Why USC will be rooting hard for Notre Dame the next two weeks, and other Trojan football notes

#USC will be huge fans of @IrishWireND the next two weekends. That and more in this off-week notebook for the Trojans, who are preparing for Arizona on Oct. 29

USC-Notre Dame is a fierce rivalry, and to be clear, a lot of USC fans are enjoying the fact that first-year head coach Marcus Freeman is struggling at Notre Dame. One of the obvious benefits of Freeman’s rocky first season for USC is that the Trojans stand to gain relative to the Irish on the recruiting trail. The Elijah Paige recruitment — a flip from Notre Dame — is one such prominent example.

However, while USC doesn’t want Notre Dame to be dominant, USC does need the Fighting Irish to be very good.

Let’s cut to the chase, then: USC really needs Notre Dame to win the next two weeks. If the Irish can go 2-0 on Oct. 29 and Nov. 5, USC fans will be happy and the Trojans can feel better about their postseason situation.

Let’s take you through the details of all this: