers would only total a further 5 receptions for 41 yards.
It would be shocking if this wasn’t the ultimate downfall of this team during the playoffs. Beaux Collins didn’t make a catch against USC and finished the regular season leading the wideouts with 427 yards. That’s a stat from like 1961.
TIGHT END: A
With the restrictions of the passing game and with how well the running game looked this is about as good as it gets for the Notre Dame tight ends in 2024. There was a play on an incompletion where Mitchell Evans rolled his ankle and that could’ve been real bad for the offense. Luckily, it looked like he was fine with no ill effects.
Both Evans and Eli Raridon catching touchdown passes, it feels right for Notre Dame doesn’t it? I wonder if after a few weeks of preparation whether they will try to get Cooper Flanagan involved more in the playoffs?
OFFENSIVE LINE: B
It’s been a while since Notre Dame really kicked some ass running the ball against USC. You’d have to go back to the insanely fun 2019 performance with 308 yards but nothing will probably top the 2017 performance for a good long while after those 377 yards and over 8 yards a clip were crushed upon the Trojans. The Irish running against a decent defense for 258 yards at nearly 7 yards per carry is one of the better games of this season on that front.
The pass blocking still seems pretty iffy. I really wonder if there was a less mobile quarterback behind center whether they’d be giving up 3 or 4 sacks every game? That doesn’t seem unrealistic to me. Leonard was pressured a fair amount but also his inability to operate a smooth quick-passing game sometimes makes the pass blocking look subpar, as well.
DEFENSIVE LINE: D
Things seemed to finally catch up to the defensive line on Saturday against USC’s solid and experienced offensive line. Woody Marks was by far USC’s most dangerous offensive weapon and he barely played in the game with just 6 carries before leaving with an injury. The pair of backups came in and totaled 154 rushing yards on just 16 carries. These guys were getting gashed in a big way.
The pass rush threatened all day, penetrating the edges, but rarely got home and didn’t seem to bother Jayden Maiava all that much.
LINEBACKER: C+
With the ineffectiveness of the line discussed above we saw a lot of pressure being brought from the linebackers, something we haven’t seen a ton of this year unlike the early days of the Al Golden era with Marist Liuafu and JD Bertrand. This didn’t work very well, either!
I thought the physicality was there for the most part and the linebackers were in a bad mood just like last week. I don’t know if it was playing against larger more talented linemen or much faster playmakers than Army but the productivity wasn’t there in the Coliseum. I also thought USC did a good job scheming things and causing confusion. Lincoln Riley is a pretty good play-caller.
DEFENSIVE BACK: C-
This may seem like a far higher grade than one might expect. I thought the corners got held out to dry far too much in the game as Notre Dame added pressure to Maiava that never got home. They were probably expecting Christian Gray and Leonard Moore to win their matchups a lot more than they did.
USC receiver Makai Lemon in particular was cooking finishing with 9 catches on 10 targets for 133 yards. That kind of production has been unheard of from this Irish secondary.
And yet, you look up and Maiava threw the ball 49 times, had 22 incompletions (with a really productive ground game supporting him!), Gray and Moore combined for 7 pass break-ups, and of course Gray gets the last laugh with an outstanding pick six late. Plus, Xavier Watts added another pick six right after that.
Maybe with hindsight this wasn’t that bad. USC made some plays but ultimately got burned.
NOTES:
Notre Dame lost the YPP battle against USC, narrowly 7.2 to 7.1 yards. That does include USC’s garbage-time 75 yard touchdown drive on just 5 plays. Removing that it was still a pretty robust 6.9 yards per play for USC on the day. The last team to average at least 7 yards per play against the Irish? That would be USC from 2022.
Mitch Jeter missing a 27-yard field goal adds a whole new level of problems to Notre Dame’s kicking woes.
Wouldn’t this be considered a 101-yard interception return, and thus a school record?
Give Watts the record!
Love and Price both finished the regular season averaging over 7 yards per carry. Among power conference teams, Notre Dame’s team rushing average of 6.30 yards is by far the most. Kansas State is next best at 5.86 yards.
Which Notre Dame assistant got the penalty called on them? I swear on the broadcast they announced a number?
I was looking at some more regular season stats and was surprised to see Jaiden Ausberry finish 3rd on the team in tackles. He had been playing more as the season progresses for sure. I bet his tackles per snap ratio is incredibly high, though.
So, USC finishes the 2024 season at 6-6. They seem destined to a matchup with someone in any of the Las Vegas, Sun, Holiday, or Los Angeles bowl games. They don’t have a particularly amazing recruiting class coming in, either.
That’s three consecutive games featuring futile touchdowns drives by our opponents. The Army one, obviously, felt very different from the USC one.
What happened with the defensive front 7 during the garbage time drive by USC? Was our first team defense in on that drive?
Defense had to be out of gas. Three straight drives, in warmer temperatures. Watching it felt ugly but it’s hard to be on the field that long. Even if they are just “running the ball”
To your point on Ausberry, he had 5 tackles on 21 snaps yesterday. Let’s get that dude some more action!
IMO the D-line looked like they had cement blocks tied to their ankles yesterday. Looked slow and very sluggish which did the pass defense no favors.
Struggled a bit last time we did the NYC one week LA the next thing in 2018.
Might be worth noting that PSU almost losing to USC came the week after a home game in PA.
I don’t disagree. But that’s the administration’s fault for scheduling an east coast trip and west coast trip in consecutive weeks. That’s lunacy and puts the team at a disadvantage for no reason.
For the D, those 4th down stops were truly huge. I kind of wonder if Al Golden out-schemed Lincoln Riley on those, and if as you say our depleted ranks really rose to the occasion.
Also, isn’t it great that Tyler Buckner got some redemption on the fake punt?
I thought the same about Buchner — great to see him contribute like that!
ND rushing and offense had all their production through three quarters. if they paved that out for the 4th, it would have been a monster day and we would be looking at this much differently. Really wish they could have imposed their will when they got the ball back up 35-21 in the 4th.
For the dbs, I really think a lot of that falls on the d line. maybe they were just tired and it’s not a great line without cross(or traroe or bothelo) but maiva was comfortable all day and was always throwing outside the hash marks.
The offense is a whole different level when Love is out there. I like price but I think nd salts away the game on offense with Love in the 4th. please please please be healthy. Have to say i’ve imagined some parallels with him and another dominant STL running back carrying their team in the playoffs (zeke).
Lastly, there are a few posters on this board openly saying nd should throw away the season after the miami ohio game. That playing for the playoff was empty calories. ND could very well lose in round one but I still think this was a pretty darn good ride (and important for us to believe in these coaches)
Good call at the end! I’m sure that I was a debbie downer after the NIU loss and I have been really impressed to see MF use that loss as motivation for the team to win the rest of their games
I don’t want to have a full lincoln riley usc discussion but something seems off. He is a really good offensive mind, he is way too reliant on the pass.
But man that hire was praised, worshipped at the beginning, but I love to go back to the press conference
https://x.com/jga41agher/status/1468297411240280064
You would think with the plays that he comes up with, that he would be doing much better than this. He’s been getting quality QBs and talented WRs (especially compared to ND), and so his passing game is really good (made the ND secondary look pretty mediocre at times during the game).
Personally, I’m happy that he hasn’t been able to figure things out as it helps ND
Any comments on the quality of the upcoming recruiting class?
ND #12 on 247 , #9 on Rivals. WR continues to be a concern.
I’m sure that E will have some commentary on this class and dreadful past 6 months for this class. He usually gives the hardest/lowest grades when evaluating the classes. Something seems to be off with the finish to this class.
Word is that ND is focusing NIL on retention and the portal, but the latter seems odd when they have not consistently shown that they can take non-grad student transfers*.
*NOTE: I know that they have gotten some, but they do not do it very often
It was WR coach Mike Brown, presumably arguing for the call ND did end up getting, that drew the flag.
Must have used some very foul language.
When was the last time we saw an unsportsmanlike conduct call against a sideline coach?
The time CBK almost punched a coach? Or the coach almost punched CBK? Forget what game that was.
Yeah, broadcast made it sound like he did it. Relatedly, he sure seems like a dud of a coach with bad recruiting and bad WR play this year. An apparent (maybe very) weak spot on an otherwise quite excellent staff.
Mike Brown has to feel like he’s on the chopping block. The WRs are terrible, the WR recruiting is not good, and then he goes out and gets a moronic penalty in the middle of our closest game in months. He should definitely have his agent start to look around for options.
Some folks on the 247 message board have taken to calling him MAC Brown because of his recruiting, which is kind of mean but it’s ok because it’s funny.
It would be nice if they might give him a full year as an ND coach. I’d guess he’ll get to recruit the 26′ class, unless Freeman feels it was just a mistake. Though I doubt that as they have coached together before.
Blitzing Watts from 10 yards deep was driving me crazy and I felt vindicated after my last cry to drop him into coverage led to his pick-6.
Riley Leonard must have a serious concern with getting his ankle rolled up at the end of runs cause he always goes airborne, even if it’s just an awkward hop.
Lots of discussion about how this USC WR corps wasn’t up to their normal standards but damn they put together more highlight reel catches than NDs have all year (kinda like Louisville in that game).
Ya I think the preview said USC’s WRs were not explosive or not as athletic as in the past.
If that’s so, I’m worried about ND’s athleticism then because those guys kept making catches
Posting screenshot: PSU has a pretty solid defense too, and I feel like they allowed *similar* numbers to USC in a similar circumstance.
Rough day from ND defense relative to what we’re used to, but:
East coast west coast travel
Army game (while we outmatched them) still takes its toll physically
Comparable performance against a common team to a team that’s also top 10, maybe top 5, defensively.
Regardless, how many times has the D bailed us out this year? Nice to see the offense grind out a lot of points to lend a hand, and still get 14 points from D.
During X’s pick 6, the galaxy brain in me thought he could run it to the USC 1 then fall down. Take 2 knees, run it on 3rd to drain the timeouts and you either score, or try (gasp to) kick a field goal. Or, go for it on 4th too, if you fail, USC gets it back still down 42-28, with 99 yards no timeouts and about a minute. No shade to him for the backbreaker TD, but there might have been a savvier play there.
Go irish, love the win!
I had the impression on that one, that Watts was looking at the sideline to determine if the coaches wanted him to go down. Maybe he was just checking for potential tacklers, but he had quite the convoy when he crossed the 50, so I attributed his looking over there as checking to see what the coaches wanted him to do. I think it is possible to get to cute. The outright score was the right play to me.
I just rewatched it and to my eye, I think he spent more time eyeballing the USC sideline, then he did the ND sideline.
Of course, none of us know what he was saying or thinking, but I have to agree that the outright score was also the right play.
It’s USC, goddamnit! Crush them, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!!
No offense, but I’m sick of the galaxy brain end-of-game stuff. It’s a 3-TD lead. Take the easy score and jam it right in their eye.
Buchner finally putting up the 290+ QB rating we all expected when he committed!
Buchner’s career Y/A at ND is a full yard better than Leonard’s. The staff better be taking a long hard look at who gets the start in the playoffs.
Not to mention, 100% more LAX assists.