USC-Notre Dame is such a rich football rivalry, a story filled with dramatic moments, colorful scenes, and important confrontations.
Yet, as great as this series is when both teams are at their best, there have been a lot of lean years for the Trojans and Irish over the past three decades. The 2005 game is genuinely and legitimately iconic, and it would be remembered as a college football classic regardless of other circumstances, but it is also true that it stands out that much more because of how mediocre one of these two programs has usually been over the past 30 years.
Notre Dame was great in the early 1990s under Lou Holtz, but that’s when USC had a downturn. USC was a dynastic power under Pete Carroll, but that’s when Notre Dame struggled. Brian Kelly led the Irish to the BCS title game and the College Football Playoff. USC, meanwhile, labored under Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian, and Clay Helton.
These two programs have rarely been great at the same time over the past 30 years. Hopefully Lincoln Riley and Marcus Freeman are both about to change that. Saturday’s game certainly carries more spice than most ND-SC games in recent memory.
Here are some photos from the past decade of Trojan-Irish games: