USC pushes No. 5 Notre Dame, but fall to Irish after disastrous fourth quarter
The tape played on loop all week in Notre Dame’s facility, a sobering reminder for the Irish two years later of what USC, under Lincoln Riley, could be when everything was working in concert. A superhero at quarterback. A rolling run game. A ferocious front. That dominant win over Notre Dame, in the final week of the 2022 season, had in many ways been the high-water mark of the coach’s Trojan tenure, the sort of major moment that would seemingly propel a program to new heights.
The two years since have been spent chasing that feeling to no avail, with one frustrating season bled into another. The star quarterback left, his backup was benched. The run game was neglected. The front was never quite as fearsome again. But Riley continued reassuring the moment and its magic would return, pointing to the program’s progress and defending its direction at all costs.
Any hope for this season had long expired well before USC lost 49-35 to No. 6 Notre Dame in its regular-season finale on Saturday. But in its final breaths were both brief glimpses of what USC could be and also painful reminders of how far it had fallen since that night two Novembers ago.
The juxtaposition only made the Trojans’ 6-6 season more difficult to swallow. In each of those six losses, USC had fallen short in some form or fashion. Saturday, a defeat Riley called “excruciating,” was no different.
Jayden Maiava had done all he could to sidestep that heartbreaking fate, willing the Trojans down the field in ways that reminded — at least in spurts — of his predecessor, Caleb Williams. Williams was in the stadium to have his No. 13 jersey retired Saturday, and until the end, it seemed the Trojans’ new quarterback was putting together a convincing tribute.
Maiava threw for three touchdowns and added two on the ground while accounting for 360 passing yards, far more than Williams had in his first meeting with the Irish. But in a season of thin margins, one throw was enough to sink any hope of Maiava making the same magic and USC playing spoiler.
He’d already brought USC within striking distance the previous drive, hitting two moonshots downfield before finding wideout Ja’Kobi Lane for his third score of the afternoon.
On a day when USC’s defense gave up 436 yards, the second-most the Trojans allowed all season, the unit actually managed to clamp down on the ensuing drive, setting Maiava up to play hero.
He tried, leading the Trojans to the doorstep of the red zone. But as Maiava fired a pass toward Kyron Hudson at the pylon, Notre Dame cornerback Christian Gray grabbed it instead. Gray ran until he reached the other end zone, a 99-yard pick six that would derail any chance of a comeback. The next drive, Maiava threw another pick-six in the end zone.
“Can’t turn the ball over in big moments,” Maiava said. “I let the team down.”
In fact, Maiava was one of the few reasons USC was still within reach by the fourth quarter, while the Trojans’ defense did him few favors. Its 49 points given up were 16 more than USC had given up all season.
USC was steamrolled by an Irish rushing attack that entered the game ranked among the best in college football. Notre Dame racked up 258 yards on the ground, the second-most yielded by USC this season, even after USC emphasized it all week.
“We just didn’t do enough against the run,” Riley said. “Period.”
USC didn’t have its own full complement of backs, either, after Woody Marks was injured late in the first quarter and never returned. Quinten Joyner impressed in his place, rushing for 83 yards in 10 carries, the most critical of which was a 23-yard scamper right before Maiava’s decisive pick.
“Woody has been our best offensive player this year, so to sit here and say losing him didn’t affect it, it affected it some,” Riley said.
Other missteps helped derail the Trojans. There was a Notre Dame fake punt, ill-timed penalties, stalled drives and the usual play-calling questions, any number of which could have turned the tides.
USC (6-6) trailed No. 5 Notre Dame (11-1) by one score in the fourth quarter, but two costly turnovers sealed the Irish’s win Saturday at the Coliseum.
But instead, Riley stood in the tunnel emotional as he watched one Trojan leave the Coliseum for the last time, then another. In the postgame news conference, he brimmed with pride at how hard USC had fought through a frustrating season.
“You can’t question this football team,” Riley said. “There’s times we could’ve played better, sure. There’s times we could’ve coached better, yeah. Did we miss some opportunities? Yes we did. We laid it on the line every single week. My message to the guys was you continue to do that through your life, you continue to do that with this football program, and the things you want will come.”
Two years after Williams whipped up expectations of USC fans by picking apart rival Notre Dame in the Coliseum, the Trojans are still waiting for an encore and Riley is still pointing toward the future.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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