What a fitting way for Notre Dame football to conclude the 2024 regular season.
Everything is on the line against your biggest rival. No reason to hold anything back. Let him rip, win and land a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff. Lose and you get no CFP place.
The Irish have been here before, but it doesn’t have to be the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where they’re playing for the 49th time in a series that dates back to black-and-white photos and train rides of the 1920s.
Here, for these Irish, you have to win to make their playoff dream come true. In 2012, Notre Dame won at USC to secure a spot in the national championship game. In 2018, Notre Dame won at USC to clinch a spot in the four-team CFP. Could the third time be a good thing too?
Let’s head to the west coast and find out.
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Analysis: Army football coach Jeff Monken calls Notre Dame a “great football team” after 49-14 loss.
N°5 NOTRE DAME IRISH FIGHTER (10-1)
DT Donovan Hinish (41)
When D-line cornerstone Howard Cross III lay on the Notre Dame Stadium turf with an injured left ankle against Florida State, the overriding concern was, uh, oh. The Irish were going to miss Cross exponentially, no matter how long he was gone.
Enter Hinish, who has done much to plug the gaping hole along the defensive front left by Cross, who missed the last two games. That’s no big deal for the 6-foot-2, 278-pounder (give or take a few pounds) from Pittsburgh. Hinish hasn’t been Cross like in the middle, but he hasn’t been that far either.
Hinish had five tackles with two sacks against Florida State. In his first career start against Virginia, he had four tackles, a sack and a quarterback hurry. Last week in New York against this run-heavy Army team, Hinish again finished with five tackles.
Take it back to the heat and humidity of that late August night in Texas against A&M. All Hinish did to open the season was make a career-best five saves.
Hinish has been at his best in big matches. Saturday certainly qualifies. Notre Dame’s defense has limited its last six opponents to 250 yards or less. It all starts right from the start and starts with the work done by Hinish. Cross could play on Saturday, but if he doesn’t, Hinish can take care of him.
RB Jeremiah Love (4)
Seven carries for 130 yards for a ridiculous 18.6 yards per carry with two rushing touchdowns and a third reception Saturday at Yankee Stadium should have served as a coming out party for the 6-foot, 210-pound sophomore from St. Louis.
Except… Love was already at the party. Life is in many ways for an Irish offense that has had some serious success of late. Run for meters. Score touchdowns. Defeat opposing defenses with a variety of weapons and assets. If Love doesn’t run away from them, he’ll just jump over them, like he did Saturday for his first score against an Army defender who’s probably still wondering where Love went.
We last highlighted Love as a player to watch in Week 3, before Purdue’s 66-7 loss. We were left wondering when offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock would unlock Love and his myriad of skills. Consider Love Unblocked.
Love carried 121 times for 850 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also has 19 catches for 168 yards and two more scores. A rushing touchdown Saturday in Los Angeles would give him a school record of 12 consecutive games with a rushing touchdown, breaking Wayne Bullock’s 50-year-old record.
In a city of stars, expect one of Notre Dame’s brightest to rise to the occasion.
USC TROJANS (6-5)
QB Jayden Maiava (14)
Here’s what he says about Maiava, a 6’4”, 220-pound redshirt sophomore who transferred from UNLV last spring, on the USC football website : “He seems to be competing for playing time.”
For the first nine weeks, Maiava played the role of backup quarterback — getting reps when he could, holding a clipboard and/or signaling plays to starter Miller Moss, who made many believe the spot The QB was in good hands after Caleb Williams after he set a Holiday Bowl record last December with six touchdown passes. USC would trust Moss. Or so it seemed.
Nine matches until 2024, after the Trojan horses After losing four of five, Moss, who had 2,555 yards and 18 touchdowns, lost his job and subsequently entered the transfer portal.
The work of the last two weeks has been Maiava’s work. He’s not going to keep Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden up at night this week with his running potential. He prefers to stay in the pocket. In five games, he has totaled 546 yards and four touchdowns while completing 64.2 percent of his passes. He went 25 of 35 for 259 yards and three scores in his debut against Nebraska, then helped SC win the rivalry game against UCLA by going 19 of 25 for 221 yards and a score.
He’s the craziest joker in this one.
MLB Easton Mascarenas-Arnold (4)
An angry Mascarenas-Arnold is an effective Mascarenas-Arnold for a USC defense that sorely needed something like this – really, someone – after too many seasons of buttery smoothness.
The 6-foot, 231-pound senior from Mission Viejo, Calif., was recently quoted as saying, “When I play good, I play mean.”
Mean worked. Eleven games into his only season at USC after transferring from Oregon State in the spring (he opted out and did not play against Notre Dame in the 2023 Sun Bowl), Mascarenas-Arnold has been a one-man defensive wrecking crew at middle linebacker. place. After making a career-high 107 tackles in 2023 at Oregon State, he leads the Trojans in solo tackles (50), is second in assists (38) and first in total tackles (88) with the next closest defender at 68. He also has 5.0 tackles for loss (third on the team), 3.0 sacks (first), two interceptions (tied for first) and two quarter rushes (tied for second).
All this from someone whose family background may have made him better suited to hitting a baseball rather than hitting opposing ball carriers. Mascarenas-Arnold’s mother, Toni, was a softball pitcher in Arizona who competed in the College World Series. It is named after the Easton Bat company. But this match seemed too slow for him, so he turned to football. It’s arranged.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at [email protected]
This article was originally published on South Bend Tribune: There’s nothing better than Notre Dame football visiting USC football
