Daily briefing: On Notre Dame, faltering late in the season and the Pac-12 title game
Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:
Which Notre Dame will show up this week?
How many Notre Dames have there been this season? There were the Irish who lost gamely at Ohio State, who lost inexplicably to Marshall, who got over the hump by winning at North Carolina and then beating BYU, who returned to the other side of the hump with a loss to Stanford, and the Irish who take a five-game winning streak, including routs of No. 4 Clemson and the 44-0 steamrolling of Boston College, into Los Angeles on Saturday to play USC. Notre Dame’s maturation can be seen in turnover margin (minus-6 during the 3-3 start, plus-6 during the five-game winning streak) and on the scoreboard (23.7 points per game in the first half of the season, 39.0 points per game in the second). The Irish will need that offense against Caleb Williams & Co. Odds are the Irish will have it – four of the past five Trojans opponents have scored at least 35 points.
Losing late in the season brings a certain finality
The cruelty of faltering late in the season is the finality of it all. There’s so little opportunity left to climb back up the rankings or rebuild that Heisman campaign. It’s hard to imagine how quarterbacks Hendon Hooker of Tennessee and Drake Maye of North Carolina remain viable Heisman contenders (at least in 2022; pencil in Maye on the short list of 2023 candidates). Likewise, the Vols and Tar Heels removed the upper South from playoff contention. The residual effect of the losses on LSU (which lost 44-13 to Tennessee) and Clemson (less juice in beating UNC in the ACC Championship Game) isn’t helpful to either Death Valley team. LSU, of course, has the ultimate panacea: If the Tigers beat No. 1 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, just try and keep them out
Who will play USC in the Pac-12 title game?
USC clinched a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game with its win over UCLA and will play Oregon (which has one league loss), Washington or Utah (both have two league losses). Since head-to-head competition didn’t happen among the three teams this season – Washington and Utah didn’t play each other – a three-team tiebreaker, if needed, would move to cumulative record among common conference opponents. The three teams all played or will play Arizona, Colorado, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA and Washington State. Going into this week, Oregon has the best of it because it defeated UCLA, while the Bruins defeated both the Utes and the Huskies. In case of two-way ties after Saturday, Oregon would win an Oregon-Utah tie, based on its win over the Utes; Washington wins a tie with the Ducks because the Huskies won their November 12 game; Utah wins a tiebreak with Washington because the Utes played a tougher Pac-12 schedule (thank you, USC).