Now It’s Notre Dame Trying to Stop Streak

No USC-Notre Dame game ever lacked a story line.

USC and Notre Dame on a football field, that’s enough right there.

But this afternoon’s game at the Coliseum has a tangled tale of quarterbacks to add a taut air of suspense to a matchup between the ninth-ranked Fighting Irish (9-1) and an unranked USC team that suddenly became the favorite when Notre Dame quarterback Jarious Jackson was injured last week.

This is the 70th edition of the rivalry between Notre Dame and USC--the Four Horsemen versus the Four Heismans (OK, so Notre Dame has seven). But in this one, with Jackson out, Notre Dame Coach Bob Davie will give junior Eric Chappell the first start of his career.

Freshman Arnaz Battle will also play, and when he is in the game, two of college football’s most storied teams will have true freshmen at the helm.

For USC (7-4), it’s Carson Palmer, a jilted fan of Notre Dame who holds a grudge--and just so happened to break the high school passing records of a kid named Sean O’Brien, nephew of one Coley O’Brien. But more on that later.

“I wanted to go there,” Palmer said. “I went to a football camp there after my sophomore year and I fell in love with the school. They told me to retake my SAT, and it didn’t seem like they wanted me. It made me mad. I really wanted to go there.”

Now he really wants to beat Notre Dame--and extend USC’s two-game winning streak against the Irish a week after USC’s disappointing eighth consecutive loss to UCLA.

“The only way to clear a loss is a victory,” linebacker Chris Claiborne said. “You’ve got no choice. You’ve got to get back on your feet and fight again.”

The Irish are in a fix at quarterback with Jackson out, and although Davie named Chappell the starter Friday afternoon, he says both quarterbacks will play.

Chappell, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound junior from Montgomery, Ala., has appeared in only two games this season, and his only pass fell incomplete. But Davie picked him because he has had more practice time in recent weeks while Battle recovered from a shoulder injury, and because he has been in the program longer.

“Really, I think the decision came down to the fact that the last three or four weeks since Arnaz hurt his shoulder, Eric just practiced more and really took advantage of the opportunity,” Davie said.

“Both of them are going to play. I think Arnaz will probably play a little in the second quarter.”

The biggest thing the quarterbacks have in common is next to no experience. Both have appeared in two games this season and the more eye-catching Battle completed his only pass for 40 yards.

“I’m not going to lock myself into any criteria or any number of plays or any series or say this kid is going to play the second quarter,” Davie said. “I’m going to see how it goes and how our players respond to who’s in there. . . . I’m going to let it develop.”

USC has to do the same, but the Trojans are girding for an all-out ground attack by the Irish, who have an imposing offensive line, a couple of quarterbacks probably more comfortable running the ball than throwing it, and a veteran tailback, Autry Denson, who averages 113 yards a game. The Irish average almost 222 yards rushing.

“The reality is that until the game starts and until the game begins to unfold, we’re just not going to know exactly what we’re up against,” Coach Paul Hackett said.

“They have such a fine scheme on offense that it would seem that they’d continue along the same lines as they did with Jackson. But there’s no tape to study so there’s no chance to get the nuances, the strengths and weaknesses of the unknown quarterbacks. You just go in and play against what you think they can do.

“That can be dangerous. There’s a history of teams making this change and performing brilliantly. I’m hoping this is not one of those cases.”

Which brings us back to Coley O’Brien.

The circumstances this week have had people in South Bend recalling 1966, when quarterback Terry Hanratty was injured against Michigan State and O’Brien, a slender backup who recently had learned he was diabetic, helped Notre Dame tie Michigan State and then hand USC a crushing 51-0 defeat at the Coliseum to wrap up a national championship.

“We’ll call Arnaz ‘Coley’ and Chappell will be ‘O’Brien,’ ” Davie said.

The little twist of coincidence is Palmer’s connection to the O’Brien family. As a quarterback for Santa Margarita High, he broke the passing records set by Sean O’Brien, Coley’s nephew.

Notre Dame’s more recent history might be more instructive.

When quarterback Ron Powlus broke his arm late in the 1995 season, backup Thomas Krug stepped in for the final game of the regular season against Air Force with Notre Dame needing a victory to go to the Orange Bowl.

Krug had played less than seven minutes all season and hadn’t thrown a pass, so Notre Dame kept the ball on the ground.

Krug threw only 13 passes as the Irish ran 63 times for 410 yards in a 44-14 victory.

So, Notre Dame is looking for a new hero, especially with the possibility of a bid to a bowl championship series game hinging on a victory.

USC already has its hero picked out--the guy who’s taken care of things the last two years. Linebacker Mark Cusano knocked away Powlus’ fourth-down pass on the final play of the 1996 overtime victory to break a 13-game winless streak against Notre Dame, and he made a fourth-quarter interception to set up the winning field goal last season.

“He’s their hex,” Claiborne said. “He’s our Notre Dame hero.”

USC has a shot at improving its bowl bid too--and maybe more important for the psyche of the program, another chance to beat a ranked team for the first time since the 1996 game.

“It seems like we go from one huge game to another huge game,” Hackett said. “I said a week ago we would have to play our best football game to beat UCLA. We didn’t get out of the blocks. I’ll say the same thing against Notre Dame. We need to play our best football.”