Week 12 of the college football season has come and gone with some close calls and a top-five ranked team getting boat-raced out of the College Football Playoff conversation.
Notre Dame handled its business in a big way Saturday, blowing out Boston College, 44-0. The 0-2 start to the season feels like a lifetime ago. The Irish have won eight of nine contests since, including a blowout victory over Clemson two weeks ago. It might not have been the route Notre Dame fans would have chosen, but the program has clearly grown in 2022. Now it closes the year with a trip to take on its biggest rival.
USC held on for a victory Saturday night at UCLA and improved to 10-1. Its only loss is by a single point at Utah in October, and it features one of the Heisman Trophy favorites through 12 weeks.
With Tennessee getting destroyed by South Carolina and exiting the playoff conversation, USC was the biggest winner of Week 12. We’ll wait and see what the updated rankings officially say, but if USC wins out it will add wins over both ranked Notre Dame and probably ranked Oregon, which should be enough to get it into the playoff.
Simply put: USC has everything left to play for in 2022.
I’ve spoken to Matt Zemek at Trojans Wire for a number of years about the Notre Dame-USC rivalry. We’ve been in agreement that it’s a sleeping giant that has failed to feature consistent top-15 programs simultaneously for decades.
[autotag]Lincoln Riley[/autotag] has USC still very much alive for the playoffs through 11 regular season games as the Trojans head coach. Meanwhile, [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag]’s squad has put many of the early season struggles behind it and found a way to thrive despite playing with a backup quarterback.
We’ve asked for it for a long time and this really feels like its the start of something special. Two of college football’s proudest programs appear headed for simultaneous sustained success. Playoff appearances and perhaps national championship chances will soon be on the line for both teams when they meet.
This is what we wanted. It’s what we got. And I couldn’t be more excited. Excited for Saturday but also for this sleeping giant of a rivalry hearing its alarm clock going off.
2022 will not end with a playoff or New Year’s Six bowl game for Notre Dame, but spoiling USC’s dreams would be one hell of an entrance into this new era of one of college football’s best rivalries.
Happy Thanksgiving and happy Beat SC week.
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