Matchups Behind Main Event : The Little Things Can Make a Huge Difference Today

On the surface, it’s No. 1-ranked Notre Dame against No. 2 USC, a battle of undefeated college football teams that could be deciding the 1988 national championship today in the Coliseum.

The result will show only the teams’ scores, but on the field there will be lots of other confrontations. Some will be individual, man against man, and some will involve small units packaged together as mini-teams.

How these skirmishes turn out probably will determine the numbers on the scoreboard.

Here are some of the more interesting matchups:

USC’S RODNEY PEETE vs. NOTRE DAME DEEP SAFETY: Peete’s wide range of talents will put extreme pressure on Notre Dame’s deep man, Pat Terrell or Corny Southall. On nearly every play, one of them will be forced to decide whether to stay back to help on pass defense against Erik Affholter & Co., or close up to cut off the slicing Trojan running backs. Or, even worse if you’re an Irish defender, figure out what to do when Peete cocks his arm, then tucks the ball in and runs himself.

As UCLA Coach Terry Donahue said, “If you play man-to-man coverage and you blitz him, as Oklahoma did, he either hits a man breaking away from coverage or he takes the ball and runs for 30 yards and a first down. If you don’t blitz him, and you play like Arizona State and don’t put any pressure on him, he has a career day.”

Terrell, who was a starting split end last season, has taken over at free safety from senior veteran Southall and has made big plays. He returned an interception 80 yards for a touchdown against Miami, then deflected the potential game-winning 2-point conversion attempt in the final minute to preserve Notre Dame’s 31-30 victory.

NOTRE DAME’S TONY RICE vs. USC LINEBACKERS: Notre Dame’s junior quarterback may not be much of a passing threat--65 completions in 129 tries--but his running capabilities off the option will keep the Trojan linebackers busy.

Rice will try to stretch the Trojan defense across the field, creating openings either for himself or two running backs from California, Mark Green of Riverside and Braxston Banks of Hayward. Rice, with 614 yards rushing, holds the school record for quarterbacks, and is the team’s second-leading rusher.

The task of consistently making the right commitment must be made by inside linebackers Scott Ross, an All-Pacific 10 selection who had 14 tackles last week against UCLA, and Delmar Chesley, with Michael Williams and Craig Hartsuyker outside. Hartsuyker, a 6-foot 4-inch sophomore from Escondido, has a team-leading four sacks and four forced fumbles.

If the Irish can penetrate this foursome, backing them up will be cornerbacks Ernest Spears and Chris Hale, who has 4 of the Trojans’ 17 interceptions.

USC’S ERIK AFFHOLTER vs. NOTRE DAME CORNERBACKS: On the theory that Affholter is not all that fast, the Irish will probably try to handle him one on one. Affholter likes to run against the strong side cornerback, so that will give most of the coverage to Stan Smagala, a converted tailback who is one of Notre Dame’s fastest players.

A player in the mold of Raymond Berry and Steve Largent, who set records with good routes and sure hands, rather than blazing speed, Affholter runs his patterns in perfect concert with Peete and the result has been 58 receptions for 834 yards, 8 touchdowns and All-American recognition. He needs only one catch to tie Hank Norman as USC’s leading receiver at 114 catches.

There is no need to remind Notre Dame what Affholter can do. Last season, even in a losing cause, he caught 8 passes for 102 yards.

If Affholter is not the receiver, the other cornerback, Todd Lyght, will have the task of defending flanker John Jackson, whose record of 41 catches for 538 yards and 5 touchdowns would be impressive, were he not in the Affholter’s shadow.

Neither of the Irish cornerbacks has intercepted a pass this season.

NOTRE DAME’S RAGHIB ISMAIL vs. USC KICKOFF UNIT: This may be the biggest mismatch of the matchups.

Ismail, a freshman from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., has made the Irish the country’s No. 1 kickoff return team with a 37.7-yard average in 11 returns. Against Rice, Ismail returned kickoffs 83 and 87 yards for touchdowns. In high school, where he was playing a year ago, he returned seven for touchdowns. Ismail was a running back in high school and his 4.33-second speed in the 40 makes him the fastest of the Irish.

On the other hand, USC’s kickoff team has not been one of the team’s strengths. Kicker Quin Rodriguez rarely gets the ball into the end zone, thereby allowing the possibility of big returns.

USC FRONT THREE vs. NOTRE DAME RUNNING BACKS: Stingy is the best way to describe the USC defenders. Anchored by the three down linemen, All-American Tim Ryan, Don Gibson and Dan Owens, all 250 pounds or more, the Trojans are ranked No. 1 in the nation against the rush. They have held opponents to 68.1 yards a game; Notre Dame is averaging 267.7 yards a game rushing. When USC held UCLA to 73 yards rushing, it was the sixth consecutive game an opponent was held to fewer than 100 yards.

It will be strength against strength, because the Irish running backs have been held to fewer than 200 yards once--113 against Miami. They average 4.8 yards a carry.

Three of those backs, Tony Brooks, Green and quarterback Rice, have averaged better than 5 yards a carry. Green, who has started every game at tailback, ran for 125 yards against Michigan State. Sophomore Brooks, who backs up Green at tailback and Banks at fullback, is the team’s leading rusher with 667 yards. Rice has carried the ball 108 times, nearly as often as he has passed.

Last year, when Notre Dame won, 26-15, their backs ran for 351 yards. Ryan, Gibson and Owens started that game for USC.

NOTRE DAME LINEBACKERS vs. USC TAILBACKS: The strength of Notre Dame’s defense, 10th against the rush with a 110.5 average, lies in its linebackers, Michael Stonebreaker and Wes Pritchett.

Stonebreaker, a junior from River Ridge, La., is one of five finalists for the Butkus Award as the nation’s best linebacker and has had some big games--16 tackles against Michigan, 17 tackles and 2 interceptions against Michigan State, and a season-high 19 tackles against Navy.

He and Pritchett share the team lead with 95 tackles apiece. The tandem is so good that Ned Bolcar, one of the team’s three captains and a nationally recognized player last season, is the backup linebacker.

Against that force, the Trojans will throw a committee of runners--tailbacks Aaron Emanuel, Scott Lockwood, Ricky Ervins or Calvin Holmes, and fullback Leroy Holt. Whoever is playing well will see the most action.

Five backs, including the injured Steven Webster, have been game leaders in the Trojans’ 10 games. Four of them have had 100-yard games--Emanuel 121 against Stanford and 113 against UCLA, Ervins 135 against Arizona, Lockwood 133 against Washington, and Holt 102 against Oregon State.

USC OFFENSIVE LINE vs. NOTRE DAME DEFENSIVE FRONT: Coaches like to say that games are won in the trenches. From the size of the linemen, they’ll need an excavation.

When Lou Holtz said that the Trojans had more beef than his quick, little Irish squad, he had in mind the USC front line anchored by 320-pound John Guerrero and 305-pound Derrell Marshall at tackles. Between them will be guards Brent Parkinson, 260, and Mark Tucker, 265, and center Brad Leggett, 270. That’s 284 pounds per player.

Across the neutral zone will be Notre Dame’s three down linemen, George Williams, 282; Chris Zorich, 260, and Jeff Alm, 246. Not one of them started before this season, but the trio has started every 1988 game. Among them, they have 7 1/2 sacks and 12 other tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Zorich, the nose guard, has 66 tackles and 3 fumble recoveries.

Anchoring on the wings are Frank Stams, a fifth-year senior who was one of the heroes against Miami with 2 forced fumbles, and Arnold Ale, who gets the starting call over fifth-year senior, Flash Gordon.

USC SAFETY MARK CARRIER vs. NOTRE DAME RECEIVERS: Carrier, a sophomore from Long Beach, grew up wanting to play for the Irish and even orally committed to Notre Dame before changing his mind and enrolling at USC so that his father, a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair, could see him play. Now he stands as the Trojans’ deep defense protector.

With Rice not a long-ball threat, Carrier may move up to help protect against the Irish run. He is second on the team in tackles with 94, including 12 against UCLA. When Rice does throw, it is usually to an inexperienced group, including sophomore flanker Ricky Watters, freshman split end Ismail or freshman tight end Derek Brown. Watters, another ex-tailback, is the leading receiver with 15 receptions for 286 yards.

LOU HOLTZ vs. LARRY SMITH: The stand-up comedian from Notre Dame and the executive motivator from USC offer contrasting personalities, but their records on the field are remarkably similar. Holtz took over a foundering team from Gerry Faust that had gone a frustrating 5-6 in 1985, and in 3 years has the Irish at 10-0 and ranked No. 1.

Smith did it even quicker. In 2 seasons, he turned a 7-5 team under Ted Tollner into a 10-0 club ranked No. 2. No previous USC coach took the school to the Rose Bowl in each of his first 2 seasons.

One place they may differ is in their philosophical approach to today’s game. Holtz insists, publicly at least, that it’s not for the national championship, but Smith says the game deserves the billing.

RATINGS vs. ODDS: In a poll of sportswriters (Associated Press) and coaches (United Press International), Notre Dame is No. 1 and USC is No. 2, but the oddsmakers see the Trojans as a 4 1/2-point favorite at the Coliseum.