The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will finish the regular season undefeated. Notre Dame will finish the year 12-0 headed for a national championship meeting against a yet unknown SEC opponent.
Notre Dame was a 5.5 point favorite on Saturday night. They won by x.
On the first drive of the game Notre Dame took a 3-0 lead on a 27 yard field goal by Kyle Brindza. Their second possession resulted in a 9 yard touchdown by Theo Reddick.
USC freshmen quarterback, Max Wittek was making his first start. On the first play of the second quarter he connected with Robert Woods for a 11 yard touchdown.
The two teams would then trade field goals. Brindza would hit a 29 yarder for the Fighting Irish while Andre Heidari would connect on a 39 yard attempt for the Trojans. With time expiring in the first half Brindza would make his third field goal of the game to give Notre Dame a 16-10 lead.
After missing his first attempt of the second half, Brindza connected with his fourth field goal of the game with 31 seconds left in the third quarter. It gave Notre Dame a 19-10 lead.
Heidari and USC would cut into the Irish lead with a 21 yard field goal with 9:20 left in the game. When Notre Dame got the ball back they marched down the field methodically but had to settle for another field goal. The field goal did keep it a two possession game.
USC would get down to the goal line with help from a pair of pass interference penalty. With five plays inside the two yard line USC was unable to get into the endzone. The one thing they were successful in doing was using up the clock. On fourth and goal Wittek threw a pass which was dropped by Soma Vainuku.
With just over two minutes left in the game Notre Dame was back on offense hoping to run out the clock. After a run by Cierre Wood the Irish opted to down the ball. Notre Dame punted on fourth down. Down by 9 there was nothing USC could do.
Notre Dame finishes the season a perfect 12-0 and will head to Miami where they will play either Georgia or Alabama, whoever wins the SEC Championship game.
The loss drops USCÂ who entered the season ranked No. 1 to a stunning 7-5.
