Notre Dame Football: 3 bold predictions vs. USC in Week 13

1. Jerry Tillery sets Notre Dame’s single-season sack record

Only three players in Notre Dame history have recorded four sacks in a game. It will come as little surprise that Justin Tuck, Notre Dame’s single-season leader in sacks, achieved this on two occasions. Defensive end Victor Abiamiri did the same in 2005, leaving this season’s Jerry Tillery as the only other Notre Dame player to record four sacks in a game.

Now Tillery and the rest of the Irish defensive front will look to made life difficult for a USC offensive line that has allowed 25 sacks this season. Having played 11 games this season, the Trojans are on pace to allow nearly three sacks per game in 2018. Given the potential for a blowout this weekend, Tillery is primed for a big outing.

Not only would five sacks put Tillery over 10 on the season, they would come against a USC squad that got the best of Tillery early in his college career. In the midst of a blowout loss in 2014, Tillery was flagged for unnecessary roughness call late, immediately sending him into Brian Kelly’s doghouse.

A big game here will be quite the testament to how Tillery has grown not only as a player, but as a person. Tillery has become one of the more interesting players in all of college football, studying abroad in numerous countries while solidifying himself as one of the nation’s best interior lineman.