Notre Dame-USC: Team Wire Staff Predictions

Notre Dame-USC: Team Wire Staff Predictions from @mattzemek, @gfclark89, @mikefchen, @jf_fey, and @nickshepkowski — what do you have happening?

Notre Dame and USC renew one of college football’s best rivalries Saturday night after having to take the 2020 season off due to the pandemic.  Notre Dame enters at 5-1 with hopes of earning a spot in a New Year’s Six bowl while USC sits at 3-3, looking for their next head coach, but winners of their last eight road contests.  

The last USC road loss? 

You guessed it – October 13, 2019 at Notre Dame.

So what happens Saturday night between a 5-1 Notre Dame that might be good but is plenty flawed and a USC team that is anything but just another .500 squad?  Here is what the staff writers at both Fighting Irish and Trojans Wires see happening:

Clay Helton Fired By USC, 5 Possible Coaching Candidates

USC fired Clay Helton two games into the 2021 season. Who are 5 possible candidates to replace him?

USC fired Clay Helton two games into the 2021 season. Who are 5 possible candidates to replace him?


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Clay Helton was fired by USC. Now it’s time to shoot for the stars.

There’s no excuse whatsoever for USC to be anything but in the College Football Playoff chase every single season.

It might be asking too much to replicate the Pete Carroll era, but USC should be an automatic preseason top ten program with the ability to hang with anyone in the nation – it shouldn’t be getting hammered by Stanford.

Clay Helton was okay.

He won a Pac-12 title and a Rose Bowl, and his 2020 team would’ve had a theoretical argument to be in the College Football Playoff had it beaten Oregon for the Pac-12 championship.

Even so, there was a 5-7 season in there, 2020 was the only time he lost fewer than three games – and that’s mostly because it was a shortened campaign – and it doesn’t help that the UCLA program up in Westwood is starting to look like a thing under Chip Kelly.

Helton is a likable guy – it’s partly why he was given every shot to make USC into a powerhouse again – but 46-24 isn’t okay if you’re in charge of that program.

The recruiting has been fine, and Kedon Slovis is an NFL prospect, but – for example – was USC able to keep DJ Uiagalelei in the state? No. Was it able to keep Bryce Young to his commitment? No. Losing JT Daniels was inevitable, but that goes to an overall issue that it all just didn’t work like it was supposed to.

And now Helton is done, Donte Williams will take over in the interim, and USC has to find a new head man.

First, let’s start with this. No, Urban Meyer isn’t leaving Jacksonville for the USC job.

And no, Pete Carroll isn’t leaving the Seattle Seahawks to come back.

And no, Ed Orgeron isn’t an option.

And no, Lane Kiffin isn’t going to return, even if he’s the perfect fit and a far, far better coach than he ever got credit for.

But USC can’t hire just anyone. It has to reach out to the elite of the elite because it really can get almost anyone – it’s that big a gig.

Here are five possible candidates who at least need to get a phone call.

5. Luke Fickell, Cincinnati head football coach

Everyone loves him right now after winning 31 games in three seasons as he turned Cincinnati into a Group of Five powerhouse.

This would be a huge jump in every way, but considering his Ohio State background – and the lessons learned from a 6-7 2011 season as the head man with the Buckeyes in a strange transition year – he’s hardly a stranger to big programs with massive expectations.

At 48 he’s entering his prime, he proved he could coach up okay recruits and turn the team into something great, and he certainly knows how to recruit the five-star types after his ten years in Columbus.

He checks all the boxes, including being the hot coaching prospect the fan base would gush over.

NEXT: Chris Petersen, FOX college football studio analyst

Report: Clay Helton Out at USC

Helton entered the year very much on the hot seat and no-doubt an 8-4 record with a bad loss at BYU, another loss to Notre Dame and a blowout loss to Oregon didn’t help his cause.

After an up-and-down season it appears change is on the way in Troy.

Sports Illustrated is reporting USC will let Clay Helton go, creating a very interesting job opening for Notre Dame’s biggest rival.

Helton entered the year very much on the hot seat and no-doubt an 8-4 record with a bad loss at BYU, another loss to Notre Dame and a blowout loss to Oregon didn’t help his cause.

The article lists Urban Meyer as USC’s top-target.

Even with the off-the-field issues he carries with him everywhere he goes, Meyer is a legendary football coach who would be a knockout hire.

Helton ends his USC run with a 40-21 overall record and a Rose Bowl victory at the conclusion of the 2016 season.

Helton started 21-6 in his first two full-seasons in charge but finished just 13-11 since the start of 2019.

Helton went 1-4 in his five games against Brian Kelly led Notre Dame, losing his debut in 2015 and winning in blowout fashion in 2016 before dropping the last three rivalry match-ups.

Stay tuned to FIW as this story and coaching search at Notre Dame’s biggest rival continues to develop.