Live discussion: How will Max Wittek fare against Notre Dame?

Join us at 2 p.m. for our weekly Google+ Hangout with Times national college football writer Chris Dufresne, UCLA writer Chris Foster and USC writer Gary Klein as they take a look at the sport, focusing this week on Saturday’s big matchups between USC and Notre Dame and UCLA and Stanford. The chat will take place right on this blog post, in a video that will be housed above.

Also sure to be a topic is the UCLA victory over USC, and the Matt Barkley injury. As Klein wrote earlier this week,

“Max Wittek wore a grin on his bearded face, Barkley a black sling on his injured right arm.

“For Wittek, a redshirt freshman who will start in place of Barkley on Saturday against Notre Dame, it was a first turn in the spotlight.

“While Barkley met with reporters, Wittek did a radio interview.

“I’m going to go out there,” Wittek said in the interview, “I’m going to play within myself, within the system, and we’re going to win this ballgame.”

“Some media outlets construed that as Wittek’s guaranteeing a victory.

“It really didn’t sound as if that’s what he was doing, though. Rather, he sounded poised and confident as he prepared for a game that has huge ramifications for the top-ranked Fighting Irish, the Bowl Championship Series standings and a once-No. 1 Trojans team trying to salvage a disappointing season.

“You really can’t ask for a better opportunity to show what you’ve got,” Wittek said.

“Wittek’s opportunity is at hand because Barkley suffered a sprained shoulder when sacked late in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s loss to UCLA. The injury interrupted a season that has not gone as planned for the Trojans or Barkley, the preseason favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.

If you have a question for Dufresne, Foster or Klein, send it in an email to sportshangout@latimes.com and we will try to answer it during the show.