Things To Learn: USC rivalry should be enough to revive Notre Dame, break Marcus Freeman's stoicism

It took a decade, but at the end of his Notre Dame tenure, Brian Kelly leaned all the way into the Irish rivalry with USC. He hinted at it in 2019 — “To win against your rival is one of the things that we’ve wanted to do,” he said after his third straight win against the Trojans. — but only in 2021 did Kelly approach becoming USC’s heel.

It began when he tied Knute Rockne’s all-time wins record at Notre Dame that September, crediting the fact that the university had kept one director of athletics and one president throughout his entire coaching tenure. When Kelly left South Bend a few months later after 12 seasons as the Irish head coach, USC was on its third president since Kelly was hired, its fourth athletic director and hired its sixth head coach 36 hours before Kelly’s LSU plans became public.

Kelly did not necessarily need to point toward the Trojans when he tied Rockne at 105 wins, but he did so, anyway.

“We’re going to play our rival, and they’ve had a number of different head coaches at their university,” Kelly said. “I’m talking about our rival on the West Coast, and this is not to smear them at all. It requires consistency to get to these marks.”

Kids these days would call that “catching a stray.”

Kelly doubled down when Notre Dame beat USC the next month, a 31-16 win coming off the rivalry’s first year off since World War II.

“It’s our rivalry game at Notre Dame,” he said after that win. “I know there’s a lot of teams that play us and consider it a big rivalry, and certainly I understand why, but this is our game and it means a lot, it means a lot to our kids, it means a lot to our university, everybody associated with it. To come out victorious feels really good.”

That was all rather generic, if still to the point. More abruptly, Kelly was later asked about winning four in a row against USC. He cut off the question.

“Seven out of 10. I don’t keep count.”

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Notre Dame needs to prove its offense functions at home, particularly against a paltry Trojans defense, but the greater long-term wonder this weekend is if Irish head coach Marcus Freeman has fully recognized he should embrace this rivalry.

This is Freeman’s third year in this game, a long ways to go before he can match Kelly’s South Bend wherewithal, but Freeman has made a show of embracing the university more than Kelly ever did. Last year, he turned to then-offensive coordinator Tommy Rees for some insights into the rivalry. But now, Freeman has as much experience against the Trojans as anyone else in the Notre Dame program.

Fifth-year cornerback Cam Hart and fifth-year linebacker Marist Liufau played on special teams against USC in 2019, but neither recorded a stat. No other lingering fifth-year player (or even sixth-year safety DJ Brown, sixth-year receiver Matt Salerno or sixth-year long snapper Michael Vinson) played in that Irish win. They were around for Kelly building up the rivalry behind the scenes, but none had the chance to fully embrace it until 2021, when Freeman was on staff.

Those veteran defenders will have their hands full on Saturday night at 7:30 ET on NBC against No. 10 USC (6-0) and defending Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams, but one can wonder if any of them will channel former Notre Dame linebacker Bo Bauer’s blunt assessment from after that 2021 win.

“You just kind of have that realization that when you go into other games, it’s like their Super Bowl every time, and it’s like a big thing for them,” Bauer said. “For us, beating USC is that big game for us. It’s always great to beat Southern Cal. It’s just something you need to do every year.”

Bauer said he understood the rivalry as his first USC game approached, the Tony Jones-punctuated 24-17 win on the road in 2018 that sent Notre Dame to the College Football Playoff.

The Irish needed no added motivation that night. An unbeaten season was on the line, the second one under Kelly to be sealed in Los Angeles, chapters in the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football. (It is also, arguably, the only intersectional rivalry in college football.)

No. 21 Notre Dame (5-2) may need some added impetus this week, any Playoff hopes dashed last week at Louisville.

“You don’t pick and choose when you get ready for an opponent,” Freeman said Monday. “You have to continue to get ready the way we’re supposed to even after a loss.”

He did not lean into any rivalry thought there, but it would be a missed opportunity not to dial it up behind the scenes and acknowledge it afterward. College football has been filled with public shoots this season — Deion Sanders against nearly everyone; Dan Lanning against Colorado; Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark in favor of Texas Tech instead of Texas; Ryan Day’s umbrage with Lou Holtz; Lane Kiffin trolling Nick Saban; this list could go on for paragraphs — a trend that will only continue with social media, TV contracts and whatever other dynamics further it.

Usually a stoic, Freeman need not shy away from that trend, particularly not when it comes to USC. Just like Kelly missed much of the 2005 rendition of this rivalry because Central Michigan was routing Ohio, Freeman missed that “Bush Push” as Ohio State came back against Michigan State.

But if any one rivalry marks Notre Dame football, it is USC. Williams bested the Irish last year. Freeman vs. Lincoln Riley will define Notre Dame football for much of the 2020s.

Publicly owning that would only help the Irish forget about last week’s miseries. This is the beauty of college football, of rivalries. There do not need to be greater stakes, these are enough. Programs, players or fans who miss that thought are missing the ethos of college football.

That said, there are greater stakes this weekend, a Notre Dame opportunity not presented since that 2005 classic.

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