USC Trojans

LOS ANGELES -- Notes, quotes and anecdotes from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum after USC's (7-5, 5-4 Pac-12) 22-13 loss to Notre Dame (12-0).

Lane Kiffin comments:

On the Irish: “Notre Dame showed me that they have phenomenal senior leadership. I think Coach Kelly said at the luncheon that they have 28 seniors on the team. You can see those guys understand the game. They play well together; they are very physical. They are not very exotic, but they don’t give things up. You can see that today that they went 69 plays without allowing a turnover.”

On QB Max Wittek: “I thought Max did really well under the circumstances. Playing the No. 1 team in the country, I thought he did a good job handling himself.”

On what he would tell the fans: “I am disappointed too. I know those are not our standards here, regardless of the scholarship situation. We have to do better and obviously that starts with me.”

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly comments:

On the victory: “If you followed us at all this year, that’s how we’ve played. We come up big defensively sometime during the game. We did that again.”

On his team’s goal-line stand: “Unbelievable goal line stand. To hold any program, any team, to get inside your two and come up with a goal-line stand. We ran the ball effectively in the fourth quarter when we needed to get those three points on the board. Those were the two critical parts of the game for us.”

(Read full post)

LOS ANGELES -- Brian Kelly emerged from the Coliseum field flanked by security guards left and right, looking nearly disheveled. He held his white Notre Dame baseball cap up toward the sky in a brief moment of bravado, his ensuing toss falling a good 10 feet short of the fans.

The coach of the nation's No. 1 team was already near his locker room by the time the cap landed, his star player rushing to catch up to him. Kelly and Manti Te'o embraced, the 51-year-old bear-hugging the linebacker, looking more excited than any of his players were after they had just pulled off the unthinkable.

"I can't remember what I said," Kelly recalled of the moment. "But what we've been saying all along is that we're in this together. It's really been about both of us, player and coach, driving this thing. And I think we were probably sharing that embrace, that we got it one step closer."

From South Bend, Ind., to Southern California, the Fighting Irish now will march on to South Beach, one step closer to holding up that prized crystal football. They will do it after winning Saturday night at rival USC, 22-13, to clinch a spot in the BCS National Championship Game, which will be played Jan. 7 in Miami Gardens, Fla.

They will go there under a third-year coach, the standard for all legendary Notre Dame leaders, four of whom won national titles with the Irish in Year 3 and have statues on campus to show for it.

They will go there under the nation's best defensive player, who has emerged as an icon amid personal tragedy, who might or might not have some hardware already in hand after another interception Saturday, his seventh of the season.

"If a guy like Manti Te'o's not going to win the Heisman, they should just make it an offensive award," Kelly said afterward. "Give it to the offensive player every year, and let's just cut to the chase. He is the backbone of a 12-0 football team that has proven itself each and every week, and showed it tonight again with another key interception and a great play in the end zone on Marqise Lee to save another touchdown.

"If the Heisman Trophy is what it is, I just don't know how Manti Te'o is left out of that conversation."

With the Irish up 19-10 early in the fourth quarter, Te'o hit Lee, USC's Heisman candidate, in the back of the end zone on a third-and-goal play, forcing the ball to the ground and forcing the Trojans to settle for a field goal.

Te'o and the Notre Dame defense returned to that area of the field on USC's next drive, after a 43-yard Lee kick return and a 53-yard Lee reception. Backs against the wall, a 22-13 lead and a little more than five minutes from a perfect regular season, the Irish lined up, prepared to stop a first-and-goal play from the 2.

Eight plays and three minutes later, the visitors sideline was coming apart at the seams, Notre Dame's fate all but sealed. The Irish had kept USC's lethal attack out of the end zone, again. They had made a remarkable goal-line stand, again.

Six weeks earlier, against Stanford, Notre Dame had kept the Cardinal out of the end zone on four consecutive overtime plays from inside the 5. That was the moment everything came to fruition for athletic director Jack Swarbrick, who confessed Saturday night that this season's title run had come a year earlier than expected.

"Coming into the year, I thought Stanford was the test," Swarbrick said. "I just think in the past two years they were more physical than we were, bigger and tougher than we were. I thought, 'That's going to be our benchmark.' And when we survived that, especially the way we did, I thought this team had a chance."

Swarbrick came to Notre Dame as a student in 1973, just in time for Ara Parseghian's second national title. He graduated in the spring of 1977, just missing Dan Devine's first.

He came back to his alma mater four years ago, before a season that ended in this same building, the reporters that time surrounding him for comment about the status of former coach Charlie Weis after another blowout loss here.

"It's what gets you up in the morning," Swarbrick said of restoring the Notre Dame lore.

He helped do that by hiring Kelly, who now has a 12-0 team for the second time in four years. His previous one, at Cincinnati, did not get to play for the national title. This one, after entering the season unranked, after enduring questions from quarterback play to recruiting methods to injury concerns, will.

"We believed in each other," Te'o said of the journey, which took a detour last season after a loss to USC, leading to Kelly comments that threatened to fracture the locker room. "Our coaches believed in us, and we believed in our coaches. It showed the type of camaraderie we have on our team. It's the camaraderie on our team that has helped us be successful."

Upon reaching the visitors locker room after Saturday's win, Kelly greeted a group of players who were, in his words, singing and dancing and laughing. He said a few words to them before presenting the game ball to Theo Riddick, who had carved up the Trojans for 146 rushing yards.

Then Te'o, the leader who spurned USC four years ago for Notre Dame, who spurned the NFL last season for this moment, stood up unexpectedly. He said a few words himself, these ones about his coach, and then he presented Kelly with a game ball of his own. Teammates called it a speechless moment.

Notre Dame is back on college football's grandest stage. Not much else is left to be said.

What: USC Trojans (7-4 overall, 5-4 in Pac-12) vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (11-0)

When: Saturday, November 24, 5 p.m. PT

Where: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

TV: ABC

Radio: ESPNLA 710 (pregame show begins at 12 p.m.)

Scouting Notre Dame: As Notre Dame celebrates its 125th year of football, third-year coach Brian Kelly has his squad off to its best start (11-0) since 1993 following last Saturday’s 38-0 home victory over Wake Forest.

Sophomore QB Everett Golson (151-of-256, 59.0 percent, 1,918 yards, 11 TD, five INT in 2012, plus 80 carries, 258 yards, 3.2 per carry, five TD) has been directing the offense. Top rushers include senior RBs Theo Riddick (160 carries, 734 yards, 4.6 per carry, four TD, plus 32 rec for 331 yards, a 10.3 avg and one TD), a converted wide receiver, and Cierre Wood (102 carries for 720 yards, a 7.1 average and four TD, plus two receptions for nine yards) and sophomore RB George Atkinson III (49 carries for 346 tards, a 7.1 average and five TD, plus 15 kick returns for 307 yards, 20.5 avg). Senior TE Tyler Eifert (40 receptions, 555 yards, 13.9 avg, four TD), a 2011 All-American, and junior WR TJ Jones (40 receptions, 519 yards, 13.0 avg, four TD) lead the pass-catching corps.

The Irish sport one of the nation’s top defenses, as it ranks first nationally in scoring defense (10.1), fifth in rushing defense (92.2), sixth in total defense (287.8), 11th in pass-efficiency defense (104.6), 13th in sacks (2.8) and 24th in pass defense (195.6). ND has held five opponents to single digits and 10 to fewer than 20 points. Senior ILB Manti Te’o (98 tackles, 5.5 for loss, 1.5 sacks, six INT, two fumble recoveries) is the heart of the ND defense. Sophomore DE Stephon Tuitt (40 tackles, 13 for loss, 12 sacks, three forced fumbles) is tied for eighth nationally in sacks per game (1.0), while junior CB Bennett Jackson (55 tackles, 1.5 for loss, four INT) is tied for 19th in interceptions. -- courtesy USC sports information