Trojans Rolling in Clover

Knute Rockne wouldn’t have envisioned it.

Notre Dame Stadium, the edifice the legendary coach personally designed, was built with the idea of giving the Fighting Irish a home-field advantage. And throughout the first 74 games of its rivalry with USC, Notre Dame usually enjoyed an overwhelming one.

But on Saturday, fifth-ranked USC owned the place.

The Trojans eased more than two decades of frustration by cruising to a 45-14 victory before a sellout crowd of 80,795.

The victory was USC’s first here since 1997 and the Trojans’ second since 1981. The 45 points were the most the Trojans have scored at Notre Dame Stadium, and the second-most by any Fighting Irish opponent here.

On a day when Notre Dame honored its 1973 national championship team, the Trojans improved to 6-1 and kept alive their hopes of winning USC’s first national title since 1978.

“It’s a big accomplishment because of the historical significance of how hard it’s been for us to win here,” USC Coach Pete Carroll said. “I’m really proud of this one because we made it look like a game that we were in command of ... and it didn’t matter that we were here. That’s an important statement to us to hold onto.”

The Trojans showed they could dominate Notre Dame last season when they rolled up 610 yards and scored 34 unanswered points in a 44-13 victory at the Coliseum. That win earned USC its first berth in a bowl championship series game and, for all practical purposes, clinched the Heisman Trophy for quarterback Carson Palmer.

Palmer went on to become the NFL’s No. 1 draft pick, but on Saturday sophomore Matt Leinart showed the Irish that the Trojan offense is still run by a pretty good quarterback.

Leinart completed 26 of 34 passes for a career-best 351 yards and four touchdowns without an interception as the Trojans amassed 551 yards.

“My confidence is so high and I’m just real comfortable with what we’re doing,” said Leinart, who has passed for 900 yards and nine touchdowns in the last three games.

Tailbacks Reggie Bush, LenDale White and Hershel Dennis combined to rush for 202 yards. Bush scored on a spectacular 58-yard run and Dennis rushed for a touchdown and caught a three-yard scoring pass.

Sophomore wide receiver Mike Williams caught nine passes for 112 yards and a touchdown and senior flanker Keary Colbert caught eight passes for 120 yards and a touchdown.

“We knew they were going to blitz,” Williams said. “We just spread ‘em out so it was easy reads for Matt. He just had to drop back and really just kind of pick where he wanted to throw the ball.”

Even though he watched USC dominate his team last season, Notre Dame Coach Tyrone Willingham was surprised by the Trojans’ firepower Saturday.

“We have great respect for them offensively, but I didn’t anticipate they could perform in that manner,” Willingham said.

Notre Dame (2-4) made a game of it through the first quarter behind senior running back Julius Jones, who rushed for a Notre Dame-record 262 yards in last week’s upset of Pittsburgh.

After Leinart drove the Trojans 80 yards for a touchdown on the first possession, the Irish answered with a 73-yard drive that Jones capped with a 22-yard touchdown run.

USC came back with another 80-yard drive highlighted by Bush’s 58-yard run, but Notre Dame tied the score, 14-14, on a two-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Brady Quinn to tight end Anthony Fasano.

“They were executing well, but we missed some tackles,” middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu said. “After our coaches made some adjustments, it was over.”

USC took the lead for good on Leinart’s seven-yard touchdown pass to Williams with 37 seconds left in the first quarter, the first of 31 unanswered points.

Dennis scored on a three-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter to give the Trojans a 28-14 halftime lead.

In the third quarter, Leinart threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to tight end Gregg Guenther and Ryan Killeen kicked a 29-yard field goal to increase the lead to 38-14.

Dennis completed the scoring with a two-yard touchdown run with 5:38 left in the game.

Notre Dame finished with 279 yards, only 69 in the second half. Jones ran 18 times for 84 yards. Quinn completed 15 of 34 passes for 168 yards and was sacked twice by both defensive tackle Mike Patterson and defensive end Kenechi Udeze. USC linebacker Melvin Simmons had a team-best 13 tackles.

USC apparently learned its lesson after faltering in the first half Sept. 27 against California and losing, 34-31, in triple overtime.

The Trojans have since defeated Arizona State, Stanford and Notre Dame, by a combined 126-52.

“It’s no fluke, we’re a pretty good football team,” Carroll said.

USC resumes its Pacific 10 Conference schedule next week at Washington, the last of four road games the Trojans will have played in five weeks.

But today they can savor a victory that they believe could set the tone for years to come.

“We needed to show that we could do it here,” Carroll said. “To come back and have a big game like this again, I like the way it feels for our matchups in the future.

“We know we can come here and win.”

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Smiting Irish

Comparing USC’s performance against Notre Dame the last two seasons. The 2002 game was played at the Coliseum:

*--* OFFENSE 2002 vs. Notre Dame 2003 84 Offensive plays 81 44 Points scored 45 13 Points allowed 14 31 Point differential 31 610 Total yards 551 109 Yards allowed 279 31 First downs 29 3 Turnovers 1 3 Turnovers forced 1 38:05 Time of poss. 33:30 QUARTERBACK Palmer Vs. Notre Dame Leinart 46 Attempts 34 32 Completions 26 69.5 Comp. % 76.4 425* Yards 351 4 Touchdowns 4 2 Interceptions 0 * Record for Notre Dame opponent

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KEYS TO THE GAME

Gary Klein’s keys to the game, and how the Trojans measured up:

Start the run: Freshman Reggie Bush rushed for 89 yards and a touchdown, freshman LenDale White rushed for 75 yards and sophomore Hershel Dennis gained 38 yards and rushed for one of his two touchdowns. Their effort enabled offensive coordinator Norm Chow to open things up, and Matt Leinart had a career passing day.

Stop the run: Notre Dame running back Julius Jones, who rushed for 262 yards last week, gained 68 of his 84 yards in the first quarter before USC clamped down. Ryan Grant finished with only 27 yards in 12 carries.

Take special care: Tom Malone punted only once, and his kick traveled 24 yards after being blocked by Notre Dame’s Corey Mays. Ryan Killeen converted his only field-goal attempt, from 29 yards.