Kiffin’s Trojans Earn a Well-Coached, Well-Played Victory over Notre Dame
They were a nine point underdog to Notre Dame for the first time in seemingly forever. They were profoundly predicted to lose, even by local pundits and journalists from inside the university’s media. On College Gameday, only the candid anti-Irish personality, Desmond Howard thought they’d win. Yet, for the first time in the Lane Kiffin era, and deep into the Pete Carroll regime, USC played a complete, error free, well-coached game, winning convincingly in a statement game, 31-17.
We learned a lot about the Trojans on Saturday. Most notably in the first half, we learned that Matt Barkley has taken the next step into the upper echelon of college football quarterbacks. Every decision the junior made was right one. He threw passes away when he needed to. He scrambled and picked up yards when he had to, gaining a hard fought and well earned 19 yards on the ground. Whenever Barkley was under duress, he found a cameraman on the sideline or overthrew his receiver if he couldn’t evade his defenders. And on top of all of that, without the world’s greatest protection and a massive liability on the offensive line in the form of Kevin Graf, Barkley completed nearly 70 percent of his passes and had three scores. He not only wiped away the label of a smiling, first half quarterback who makes bad decisions if you wear him down, but he shattered them when he found a diving Robert Woods to ice the game with just under eight minutes left in the game.
RB Curtis McNeal had a breakout game for the Trojans, running for 118 yards.
But the victory over the Irish was far from a one dimensional effort on behalf of the Trojans, as we learned that USC finally has a legitimate two-headed combo in the backfield for the first time in years, as both Marc Tyler and Curtis McNeal came up with crucial yards, with both overcoming injuries and gritting it out. Tyler separated his shoulder just nine days ago in San Francisco, yet was dropping his shoulder and taking on defenders on both of the Trojans’ pristine first quarter touchdown drives. As for McNeal, the junior only ran for 118 yards despite being carried off of the field at one point in the first half while struggling with cramps. Most of his yards came when the Trojans needed them the most, including 61 in the fourth quarter. As a whole, SC averaged five yards per carry, and out-rushed the Irish an astounding 219 to 41. And that brings the Trojan defense into the discussion.
It’s now evident that Monte Kiffin’s mind is taking hold at USC. All week long, the Trojans were warned about the presence of Michael Floyd, the All-American caliber receiver that was going to give the Trojan secondary fits. He was better than Arizona’s Juron Criner, and more athletic that Cal’s Keenan Allen. He was the Notre Dame offense, and was going to have a career day against Nickell Robey. But, it didn’t happen and Monte Kiffin made tremendous adjustments all game long. They double-teamed him when they could, they dropped into a zone when they had to, and in the end the Trojans held the highly touted Floyd to just four catches for 28 yards.
Monte devised a game plan to give the Irish everything but Floyd, and it worked. Notre Dame tight end Tyler Eifert had one of his best games of the season, and back Cierre Wood had a career high in catches and yards out of the backfield, but the Trojans bent but didn’t break. By holding Floyd, the Trojans forced the Irish into a bevy of third and longs. And when the third quarter came around and the Irish started to convert on them with passes to Eifert and Wood and reciever Theo Riddick, the Trojan defense stayed tough and didn’t crack like they had in previous games.
A month ago the Trojans dominated the Arizona State defense at times, moving the ball at will between the twenties, yet repeatedly turning the ball over in the red zone, allowing the Sun Devils to turn the game into a rout on paper. Saturday, the game went an entire 180 degrees in a different direction. The Irish moved the ball with long drives in the third and fourth quarter, but the Trojans would bear down and withstand it, forcing three gigantic turnovers on four of the final Notre Dame drives.
The first came with the Irish about to tie the game late in the third quarter. On third and goal from the one yard line, backup quarterback Dayne Crist fumbled the snap. The ball bounced around until USC safety Jawanza Starling scooped up the loose ball and took it in for what ended up being the game winning score, 99 yards from where the Irish snapped it. The play absolutely turned the game upside down. The Irish had used up nearly seven minutes of clock on 19 plays to take the ball 88 yards, only to turn it over on the doorstep. And even after the Irish came right back on the next possession and scored for the only time all game against the USC defense, the Trojans put the game away with a pivotal, well-coached turnover with 8:46 left to play.
Robey is lifted up by LB Dion Bailey after his clinching interception late in the fourth quarter.
Irish quarterback Tommy Rees threw a backwards pass to Cierre Wood out of the backfield, and for the second time in as many quarters, it was only players in white jerseys that dove for the ball. Wood pulled up and allowed Chris Galippo to recover the ball at the 18 yard line, setting up the second Barkley-to-Woods connection to give the Trojans a 31-17 lead. Three plays into the next Irish drive, Nickell Robey picked off Rees to put the nail in the coffin, just like Arizona State’s Shelly Lyons stepped in front of a Matt Barkley thrown ball a month ago in Tempe, ensuring the Trojans’ first defeat of the year.
It was 28 days between the games in Tempe and South Bend, and three wins later, it’s more than clear that the Trojans now have a proven head coach in Lane Kiffin, and a very respectable 6-1 record. Kiffin has received plenty of criticism in his two years at Troy, and most of it has been very well deserved. But for one day at least, Kiffin will go down as one of the best coaches in the country, after leading USC to the most well-coached USC victory in a long, long time.
The Trojans only committed two penalties, never turned the ball over, and took advantage of everything the Irish game them. When a taunting penalty kept a second quarter drive alive, Andre Heidari added three points with a field goal. When the Irish turned the ball over three times in the second half, the Trojans scored after the first two and were stopped at the two yard line after the third only because time ran out on Lane Kiffin’s first every win of the Jeweled Shillelagh.
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