Notre Dame website is thankful for USC’s coaching problems

Notre Dame’s own coaching problems are considerable, but USC is allowing Notre Dame bloggers to chuckle (a little).

It was humiliating for Notre Dame to be caught with only 10 men on the field for a decisive endgame play against Ohio State a few weeks ago. How relieved Fighting Irish fans must have been when they saw that USC was caught with 10 men on the field late in the win over Arizona. Sure, Lincoln Riley was able to call timeout, but it remains that USC — like Notre Dame — was still very disorganized.

Notre Dame was no longer alone.

Nick Shepkowski of Fighting Irish Wire poked a little fun at USC, and we certainly would have done the same thing if we were in his position:

“We all know that Notre Dame had their issues with personnel, having just 10 players on the field when Ohio State scored the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds a few weeks back,” Shepkowski wrote.

“Well, USC performed the same trick this past weekend as Arizona took them to triple overtime before the Trojans prevailed.”

This specific connection between the two teams underscores the point that both coaching staffs have not been on top of their game this year. Communication, clarity, efficiency, maximizing resources — neither staff has been able to do that. Notre Dame has lost twice, but primarily because it has played a tougher schedule. USC is playing tougher games now. If the Trojans don’t improve — and continue to leave 10 men on the field — they will start losing games.

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Prominent Pac-12 sports journalist thinks USC is likely to fire Alex Grinch before season’s end.

USC and Lincoln Riley need to have a plan in place if Alex Grinch coaches poorly and loses to Notre Dame.

Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator might actually be worse than Alex Grinch, a fascinating plot point heading into the October 14 renewal of Irish-Trojans.

Brent Venables is coaching Oklahoma far better this year than Lincoln Riley is coaching USC. It’s up to Riley to change that reality against Notre Dame and Utah.