College Football Week 13 Preview

Due to lots of news throughout the college football world this week and some interesting discussions to be had I am going to limit this preview article to one game and then on Friday there’ll be second article with a Heisman debate and a discussion on the ramifications of the news from the BIG 10.

So without much further ado, the game I am going to preview is…

#1 Notre Dame @ USC – 01:00

                                                     Does anyone remember this??

With Ohio State not being eligible for any post-season play, and the Iron Bowl not looking like a big draw, my focus turns to the newly top ranked team in the country and their last game that with a win, will see them through to the National Championship game in January.

After seeing what happened to Kansas State last Saturday on their first week at #1, the Fighting Irish must be a little wary of the top spot but at the same time relishing the opportunity to beat rivals USC and secure a spot in the Championship game in Miami come January.

On the other side of the field are the Trojans of USC who have not much except pride to play for after suffering a loss to rivals UCLA, and aside from a minor bowl jaunt in post season play, don’t have much to look forward to. However, the pressure is now lifted off of USC with not many expecting them to beat the Irish, and with a young QB in Matt Wittek who will want to win over the USC fans before next season. the Trojans are probably at their most dangerous.

Notre Dame are the last unbeaten team in the nation, and to continue their winning ways they don’t want to be doing anything differently than what they’ve done already. I think the matchup of their defence against both Marquise Lee and Robert Woods is where the game will be won or lost, both receivers have the ability to make an average QB look like a star and the ND defence must tackle well in space if they are to limit these two on Saturday. With their safeties sitting back playing the pass it will be up to the USC running game to make more first downs than it is used to against possibly the best front seven in the nation this year, and if any of you saw Stephon Tuitt’s fumble return against Navy live and in person like me (sorry just had to get that in their), then you will know that they are all freakish athletes with immense size and are backed up by the countries best linebacker in Manti Te’o who will tackle anything that moves.

On offence, the Irish will most likely stick to their ground game against a USC defence that has been giving up 150.45 yards/game on the ground and who appear to not have the size or athleticism up front to contend, as they have had in previous years, seeing as their leading tackler is a safety. Everett Golson has been making steady improvements throughout the year, and though unspectacular in his passing stats (59% comp, 1918 yrds, 11 TDs, 5 INTs), has proven himself to be a very good manager of the offence along with being able to come up with the big play at the right time.

The Trojans suffered a devastating loss to UCLA last weekend and their fans are not happy about losing to their little brothers, but playing spoiler for another rival in ND could put a little shine back on their season and see them finish a respectable 8-4. For that to happen they need their redshirted freshman QB Max Wittek, who is in as starter through injury to Matt Barkley, to make some big plays as well as not make the mistakes to throw (literally) the game away. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this means all is lost for USC, this young man fits into the mould of many a successful QB, confident, big arm, good field vision and a quick release, even going on record as saying that his team is confident of an upset against the top ranked Irish, making for a intriguing watch come Saturday night. Don’t get me wrong, this could all be one way traffic if ND dominate the young gunslinger on defence and have their offence firing on all cylinders, but there’s a reason why the games are played, you just never know.

Prediction: Honestly, I’m not too sure how I feel about this one, genuinely think it could be an upset of another #1 team. But I’m going to go with form and the fact that USC might just tap out after a long season both mentally and physically for them. Notre Dame win  28– 17.