Notre Dame nation is in an odd place this week. Questioning this team. The coach. Themselves. Trust was broken with this Louisville performance and it’s hard for fans to tell where exactly this team is at. And why it’s there? And how will it be moving forward? Simply put, there is doubt. Justifiable doubt. There’s only one way out of this mess in the short term. Beat USC.
Winning cures all. At least in the short term. If Notre Dame can somehow knock off the Trojans they’d be able to at least enter the bye with one elite-level win feather in their cap trending up into a week to regroup. If things go poorly against USC however, the bottom will have completely fallen out and the bye will be filled with nothing but negativity.
Let’s examine just how critical a win over the Trojans would be.