COLLEGE FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : USC : Walters Chases 1,000 Yards

A 100-yard game by tailback Shawn Walters on Saturday against Notre Dame would give him a 1,000-yard season.

Walters has been slowed the last two games because of a cracked thumb. In his absence, backup Leonard Green had 92- and 86-yard games against Arizona and UCLA.

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USC is 5-9 against unranked Notre Dame teams. USC hasn’t played one since 1986, when Lou Holtz’s first team won, 38-37, on John Carney’s field goal at the final gun. That was also the last time USC began the game with a better record than the Irish.

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This Notre Dame team is the first under Holtz to have more touchdowns passing than running. The Irish have 20 touchdown passes and 17 running touchdowns. . . . Saturday’s game will be Holtz’s 108th as Notre Dame’s coach. The only Irish coaches with more are Knute Rockne (122) and Ara Parseghian (116). . . . John Robinson is the third former NFL coach Notre Dame will meet this season. The others: Stanford’s Bill Walsh and Boston College’s Dan Henning. . . . After Saturday, Notre Dame will have played before sellout crowds in 67 of its last 76 games. . . . Third-string sophomore receiver Scott Sollmann batted .402 for the Irish baseball team last spring, then asked Holtz if he could be a walk-on football player. He made the team and was awarded a football scholarship. He has one catch in eight games.

Notre Dame Stadium hasn’t given the Irish much of a home-field advantage lately. Of their last 10 losses, seven have come at home. The 59,075-seat stadium, virtually unchanged since it opened in 1930, will undergo expansion beginning next year. About 20,000 seats will be added. . . . Notre Dame has scored on 35 of 43 trips inside the 20-yard line. USC is 38 for 42.