SOUTH BEND – Long before Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis adorned his office with, among other things, a baseball cap emblazoned with the words "USC owns Notre Dame," he studied how to be a college head coach.
And at the top of his list of successful pro-to-college templates was none other than the coach of the school that owned (and still does) the Irish.
"I have often, and sometimes in jest, said that I’m a plagiarism type of guy," Weis said back in 2005 before he faced USC’s Pete Carroll for the first time in the collegiate ranks. "But usually guys who set the bar, we’re all kind of the same breed. You just kind of tweak it with your own personality."
The two criss-crossed in the pros some, but really only four of the meetings in the NFL were actually ones in which they game-planned directly against each other — all during the 1998 and 1999 seasons, when Carroll was head coach of the Patriots and Weis was Parcells’ offensive coordinator with the Jets.
Weis’ crew came out on top in three of those matchups and scored well in all four, winning 31-10, 24-14 and 28-17, while losing 30- 28.
Saturday’s matchup at Notre Dame Stadium will undoubtedly be the most important to date of any of the meetings on both levels.
Here’s an alphabetical guide to the past, present and perhaps future of this series.
A is for Ambrose Wooden, a Notre Dame junior cornerback in 2005, who, in Irish head coach Charlie Weis’ view, had perfect position on Matt Leinart’s 61-yard pass play to Dwayne Jarrett on fourth-and-nine from the USC 26 late in the fourth quarter of the epic meeting four seasons ago. Wooden did catch Jarrett from behind and bump him out of bounds at the ND 13-yard line. But five plays later, No. 1 USC was celebrating a 34-31 survival in a season in which both teams ended up in the BCS mix. Wooden skipped a chance to try a pro football career and instead went straight into the business world as an analyst for financial firm Goldman Sachs in New York. He had a triumphant return to competitive football this past summer, helping to lead the Notre Dame Football Legends to a 19-3 win over Japan in Tokyo. With quarterback Gary Godsey out with an injury and 1988 national title signal-caller Tony Rice hobbling with a calf injury, Wooden took over at his old high school position – quarterback – and helped close out the victory.
B is for Bob Davie, who laid one of only 16 losses on USC ninth-year coach Pete Carroll in his 108 games with the Trojans — and the only one decided by more than a touchdown. Apparently, though, beating Carroll doesn’t ensure job security. Six weeks and a day after the 27-16 Irish win, Davie was fired.
C is for cold, and that could work to Notre Dame’s benefit. Saturday’s high temperature is supposed to be 53, the low 35. Though no snow is in the forecast, this is South Bend, Ind., after all and forecasts can, well, change. The last time USC played a game in the snow was Nov. 30, 1957, at Notre Dame (the Irish won, 40-12). It was 20 degrees.
D is for dating, which is what single mom Ann Hostetler hoped to gain from having a pair of tickets to the 2005 ND-USC game. Her two daughters and her mother auctioned off a date with her on eBay. The auction drew national attention, though it hit a couple of snags. First, Notre Dame threatened to revoke the future ticket privileges of Hostetler’s grandma, Phyllis Wordinger, a former manager of the Morris Inn dining hall and the provider of the ticket for the auction. Once the ticket office was informed that all proceeds from the auction would go to charity, to prevent child abuse, ND’s stance softened, but then eBay pulled the ad, citing liability issues. The ad was relisted as a one-day auction but didn’t attract the number of bidders or escalating bids the first one did. But it did attract one e-mailer, who offered $25,000 for both tickets if the mom stayed home. Hostetler, then 33, did end up with a date — with a 38-year-old Elkhart man, and the nicest thing she could say about the experience with him was that "at least he was a Notre Dame fan." Would she do it again? "Not on your life," she said.
E is for endorsement. San Jose State head coach Dick Tomey had this to say about USC’s offensive line: "That offensive line is the best I’ve competed against as a coach. They might have four first-round draft choices in that group. They’re fit athletes. There’s not a 300-pounder in the group and they’re quick and athletic." Granted Tomey coaches San Jose State, and he might not see great lines on a weekly basis out in the WAC, but he has been a head coach for 29 years and did spend 14 of those seasons at Arizona.
F is for 4.25 seconds, as in USC’s Taylor Mays’ 40 time. Mays is a 6-3, 235-pound safety.
G is for Garrett Green, USC’s fourth-string quarterback and the only one of the four on the depth chart who wasn’t a top 50 prospect coming out of high school. But he has played three positions at USC (wide receiver, safety and QB). He was the starting quarterback at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Calif., when ND quarterback Dayne Crist was a sophomore there, and his stepmother is now married to John Elway, the former Stanford All-American and Denver Bronco Super Bowl champion quarterback.
H is for history, and ND must learn from its recent history. In 2008, Notre Dame entered game 6 of the season against North Carolina with a chance to make a national statement. The Irish blew a second-half double-digit lead, largely because of turnovers. In fact, while ND lost five of its last seven regular-season games, the Irish held steady in the national rankings for offensive stats and actually improved significantly on defense. But the turning point was turnovers. The Irish went from 20th in turnover margin heading into the North Carolina game to 73rd at the end of the season.
I is for injuries, and no one is more thorough and accurate at reporting them than USC. Each week they provide a pro-style report, which given that it hasn’t hurt the Trojans’ success, makes you wonder why so many schools believe the cloak-and-dagger routine gives them a competitive advantage.
J is for James Aldridge, ND’s senior fullback who could see his first game action Saturday since the Sept. 5 opener. He has been out with a shoulder injury.
K is for the King of Tonga, a cousin of USC center Abe Markowitz.
L is learning, which is what center Kristofer O’Dowd and some of his classmates in his USC Writing 340 class helped create this summer. They put together an online summer school Web site for elementary school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District., where summer classes were eliminated for financial reasons. O’Dowd produced content for the language arts program for kindergartners through second graders on SOSClassroom.org.
M is for Michael Floyd, injured but not inactive. Floyd will be helping to recruit former high school teammate Seantrel Henderson, the nation’s No. 1 college prospect, this weekend. Henderson is a 6-foot-8, 330-pound offensive tackle from Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, Minn., and one of a gaggle of top seniors and juniors expected to take in the ND-USC game in person.
N is for no big deal, which was what level-headed Irish freshman linebacker Manti Te’o’s reaction when it was suggested to him that the Trojan players might give him a hard time over his college decision. Te’o picked the Irish over USC last February. "What I would say to them," he said matter-of-factly. "is that I made the right choice."
O is for obsolete, which is what USC considers the moniker "Southern Cal" to be. In its weekly game notes each week, there is a friendly warning not to use that reference. Accepted names are: USC, Southern California, So. California, Troy and Trojans.
P is for profit, which is what scalpers will realize from Saturday’s game. According to FanSnap.com — a ticket search engine — ND-USC tickets are going for an average price of $457 each. That’s roughly $90 more than the tickets for the game at college football’s epicenter this weekend, Oklahoma vs. Texas in Dallas. Currently, there are 1,400 tickets available for the game in South Bend from nine different ticket providers, with get-in prices starting in the $200 range. The season average for a ticket listing for the Irish is $240, while the Trojans come in at $153 per ticket on average for the rest of the season, so this game is well above average.
Q is for Brady Quinn, the former Notre Dame quarterback who now sits the bench for the Cleveland Browns and had to wonder why Sunday, when starter Derek Anderson threw for almost as many yards to Buffalo (14 yards) as he did to his own team (23). Anderson was 2-of-17 with one interception in a 6-3 win.
R is for rushing yards. The most a team has amassed on the ground against USC this season is 88 yards.
S is for swimming, the second varsity sport played by USC punter/cornerback Boomer Roepke.
T is for 10 and a half. That was the opening point spread for Saturday’s game.
U is for untested. Notre Dame’s vaunted offense has yet to face a top 40 defense this season. USC’s vaunted defense has yet to face a top 40 offense this season.
V is for very good move. USC offensive line coach Golden Ruel has chosen to go by "Pat."
W is for winning streaks. For USC it’s seven straight over Notre Dame, 14 straight non-conference wins and 10 successive non-conference wins on the road.
X is for ex-opponents (well close enough). Current USC players quarterback Mitch Mustain (Arkansas), wide receiver Damian Williams (Arkansas) and kicker Jordan Congdon (Nebraska) all played against the Trojans before transferring to USC.
Y is for yikes. Other than the 2005 near-upset of the Trojans in 2005, the closest Notre Dame has come since 2001 is 20 points (44-24 in 2006),
Z is for zero. The number of TD passes surrendered this season by the USC defense.
