College Football Rivalry Matchup – USC Trojans at Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Saturday, October 17, 3:30 p.m. EST
Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, IN
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and USC Trojans will resume their so-called rivalry on Saturday with the Irish faithful hoping they can finally win one and make into a real rivalry yet again.
CLICK HERE FOR THE TOP ONLINE NCAA-F Handicappers Plays For This Week —–>
There’s no better year than this year for Notre Dame to finally get the best of their hated foes from the west as the Trojans are having a rebuilding year while Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis’ squad has finally matured and has an upperclassman leader at QB in Jimmy Clausen.
Clausen is even in the Heisman race according to some pundits and he has a great chance to stake his claim for the award against a tough USC defense on Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium.
The Irish will take the field for this college football game as underdogs against the spread yet again, this time to the tune of +10 ½ against the favored USC Trojans.
The over-under for the game is 50 and Notre Dame might want it to be high-scoring because they possess the most experienced offense and are probably capable of leading more scoring drives in the clutch than USC with freshman QB Matt Barkley at the helm. 
At the same time, however, ND wants to negate the speed advantage USC has in this one so expect to see the grass grown long like it has been in pass USC-ND clashes in South Bend. That could lead to a points total that ends up under in this college football game and could help ND cover the spread as well.
ND is 2-4 against the spread in its last 6 at home against USC and USC is 6-1 against the spread in its last 7 college football games against the Irish, but those were in games involving much better USC teams and in most cases a worse Notre Dame team.
In this one, expect the Heisman candidate Clausen to use his passing to at least keep the game close against USC.
Notre Dame’s defense isn’t as good as Ohio State’s, who held USC in check virtually the whole game until the game-winning drive, but it is competent and better than people think it is.
Notre Dame could very well hold USC to 25 points or less in this one considering it’s on the road.
The Irish offense should be able to score some points and Charlie Weis most likely has some tricks in store for USC as this is pretty much his last stand as Irish head coach. If Weis doesn’t at least come close he could be on the way to a sure firing in the next few months.
With that threat as a motivator look for Weis’ Irish to come out and play USC tough before falling late due to a defensive breakdown.
The pick: Notre Dame +10 ½ and the under (50).
