Saturday Blitz
Fansided

Notre Dame Football: 3 takeaways from much-needed win over USC

By Connor Muldowney

Oct 23, 2021; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Kyren Williams (23) runs the ball as USC Trojans cornerback Isaac Taylor-Stuart (6) defends in the first quarter at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 23, 2021; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Kyren Williams (23) runs the ball as USC Trojans cornerback Isaac Taylor-Stuart (6) defends in the first quarter at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 3
Next

The last time we saw Notre Dame football, it was playing from behind and picking up a big road win over Virginia Tech. It was one week after the Irish’s first loss of the season and they rebounded nicely to beat the Hokies on the road by three points.

After a bye week, the Irish hosted USC in hopes of reaching bowl eligibility and remaining in the College Football Playoff race. The No. 13 team in the country took care of business against the Trojans, dominating from start to finish en route to a 31-16 win.

Notre Dame was up 17-3 at halftime as both sides of the ball were playing well and the Irish cruised to a 15-point win, leading by as much as 21 in the second half.

What did we learn from Notre Dame’s sixth win of the year?

3. Notre Dame might dominate this rivalry for a while

Notre Dame has won three straight in this rivalry and four out of five and it doesn’t look like that dominance is going to end any time soon.

The Irish looked like the clear superior team on Saturday night and that gap is only going to widen over the next few years as the Trojans look for their next head coach. They’ll likely be in rebuild mode next season and it’ll take 1-2 years after that for the Trojans to really be contenders.

Plus, Notre Dame is fairly young. Guys like Michael Mayer, Kyren Williams, and Tyler Buchner are freshmen or sophomores and they’re going to give the Trojans fits for years.

This rivalry is about to be lopsided in the coming years.

Home/Notre Dame Fighting Irish