Hot and Cold Takes for Notre Dame VS USC

Bring your SPICY Takes for USC

How’d We Do Last Week?

As you know, I normally feature the most interesting, most wildly inaccurate, and most accurate takes for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from the previous week. However, we have all moved past Virginia Tech and are solely focused on harnessing hatred for the USC Trojans. This is the biggest remaining game and a rivalry game at that. Let’s get the spicy takes going!!

Cold Take

Logan Diggs scores his first collegiate touchdown

Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

Digg will get a decent amount of action in this one. My hunch is that Tyree is still a bit banged up, and will at least be limited. As a turf toe survivor (thoughts and prayers to me), it is something that you can play through, but is quickly made worse with an increased workload. With Tyree potentially limited, I can see Kelly and Rees going back to the young buck, who showed he has, “it” during action against Virginia Tech. This won’t be a breakout game by any means, but I think he establishes himself as a legitimate third back. If the offensive line can keep the momentum going, there will be even more opportunities for the Diggs as the year progresses.

Hot Take

Drake London is held to under 5 catches and under 65 yards

Photo by Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images

There is no doubt about it….London has been lights out this year. The Irish Illustrated guys compared him to Michael Floyd, and I have to agree. He is big, strong, and an absolute gamer. He leads the Trojans with 64 catches, 832 yards, and 5 TD. Those stats make up a GREAT season, let alone the first half of the year. Despite his accolades, Marcus Freeman will force the Trojans to try and beat the Irish elsewhere. We’ve seen this deployed with other top receivers in recent memory, including David Bell from Purdue this year, and Michael Pittman from USC in 2019 (Pittman finished with 4 catches, 29 yards). I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kyle Hamilton shadowing him early and often as that is a great size/length/athleticism matchup. The thing with this strategy is that it leaves other areas vulnerable, running the risk of someone else taking over (A la Amon-Ra St. Brown in 2019). There is definitely some talent behind London, but not at the same level as the 2019 USC team, who had Tyler Vaughns and the aforementioned St. Brown behind Pittman. London is a great player who should be great on Sundays, but he will be mostly held in check for a quiet Saturday night.

Your Takes: Please leave your takes below (hot, cold medium-any temp). I will feature the Top Takes next week. GO IRISH!