Tag: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Notre Dame, USC to be featured throughout NBC tripleheader Nov. 23

Don’t make any plans for that day.

Notre Dame and USC make up an intersectional rivalry unlike any other in the country. One upcoming Saturday will showcase both schools on national TV perhaps like never before.

NBC Sports has a longtime association with Irish football, and USC now is part of a Big Ten which has its games broadcast by the same company. And the stars are aligning for one heck of day.

NBC will kick off a tripleheader of coverage involving both schools with the Irish and Trojans women’s basketball teams meeting in Los Angeles at 4 p.m. EST. All eyes will be on that to see whether [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] and [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] get the best of JuJu Watkins and Kiki Iriafen. Both duos are incredibly dangerous.

Next will be the Irish football team’s annual Shamrock Series game with Army at Yankee Stadium. Wrapping up the day’s coverage will be the Trojans football team facing UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Both games will be the teams’ last before playing each other at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum the following week.

Clear your schedule for Nov. 23, Irish fans. It will be the right day to do so.

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USC agrees to new deal with corporate sponsor in college football revenue push

USC is doing what it can to keep up with the Joneses in the college football arms race for dollars. It’s simply the reality of the business today.

DirecTV has come to an agreement with the University of Southern California. We discussed the likelihood of corporate sponsorship in the Los Angeles Coliseum on Trojans Wire back in May of this year. The DirecTV corporate name will be painted on the back line behind the two end zones. USC home games will provide more sponsorship labels on Coliseum turf. It’s simply a reflection of the need to raise more money for the maintenance and development of the football program, now in the Big Ten Conference. Traditionalists might not like it, but with NIL and other needs requiring attention from athletic programs across the country, USC and other schools have to sacrifice some aesthetics and tradition so that the revenue streams keep flowing and are actually able to grow over time.

It’s not as though USC or other schools are ever going back to an innocent time when the idea of corporate logos or names splashed across the field were unthinkable. To be fair, corporate sponsors were a part of bowl games in the 1980s and 1990s. Remember the USF&G Sugar Bowl? The Sunkist Fiesta Bowl? The Mobil Cotton Bowl Classic? Corporate names were on the field even then. Yes, this is a blow to college football tradition at USC, but if it means grabbing that five-star offensive tackle instead of seeing Oregon get that prospect, it’s worth it.

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Photos taken during tour of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Yes, this is a USC-themed gallery on a Notre Dame site.

No, you didn’t accidentally go to Trojans Wire. This very much is Fighting Irish Wire. And yes, this is a gallery of photos from a tour of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum I took three weeks ago.

I know what you’re thinking, and yeah, this probably doesn’t belong on a Notre Dame site. But in order to better understand the cherished rivalry between Notre Dame and USC, it sometimes helps to learn more about the legendary stadium in which the Trojans play.

The Trojans have been there for 100 years now and will continue to be there after we’re gone. No knock against Notre Dame Stadium obviously, but there simply is more history involved at the iconic Los Angeles venue.

Taking this tour was part of a weeklong sojourn my wife and I took to Southern California, and it was one thing she really wanted to do. The tour group consisted of us and one gentleman from Scotland. Neither he nor the tour guide took notice of the [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] T-shirt from Jon Rothstein that I wore. If anyone had recognized it though, major props to them.

So without further ado, here are various views of the field, club levels, historical markers, and even Will Ferrell’s private suite. You’ll also see [autotag]Knute Rockne[/autotag] and [autotag]Frank Leahy[/autotag] make appearances. Enjoy these images even if they might be difficult for you to stomach:

Worst Notre Dame loss under Brian Kelly

What’s been the Irish’s worst showing under their current coach?

Brian Kelly is entering his 12th season as Notre Dame coach. He needs only four wins to pass Knute Rockne for the most in program history. Along the way, he has accumulated 39 losses. The worst came during the Irish’s annual meeting with USC in the 2014 regular-season finale.

The Irish entered the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on a three-game losing streak, including their final two contests at Notre Dame Stadium. It didn’t help that the defense was ravaged by injuries. The Trojans didn’t care about any of that as they dominated early and never looked back in a 49-14 win.

USC jumped out to a 35-0 lead late in the second quarter. Malik Zaire, whom Kelly substituted for the struggling Everett Golson, ran for an 11-yard touchdown soon after to keep the goose egg off the Irish’s side of the scoreboard before halftime. Late in the third, Greg Bryant, Notre Dame’s leading rusher for 79 yards on seven carries, had a 1-yard touchdown run. By then, however, the Trojans not only had finished their scoring, but became the first team ever to throw six touchdown passes against the Irish.

Golson turned in his worst performance of the season, completing seven of 18 passes for 75 yards and one interception. He and Zaire particularly had a tough time with Trojans linebacker J.R. Tavai, who recorded three-and-a-half sacks and forced a lost fumble. It’s a miracle that the Irish only turned the ball over twice.

2014 had a happy ending for Notre Dame as a month later, it defeated LSU in the Music City Bowl, 31-28. Still, it had to be hard to forget that poor showing in Los Angeles. Perhaps using that game as motivation, the Irish have won four of the five meetings since. Hey, whatever gets you ready to play.