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USC reacts to Notre Dame loss with honesty, ownership as postseason draws near

The 96th rendition of the USC-Notre Dame rivalry had a messy, water-logged ending. The Irish celebrated their 34-24 win on the field to a remixed version of Tupac Shakur’s “California Love” that replaced each West Coast reference with a South Bend one.

The soggy game ended at 10:52 p.m. Atlantic Time, and the Trojans’ postgame press conference didn’t get underway until 11:45. What exactly was said in the locker room may never leave its walls, but what was presented to the public was honest.

“We got a good team in there,” head coach Lincoln Riley told reporters. “I know we have a good team in there.”

Riley’s most head-scratching play call of the season appeared early in the fourth quarter, with rain steadily falling on Notre Dame Stadium.

Irish kicker Noah Burnette had sent a 31-yard field goal attempt wide left, which left the score settled at 27-24 in Notre Dame’s favor and kept USC (5-2 overall, 3-1 Big Ten) in the game. The Trojans took possession and quickly cycled through their first set of downs when Makai Lemon grabbed a 42-yard pass from quarterback Jayden Maiava on a third-and-9.

Riley dialed up a trick play next. Maiava pitched the ball to Lemon — who has only thrown one pass in his college career — and he searched for a teammate to pass the ball to as rain fell. Cornerback Christian Gray flung his body at a frantic Lemon, forcing a fumble that Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa recovered.

Notre Dame (5-2) scored on the next drive.

“Stupid call,” Riley said. “Stupid call.”

Riley sat between Maiava and safety Bisop Fitzgerald in the postgame press conference — all looking forlorn. He took ownership of an aggressive play call on fourth down in the final quarter that resulted in a turnover on downs.

Maiava, who’s typically reserved, shouldered some of the blame after completing just 52% of his passes and throwing a season-high two interceptions.

“Honestly, I just played (poorly),” Maiava said, slouching. “Gotta be better for my teammates.”

Representatives from at least two bowl games were in attendance for the rivalry game on Saturday night, a reminder that the regular season has passed the halfway point and the postseason stakes are beginning to rise.

Notre Dame desperately needed to win the game in order to keep its hopes of a playoff appearance alive. The Irish had reached the CFP championship game last season, but started this schedule by dropping their first two games to Miami and Texas A&M.

The icing on top of it all was winning what could be the final rivalry game between the two schools if a new contract is not agreed upon.

“You remember obviously the outcomes, but you remember some things you did in that game that led to the outcome,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said after the game. “And so they mean just a little bit more because of what it represents for the university, what it represents for your fans, the players before us, and the players to come.

“And I reminded our guys of the responsibility we have to go perform the way we did.”

USC was not predicted to win the game. Betting lines were forecasting Notre Dame to win by 9.5 points, which proved mostly accurate.

Still, it would have objectively meant something to have the original version of California Love been playing in USC’s locker room after the game instead of the Indiana-fied one.

It would have alleviated some pressure to make the CFP playoffs or earn a quality bowl game. ESPN’s Week 7 projections predicted that USC would compete in the Dec. 30 Valero Alamo Bowl against either BYU or Utah.

It possibly would have swung USC to favor keeping the Notre Dame rivalry game on the schedule by proving the Trojans can beat a perennially high-level opponent.

But with Nebraska, Northwestern, Iowa, Oregon and UCLA left on the schedule, there are only to-dos and no what-ifs.

“This kind of new age, new playoff era of college football with all the parity right now, anything’s possible. We’ve only really only seen one year in this thing. There’s more possible, probably, than we even think.”

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