Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
By Dan McGrath
Chicago Tribune
(MCT)
LOS ANGELES - On a cool, uncommonly clear Saturday evening in Southern California, Notre Dame found itself facing the gold standard of college football before a noisy packed house at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
The Irish failed to measure up, taking a 44-24 spanking from the USC Trojans, who were out to prove they are a better BCS title-game opponent for mighty Ohio State than narrowly vanquished Big Ten rival Michigan.
USC just might have done so.
Notre Dame, meanwhile, laid another big-game egg.
Given the pratfall against Ohio State in last season's Fiesta Bowl and a home-field mauling by Michigan in this season's third week, the gap between the Irish and the college game's elite may be wider than ND followers had come to believe, misled as they were by a 10-1 record against a so-so (at best) schedule.
Now the Irish are 10-2, and where that lands them in the bowl picture is open to speculation. The two losses - to exceptional teams, granted - came by a total of 46 points, and that doesn't speak well of their worthiness for a big stage crowded with several aspirants.
But they are Notre Dame, the Irish travel well and TV loves them, which counts for a lot in college football.
Just not on the field.
"No excuses," Irish coach Charlie Weis said. "We lost to a better team. They won on offense, defense and special teams. They made more plays than we did."
Unbeaten Ohio State has been the pollsters' choice as the No. 1 team in the land this season; but over the last four years there has not been a better college team than the Trojans. They're 55-3 in their last 58 games, the three losses coming by a total of eight points.
Notre Dame had dropped four straight in the series, three 31-point blowouts, and in extending the losing streak to five the Irish did what they could not afford to do: They failed to control the ball and keep it away from USC's rocket-powered offense, taking themselves out of four first-half possessions with a penalty, two dropped passes and a fumble deep in USC territory.
Meanwhile, their overly generous defense surrendered five plays of 20 yards or more on the Trojans' first three possessions, each of which ended in a touchdown that gave USC a 21-3 lead less than three minutes into the second quarter.
Quarterback John David Booty completed seven of his first nine passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns on those three possessions. After that he was more efficient than spectacular, though player of the game Dwayne Jarrett helped him out with two exceptional grabs and three touchdown catches among his seven. The Trojans clearly had the better athletes, but they also had some lampshade-on-the-head moments before halftime. Notre Dame special-teamer Steve Quinn blocked a punt and Booty threw interceptions to Mike Richardson and Trevor Laws on back-to-back possessions. The Irish turned the punt block into a Quinn touchdown pass to tight end Marcus Freeman, but failed to get so much as a first down after the other two turnovers.
And when USC moved 65 yards in 10 plays to score after the second-half kickoff, it was over.
Bowl result aside, the Irish have won 10 games for the first time since 2002, but 10-2 might be as good as it gets at Notre Dame, at least for a little while.
Weis has been as good as advertised, with a 19-4 record for his first 23 games that puts him in the company of Notre Dame's best: Knute Rockne (20-1-2), Ara Parseghian (19-3-1) and Frank Leahy (18-2-3).
Lou Holtz, by comparison, was 13-10 after 23 games. Bob Davie was 16-7 and Tyrone Willingham was 14-9, so there is a sense of a corner turned.
And Weis' record has been achieved almost entirely with Willingham's players. Offensive tackle Sam Young, a true freshman, was the only Weis recruit to start against USC, and just a handful have seen the field with any regularity.
Brady Quinn, Rhema McKnight, Jeff Samardzija, the offensive and defensive lines ... seniors, one and all. And very hard guys to replace.
The reversal of fortunes and Weis' pass-happy style of play appear to have restored Notre Dame's allure among the nation's recruits, but college football isn't college basketball. Even the best prospects need time to develop into meaningful contributors.
But if Weis can exceed expectations with another man's players, won't it be interesting to see what he can do with his own - this is the guy who "coached up" Tom Brady into a Super Bowl quarterback. He thinks he's pretty good at this.
Last season's Fiesta Bowl thumping, this season's mauling by Michigan and an 0-2 record against USC should serve notice that the college game isn't as easy as it might have looked to Weis at times. They won't shake his confidence, but the Irish have to start showing up in the big games for the Weis Era to be judged anything special.