My last Notre Dame football game on campus was the Duke game in 2016. It was a disaster and there’s no blog post because it wasn’t worth blogging about. The last Notre Dame win I went to on campus was Stanford in 2014. That was also the last football game I attended in October. Since then, I have purposely avoided games in October because I didn’t want to miss the Dodgers in the playoffs. I broke that rule this year for a couple of reasons. First, the Dodgers won the World Series in 2020 and 2024. I still wouldn’t miss a World Series game, but the sense of urgency to see every playoff game isn’t as strong as it was when the Dodgers went three plus decades without winning the World Series. And second, there was the possibility of this being the last Notre Dame-USC game. I definitely want the series to continue, but in case it is the last game, I didn’t want to miss it.
Let’s briefly review my history attending ND-USC games and when that intersected with the Dodgers in the playoffs:
2005- This was the most heartbreaking loss I ever attended in any sport. Of course, Reggie Bush was a professional athlete at a time when that was still not allowed in college athletics.
2009- We trailed 34-14 in the fourth quarter and came back and got to the four yard line with a chance to tie it, but we threw three straight incompletions and lost 34-27. This was when I officially gave up on Charlie Weis. I wouldn’t have been opposed to replacing him after the 2008 season, but this is when I knew it was necessary. He was 0-5 against USC and 4-6 against Michigan and Michigan State. That was not close to being good enough. I missed the Dodgers winning Game 2 of the NLCS against the Phillies to fly out for the game and the Dodgers lost the other four games of the series.
2011- It was the first night game at home since 1990. There was a lot of hype, but two conflicting forces were at work: Brian Kelly being bad in big games and Brian Kelly being good against USC. Brian Kelly being bad in big games won this time and we lost 31-17.
2013- I finally got to see us beat USC in a very ugly game by a score of 14-10. The Dodgers were playing the Cardinals in the NLCS. Game 6 was Friday night when I was flying out. I was supposed to take the bus to campus and stay with Jon because he was in law school. Instead, I got a room at the O’Hare Hilton so that I could watch the game. The Dodgers got blown out and were eliminated. If they had won, Game 7 would have been at the same time as we were playing USC. I don’t know what I would have done. If I was in that situation now, I would have no problem going to ND-USC. But it had been 25 years since the Dodgers had been to the World Series at that point and Notre Dame already had two losses that season.
This year, I knew the schedule would line up with me traveling during Game 4 of the NLCS and the game would be the same day as Game 5. I wouldn’t want to miss any World Series game even if the Dodgers weren’t playing in it, but for the NLCS it would only be an issue if the Dodgers were playing in it. I didn’t want to miss the Dodgers, but I would have been okay with it if it happened.
As it turned out, I didn’t miss much. I flew JetBlue on Friday night during Game 4. I got TBS on the plane so I was able to watch the first five innings on the plane. They scored three runs in the first and they were well on their way to the World Series. The TV service was pretty good, but it did cut out a few times. It cut out at one point and came back right after Shohei Ohtani’s second home run (the one he hit over the pavilion). So when I got to Chicago the Dodgers led 4-0. Ohtani was pitching and hitting (the way God intended baseball to be played). He pitched six scoreless innings and hit two home runs (and then added another home run later as a silly DH). I originally booked an airport hotel, but then I found one pretty close to Millennium Station and booked that because it would be more convenient for getting to and from the game. I kept my original hotel room and canceled the second reservation because I figured I would be able to get to the airport hotel in time for the end of the game. I got there and saw the ninth inning. The Dodgers won 5-1. I would have been very okay with the Dodgers winning the series in five games and missing Game 5, but sweeping the series and not having to worry about Game 5 was beautiful. I got a personal deep dish pizza delivered from Lou Malnati’s. I think Lou Malnati’s is supposed to be a pretty well known Chicago pizza place, but this was not good. And this isn’t just my opposition to the idea of saying that something that isn’t pizza is pizza. I’ve had deep dish pizza before that was good (even though it wasn’t pizza). This just wasn’t good.
The next morning, I left my hotel the following day around 9:30 in the morning central time. I got back at 2:45 the following morning. I took the CTA to Millennium Station (which looks exactly the same as it did in the Dark Knight 17 years ago). I took the South Shore Line to South Bend. I got to campus around 2:45 eastern. I walked around for a bit and saw stuff that I wanted to see. I got a hot dog from a concession stand on campus. I was planning on getting a cheeseburger later, but that didn’t happen because of the weather. I think that was God’s way of reminding me that cheeseburgers are for bye weeks (as Notre Dame football fans from the Charlie Weis era know). I went to the 4:00 Mass in the crypt of the basilica.
The sky was looking ominous, but it was good to be back on campus for a football game. I will stop by the Grotto whenever I’m on campus, but it’s better when it’s not right before a football game and there’s not a huge crowd.
After Mass, I was meeting up with my friend Tim. I think the last time I saw him was at the Oklahoma game in 2013. He was in the lounge at our old dorm, St. Ed’s. That turned out to be a really good place to be because the weather got really bad from about 5:00-6:30. At first, it was just Tim, his son, his friend, and me in there. A few more former St. Ed’s residents came in later. But we got to hang out at a place that wasn’t crowded and we watched some football and waited to be able to go to the game. I found one report that said South Bend had 0.74 inches of rain that day. We missed the worst of it while we were in St. Ed’s.
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| I’m sure there were much worse places to be on campus when the weather got really bad. |
I was still concerned about the weather for the game. The forecast had been looking really bad for a few days. I didn’t mind rain, but I really didn’t want to deal with a delay. Fortunately the weather for the game was pretty good. It didn’t rain much in the first half. It rained for most of the second half and it was getting heavier, but it never really got too bad. It wasn’t cold (67 degrees) and there wasn’t too much wind so that was good. But I felt like I feel at the first game of a doubleheader in the Big East Tournament. I’m always rooting for a quick game because I want to be able to stay for as much of the second game as possible (because I’ve been going on Thursdays lately and I have work the next day). This time, I was rooting for a quick game because I wanted the game to get played before there could be a lightning delay. Fortunately, the only lightning was before the game and there were no delays. If there had been a delay, making it back to Chicago in time for my 6:45 flight the next morning could have been an issue.
Anyway, things got off to a good start with USC winning the coin toss and taking the ball. I’m still mad about Brian Kelly doing this. It makes no sense. Why would you not want to start the second half with the ball? Yes, they did score a touchdown, but there’s so much of the game left to play. Last year in the championship game, we got the ball first (because Ohio State did the smart thing and deferred). They were leading 14-7 and then scored with 27 seconds left in the first half to make it 21-7. Then they got the ball to start the second half and scored again to make it 28-7. We did fight back to make it kind of interesting at the end, but the game was pretty much over when they scored back to back touchdowns to end the first half and start the second half. That is why you always defer. Taking the ball is so stupid.
My thoughts on the stadium: I had the jumbotron behind me. It’s good to be able to see replays. I like how they took out the scoreboard on the other side of the field so that I was able to see Touchdown Jesus. They absolutely need to bring back real grass in the stadium. A game in the rain was cool, but it would have been more fun on a grass field (the way God intended football to be played).
On our first possession, alternated between incompletions and Jeremiyah Love runs. His first run was for 63 yards. His second run went 12 yards for a touchdown. It was a sign of how the game would go. CJ Carr was not very good. Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price were awesome. Love had 228 yards (a record for a Notre Dame player in Notre Dame Stadium) and a touchdown on 24 carries and 37 yards on five catches. Price had 87 yards on 13 carries and a touchdown, one catch for nine yards, and two kick returns for 113 yards (100 on one return) and a touchdown.
After a USC field goal (their kicker was good, ours was not), we traded punts for the rest of the first quarter. We took our first lead when Jadarian Price ran for 16 yards and a touchdown early in the second quarter. We got a turnover on downs when USC threw incomplete on fourth and three at our 19 yard line. It looked like we were on our way to take control of the game when we had first and goal at the 3 yard line on the following possession. We ran the ball very well in this game, but not in short yardage situations (it seems like we’ve been bad at running in short yardage situations forever except for last year with Riley Leonard). Love had two carries for one yard. Then on third and goal, CJ Carr threw pretty much the worst interception that you can imagine. It wasn’t a good play call, but Carr needed to just throw it away. USC made a field goal to make it 14-13 going into halftime.
Fortunately, we got the ball to start the second half and we scored a touchdown on a six yard pass to Will Pauling. USC got another field goal to make it 21-16. We had another opportunity to make it a two-possession game, but we had a run for four yards and two incompletions followed by a punt. USC took three plays to go 71 yards. They scored on a 59 yard pass and then got the two-point conversion to take a 24-21 lead.
I was feeling pretty frustrated. We were better than USC, but we were not playing well. It was a competitive game, but it didn’t need to be. It felt like it might end up being a stupid loss. Fortunately, Jadarian Price wasn’t having any of that. Right after USC took the lead, Price returned a kickoff 100 yards to retake the lead. But even with that, a missed extra point added to the frustration.
Fortunately, our defense played well for the rest of the game and USC never retook the lead. Christian Gray intercepted a pass on the next USC possession. But still, we couldn’t take advantage and our drive ended with a missed 31 yard field goal. Then we got another turnover. I was listening to a podcast previewing the game and one of the hosts was saying how Lincoln Riley is a great play caller, but he’ll get impatient and do something stupid. That’s exactly what happened. After a 42 yard completion to Makai Lemon (their best wide receiver) that got them to the Notre Dame 37 yard line, they ran a play where Makai Lemon was supposed to pass it. He had nobody open, he fumbled, and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa recovered it. Jeremiyah Love ran for 31 yards on our next possession to make it first and goal at the 5. Two runs by CJ Carr got us into the end zone and it was finally a two-possession game with 7:16 to play. We forced an incompletion on fourth and 1 to end USC’s next possession. We were in very good shape getting the ball back with a 34-24 lead with 5:55 left, but we missed a chance to completely put it away and turned it over on downs with 2:35 left. With just over a minute to go, Luke Talich intercepted a pass to seal the win.
All was right in college football.
The win keeps us alive for the College Football Playoff. After a terrible start (especially on defense), we have played well since then. When we started 0-2, I said that it felt the same as when we were 1-1 last year (our two losses this year weren’t as bad as our one loss last year). We needed to win ten straight games to make the playoff. We’re halfway there. Our defense might not be as good as it was last year, but it’s been pretty good lately. The offense misses Riley Leonard’s rushing ability, but our better passing game gives the offense a higher ceiling. We’ll be favored to win the rest of our games. Hopefully we’ll take care of business and get back to the playoff.
This was my first home night game since the USC game in 2013. It was also my first home football game since the stadium renovations were completed (but it was my second sporting event in the stadium since then because I went to a hockey game in the stadium in 2019). And it was my first game in the stadium with alcohol available, but I didn’t drink anything. The selection was mostly bad, but there was Guinness. The other good option was Bell’s, but that’s a Michigan brewery so I would never drink any of their beer during a Notre Dame football game. They should get some beer from an Indiana brewery in the stadium.
Notre Dame improved its record with me in attendance to 33-12. I’ve seen wins in other places since my the Stanford game in 2014 (my last win was at Yankee Stadium last year), but it had been way too long since I got to see us win at home. I used to get to a lot of home games. After graduating, I still had friends out there as undergraduates or in graduate/law school for six out of seven years. Since then, I don’t have a place to stay. And getting to Notre Dame is a hassle. I considered going to our game against BYU in Las Vegas in 2022 because Las Vegas is easier to get to than South Bend. But I didn’t want to miss this game. I knew Tim was going. Jon had talked about possibly going, but that didn’t happen. There was a chance that it would be our last game against USC and I hadn’t seen us play USC since 2013. It was great to be on campus for a home football win against our rival of 100 years that we might not play again.
I hope the series continues, but if this is how it ends, it was pretty awesome. And why might it end? Because of how incredibly soft Lincoln Riley and USC are. We’ve played them every year for 100 years except for three World War II years and 2020 because of the pandemic (we’re 53-38-5 against them). There is no reason that the rivalry should end. The USC explanation for possibly ending the series is that the game isn’t beneficial for them. And I agree. The game isn’t beneficial when you lose all the time like they have been lately. I despise Pete Carroll, but he would smack Lincoln Riley around for entertaining the thought of ending the series. They should be trying to beat us, not running away from us. They complain about the travel. They have been really bad outside of the Pacific time zone for a while. Of course, they made the decision to join a conference where all of the teams before they joined were in the Eastern and Central time zones. They didn’t have to do that. But they did, so now they have to deal with the consequences. We travel to them every other year and we’ve handled that pretty well lately. USC needs some leadership. Why in the world would they let Lincoln Riley run away from this rivalry? It should be like when Lou Holtz mentioned changing Notre Dame’s helmets. He was told no (and he learned why the answer was no). Lincoln, this is what you signed up for when you took the USC job because you were too afraid of playing in the SEC with Oklahoma. Now he’s afraid of the Eastern and Central time zones. I thought I would miss Clay Helton as USC’s coach. I have not missed him. But USC fans might be missing him because Lincoln Riley’s winning percentage is just barely better than his and Clay Helton didn’t try to get rid of their most historic rivalry. USC needs some people in their leadership like Petros Papadakis. He wants the rivalry to continue without interruption and without moving the game to September or neutral sites or anything like that. Hopefully USC won’t let a crappy coach who isn’t going to be there very long anyway ruin a century of tradition. I want the series to continue for as long as college football is played, but if it doesn’t, we will all know that it ended because of how soft they are.
Lincoln Riley is an embarrassment for USC. At least USC fans can root for the Dodgers in the World Series. Go Dodgers! Go Irish!
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