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Not to get Biblical on you, but the Arizona State Sun Devils -- Devils! -- are embracing their sinister side for their showdown Saturday against Notre Dame in Cowboys Stadium.

The Sun Devils will don black uniforms with helmets decorated with wild-looking flames -- hellfire? -- against the Fighting Irish, who will be wearing angelic white.

Of course, this isn't a battle of good and evil. It's just two teams embracing the marketplace ideology of branding in college football.

"We wanted to do something unique obviously to Arizona State, so the flames we thought were pretty cool and we put the flames on the back, we obviously want to use our brand," said Arizona State coach Todd Graham, who was involved in the design and noted that every helmet will be different.

The Sun Devils are, er, on fire after a blowout win over USC, while Notre Dame is coming off a loss to Oklahoma and is a disappointing 3-2 after going unbeaten and playing for the national title a season ago. If the Sun Devils can pull off the win and start 4-1 against a rugged early slate, they will enter the meat of the Pac-12 schedule with plenty of momentum and confidence.

Moreover, they can make history. No team has ever beaten USC and Notre Dame, two of the nation's most storied programs, back-to-back.

But while Graham is glad to talk about attention-grabbing uniforms and history, neither is his central focus. There have been two downers so far this year for Arizona State: (1) The first half at Stanford; (2) The Sun Devils' run defense, which ranks 11th in the conference, yielding 192 yards per game.

When asked about what the problems were against the run, Graham, not known for being laconic in any event, went on with a nearly 500-word answer during his Monday news conference. This story is just over 732 words.

"I am answering long because this is the number one thing that we have to do to win a championship," he said. "This has got to get better and I think it can. That is our number one focus."

Graham said that the chief problem was players getting out of position. He said there were 15 misalignments for the defense against the Trojans, who rushed for 247 yards on Saturday. He also said the biggest plays are coming on the perimeter, not up the middle. Part of the problem against USC was noseguard Jaxon Hood being out. He's questionable-to-doubtful for the Notre Dame game.

The good news for that run defense, however, is the Fighting Irish's struggles on offense. They rank 85th in the nation in scoring (25.4 points per game) and 93rd in rushing offense (135.5 yards per game).

But even the Irish's vaunted defense has been only mediocre. It has yielded 23.8 points and 364 yards per game, numbers that rank 46th and 53rd in the nation.

It's worth noting that both teams have played tough opponents, so the early-season statistics might be slightly skewed. But in the preseason, the Sun Devils looked like underdogs for this game. Now they are 5 1/2-point favorites.

This game also will be another test for the Sun Devils learning to play better on the road, most particularly QB Taylor Kelly. Though this game is technically being played at a neutral site, Irish fans will far outnumber the ASU loyalists. The Sun Devils are 3-4 on the road under Graham, and two of the 2012 road wins were over woeful California and Colorado. The lone quality road win was at rival Arizona last year.

Further, Kelly is a decidedly better QB at home. His rating this season is 156.6 at home and 121.3 on the road (at Stanford, perhaps the Pac-12's best defense). Last season, he was 198.7 at home and 127.6 on the road.

"You could probably take any quarterback and they would have the same stats," Graham said before adding, "If you want to win a championship you have got to win on the road."

Graham was quick to point out that the Pac-12 schedule has more importance for the Sun Devils. But he also knows that lining up opposite Notre Dame means you'll be performing in front of a lot of eyeballs.

Winning is the most important part of branding.

"Is it more important than the Pac-12 games? No, it is not," Graham said. "That is how we emphasize it to our players. But it is very important to our fan base, very important to our football program."

Brian Kelly wants his team to do the ordinary things better. If Notre Dame did that through five games, the Irish may be 5-0, as they have a "razor thin" margin for error that they were able to tread successfully during their perfect 2012 regular season.

Kelly recently showed his players clips of last season's tight home wins against Purdue, BYU and Pitt -- three games decided by one possession -- in order to drive that point home.

He hopes they keep that in the back of their minds as they prepare this week and try to forget about the fact that there will be no repeat national title game run.

"We've been together. These guys have been together for four years and it's the constant day-in and day-out relationships," Kelly said during his Tuesday press conference. "Everybody knows what's expected. Everybody knows what to do on a day-to-day basis. Again, I think when you're talking about a program that has won a lot of football games over the last couple of years, they just want to go out and play better football, that's really their goal.

"It's interesting and we talked a little about this: They're not walking around campus flashing their 12-0 rings. They don't have a 12-0 ring. They're not wearing a conference champion ring. They have an immense amount of pride of what they accomplished, that's what drives them, is winning, and they want to win. They want to win football games. They can play good football week-in and week-out, so what drives them, what the goal is for them is to go out and prepare and play good football week-in and week-out. Not what the the destination is for one game, not whether they play in Florida or Texas. It's taking that week of preparation and going out on a Saturday and playing really well and the satisfaction of doing that."

Notes: Sheldon Day (ankle sprain) is expected to be ready Saturday after missing the last two games. … Ben Councell's targeting appeal was denied so he will miss the first half of the Arizona State game after his fourth-quarter ejection against Oklahoma. … Kelly did not know how the government shutdown could possibly affect the Irish's games at Air Force (Oct. 26) and against Navy (Nov. 2), but he did joke that he would love to replace one of those games with an FCS opponent if it came down to that: "I'd probably be one vote in a room of probably 'Nos.' " Notre Dame has never faced an FCS school.

Go Pirates.

• In light of the Lane Kiffin (and Paul Pasqualoni) situations, colleague Mark Schlabach looks at how timing is everything with early firings and talked to Florida AD Jeremy Foley about the 2004 search for Urban Meyer.
• Here are Arizona State's uniforms for the Shamrock Series game.
• When it comes to Notre Dame history and traditions, few have better perspective than BlueandGold's Lou Somogyi. Here's his take on Alma Mater-gate.
• Here is one student's letter to The Observer about the alma mater. CollegeSpun picks up on the Notre Dame webpage switch regarding the alma mater.
• The South Bend Tribune's Al Lesar writes that the Irish are still seeking their identity.
• IrishIllustrated's Pete Sampson on Saturday's message being delivered but not received. (Subscription required)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- There were one or two times, around sixth or seventh grade, when Ronnie Stanley would get into the cockpit with Dad and think, This would be really cool to do some day.

Ron Sr. was a pilot for American Airlines. Ronnie had yet to grow into his 6-foot-5.5, 318-pound frame.

"He was going to all these nice places in the world, and just him going there was so surreal," Stanley said, "and it just looked real fun."

Son continued to grow, and Father told him he could only be so big while flying a plane. Son still continued to grow, and that size became part of the reason he would eventually find himself so far away from home.

Stanley, a Las Vegas native, is now in his second year at Notre Dame, his first as a starting right tackle. The Irish were not lacking at that position entering camp, but coach Brian Kelly abided by his declaration that the best five offensive linemen would get on the field. Stanley forced his way there, with returning starter Christian Lombard sliding over to right guard.

His handling of the early transition has raised eyebrows at both Notre Dame and nearly 2,000 miles away back home, where he spurned a handful of closer programs for the Midwest. In the last four years alone, his high school, Bishop Gorman, has sent players to USC, Stanford, Cal, Arizona, Colorado State, UNLV and Fresno State, where younger brother Robert is currently a freshman linebacker.

"I was kind of worried because he went on his official visit and he had never been to a game before at Notre Dame, but we were invited to the banquet," his mother, Juli, said. "I mean, it was so cold that the fields were covered with ice. So personally, I was concerned when he first made his decision. We all thought he'd end up at SC or somewhere back home, but he had made up his mind."

Homesickness never arrived. Calls back West came fewer and further between than the family had initially anticipated. Adversity struck in the form of a preseason ankle sprain and, eventually, elbow surgery, which sidelined Stanley after two early-season appearances, prompting a medical redshirt and a rehab process that his mother described him as "religious" with.

Pain was nothing new. In the 15th game of his senior year at Gorman, Stanley dislocated his left elbow and left for the hospital. He made it back to the home field in time to watch his team clinch the regional title. Two weeks later, he had convinced the staff that he could handle the pain of playing a few snaps in the state title game, which resulted in his Gaels' third straight crown.

"I really can't even describe it," Stanley said of the pain. "One of your arms feels real helpless, like you're playing with one arm. And if your hurt arm gets hit, it's like a whole bunch of needles poking your elbow."

Such toughness serves him well at Notre Dame, where he faces preseason All-America behemoths Louis Nix and Stephon Tuitt on a daily basis.

He communicates regularly with Lombard, seeking whatever nuance he can in order to prepare for a specific opponent.

"He's a really good athlete," Lombard said. "That helps a lot if he were to get into a bad position; fundamentally, it's his God-given athletic ability just to get out it in some cases. But obviously he's a good football player and he has good fundamentals."

Basketball was his first love, and he did not leave the game until college. His father, who played football at Tuskegee, helped shift Ronnie's focus from the hardwood (and the cockpit) to the gridiron.

Stanley has called his new locale "pretty much the total opposite" of his hometown. Never was that more evident than this past winter, when the Midwest transplant finally, sort of, cracked.

"I did get a phone call, and the only thing he wanted was a pair of snow boots," his mother said. "So he has not yet complained, 'I wanna come home' kind of thing. So he's in a good place, really. He's happy there and he's a kid that comes from the West Coast — heat and all the lights in Vegas — and Ronnie is fishing on his free time and doing this outdoor stuff, which is really great to see him kind of come into his own."

Well done, Vince Gilligan.

• Manti Te'o received his first taste of NFL action Sunday, our Eric D. Williams writes.
• Oklahoma is a contender after a big-time win at Notre Dame, George Schroeder writes in USA Today.
• The Oklahoman's Berry Tramel describes how big of a win Saturday was for the Sooners.
• The Irish offense rests on veteran Tommy Rees' shoulders, Brian Hamilton writes in the Chicago Tribune.
• CollegeSpun's Tyler Moorehead offers his thoughts on the alma mater situation. Kapron Lewis-Moore was, um, not pleased this weekend.

Notre Dame drew plenty of attention, as it always does, when preseason camp broke in August and the schedule posted inside the auditorium of the Guglielmino Athletics Complex featured "BCS Championship Game," slated for Jan. 7. The actual title game, the last of the BCS era, will actually be played Jan. 6.

It is of little significance to the Fighting Irish now, as it is clear that they will not be making a return trip this season. A second September defeat, Saturday's 35-21 home loss to Oklahoma, ensured that, while also seriously jeopardizing BCS bowl hopes.

Notre Dame has been down this road before in far uglier fashion, most recently two years ago, when their preseason goal of a BCS bowl took consecutive gut-punches during an 0-2 start. Knowing his team then needed to essentially win its final 10 contests, Brian Kelly went on to refer to the rest of the season as the playoffs.

The fourth-year Irish coach made no such declaration Sunday, though he did provide a blueprint for how he wants his players to respond to a 3-2 start.

"I would say this: They have been in the national championship game," Kelly said during his teleconference. "They have been to Florida for bowl games. What they are more interested in is playing well the next game and for the rest of the season. One bowl game or one game does not make it for these guys. They are more focused and we are more focused on being better as a football team and playing better week-to-week than the one game that we get at the end of the season."

It is a precarious situation, to be sure, managing a group coming off a national runner-up finish to push on through the reality that, no matter what it does over its final seven games, it will fall short of meeting its stated preseason goal. And the task becomes even more daunting when looking back at what the Irish could do, or couldn't do, in their first five games, while peeking ahead at who remains on-deck over these next two months. (Hello, Pac-12 trio.)

"We know it can't be a national championship, and we are disappointed that that's the case," Kelly said. "But to say, 'Hey, there's nothing to play for' -- what, for one game in Florida? What we are more interested in as a group -- and that's why we play this game -- is as a team, to play better, to be more consistent, to challenge ourselves, each and every week, to be better, and that's the group that we have here.

"That's the goal for this group. And I'm sure they probably articulated that to you guys in some fashion; that the most important thing is to get better as a group and play better football week-in and week-out. That's really what they want to be able to do."

The next nine weeks will bring seven games to prove how much better this team can get, and hardly any can be considered sure things given just how rocky the Irish have looked in their last four outings.

"It's painful now," captain TJ Jones said after Saturday's game. "I wouldn't say heads are down, but heads are disappointed in the loss, and we definitely know that there's a lot more work to be done to get back to achieving, I guess, the best record we can now."

The College Football Playoff remains a year away. Notre Dame can get a head start on it this season, though whatever trophy the Irish might raise this winter will not be quite the same.

No alma mater after a loss.

That's Notre Dame's new home-game policy, instituted two years ago and cleared up Sunday by coach Brian Kelly during his teleconference, a day after some postgame confusion ensued following the Irish's 35-21 home loss to Oklahoma, with some players leaving immediately before most bee-lined toward the student section to engage in song.

The Irish's 10-game home winning streak was snapped by the Sooners so the players were not exactly versed in this exercise.

"A lot of our players were confused because they hadn't lost, a lot of them had never lost at home, and they weren't sure what to do," Kelly said. "I didn't communicate it to them clearly, what the protocol was, but we changed that protocol two years ago after a loss.

"We don't stay out on the field to sing the alma mater. We come in. And that wasn't communicated clearly. I wasn't thinking about losing a football game; it wasn't on my to-do list to go over with my team. It's a protocol we changed a couple years ago that we do not stay out on the field after the alma mater to sing after a loss."

Former Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis had started the routine in the 2006 season, his second with the Irish.

"I just don't think it's appropriate to put your players after a defeat in a situation where they're exposed," Kelly said Sunday. "I want to get them in the locker room. It's important to talk to them, and I just felt like in those situations, after a loss, there's a lot of emotions. It's important to get the team back into the locker room and get them under my guidance."

Notes: Kelly will talk to ACC officials about Ben Councell's second-half ejection Saturday for targeting. Councell, by rule, has to sit the first half this coming Saturday against Arizona State. Romeo Okwara will likely take his spot as the No. 2 Dog linebacker. … Sheldon Day "tweaked" his ankle during warmups against Oklahoma, causing Kelly to sit him after he missed last week with an ankle sprain. TJ Jones "rolled" his ankle Saturday but should be fine moving forward. … Greg Bryant did not play because of a knee injury suffered this past week. … Tommy Rees is "certainly" Notre Dame's starting quarterback, with Andrew Hendrix serving as a complementary piece. Kelly said that, barring an injury situation to either signal-caller, he'd prefer not to play freshman Malik Zaire this season.

A second September loss has Notre Dame on the outside looking in at both polls after five weeks.

The Irish fell from No. 22 to unranked after their 35-21 home loss on Saturday to then-No. 14 Oklahoma, which moved up to No. 11 in the Associated Press poll and No. 10 in the USA Today coaches' poll with the win.

Notre Dame had not been unranked in the AP poll since the 2012 preseason poll. It had not been unranked in the coaches' poll since the end of the 2011 season, when it was unranked in both polls.

The Irish's upcoming opponent, Arizona State, jumped to No. 22 in the AP poll and No. 24 in the coaches' poll.

Notre Dame received 12 votes in the AP poll, good for 31st overall, and 29 votes in the coaches' poll (30th).

The problem with coaching USC is you're coaching USC. If you don't really understand what that means, then you're doomed to fail.

That's the lesson learned by Lane Kiffin, who was fired shortly after the team's charter flight landed in Los Angeles early Sunday morning after his team's 62-41 loss at Arizona State, the school announced before any reporter could claim the news story prize.

Kiffin went 28-15 in three-plus years while the Trojans were buried under difficult NCAA sanctions, but the key span is the past 11 games. He lost seven of those, essentially starting a downturn just after folks started to wonder if he actually might be a good coach.

If you can recall USC in December 2011, the Trojans were coming off an impressive 10-2 season that included a win at Oregon. Quarterback Matt Barkley shocked many when he announced in front of a strategically placed Christmas tree during a Heritage Hall news conference that he would return for his senior season to take care of "unfinished business."

That, of course, meant a Pac-12 and national title.

The Trojans headed into the 2012 offseason overbrimming with talent and expectations. They were ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP poll. Yet, little thereafter went well. And that falls, not unfairly, on Kiffin.

He just never seemed capable of getting out of his own way and just coaching his collection of athletes, which in just about every case were more physically talented than the guys on the other side of the field.

Did USC have depth issues due to scholarship reductions? Sure. But that didn't change the fact that the area where USC consistently seemed to be most lacking was coaching, in terms of preparation, motivation and execution. And the offensive play calling, which Kiffin refused to give up despite pointed criticism, was fundamentally flawed in one simple way: The plays Kiffin called more often than not didn't work.

He too often tried to be clever or tricky. He also seemed to react poorly when things weren't going well. An early sack or turnover would seemingly spook him into an overly conservative plan. His complicated schemes seemed simplistic and predictable in execution compared to simpler schemes from other Pac-12 programs that seemed more imaginative and effective.

Further, USC had been eclipsed not only in the Pac-12 by Oregon and Stanford, it also had lost ground to its previously struggling rivals, UCLA and Notre Dame. Trojans fans are demanding as a whole, but losing to the Bruins and Fighting Irish is a deal-breaker.

Kiffin was most consistent as a recruiter, even with scholarship limitations. But the downturn even caught up with that. The Trojans presently have only seven commitments, and they are not ranked among the nation's top 40 classes.

USC remains one of the nation's best college coaching jobs. The high school talent in the surrounding area is among the best in the country. The school also has the resources to make the next coach among the nation's highest paid.

Athletic director Pat Haden likely decided to make a decisive move now so he could get a head start on his search. No sense in allowing the ship to continue to sink. He'll immediately start getting back-door feelers from NFL and college head coaches and top assistants -- many probably already have made inquiries. Lots of names will circulate, from Boise State's Chris Petersen, to St. Louis Rams coach Jeff Fisher, to Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, to Washington coach Steve Sarkisian, to Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin.

Kiffin was unquestionably burdened with tougher circumstances than many coaches who take over college football superpowers. Yet such an explanation only goes so far in this win-now age.

While he flickered potential during the 2011 season, his ultimate downfall was this: His teams never consistently looked like USC should. And he never consistently looked like a guy who should be fronting USC.

Here is what we take away from Notre Dame's 35-21 loss Saturday to Oklahoma.

1. Expectations should be adjusted. Yes, Notre Dame's schedule is front-loaded. But the team can't play the way it has the last four weeks and expect to win. Teams better than Purdue and Michigan State eventually were going to make them pay again, and Oklahoma did just that Saturday in getting off to a 14-0 start and converting three turnovers into 21 points. Arizona State, USC and Stanford are probably the three biggest games remaining. And while crazier things have happened in college football, Notre Dame has given little indication through August and September that it can win out and become a BCS bowl team.

2. Ground game gains traction. George Atkinson III had a career day, rushing for 148 yards and a touchdown on just 14 carries. The Irish ran for 220 yards as a team, five more than they did last year during their win in Norman, Okla. Tarean Folston showed some promise on his 36-yard first-quarter burst, as well. If there is a silver lining to take away from this contest for Irish fans, it is certainly that the rushing offense seems finally to have found its footing.

3. Hendrix offers a changeup. Part of that extra running dimension came from inserting Andrew Hendrix into some zone-read plays. Hendrix finished with only 10 yards on five carries and misfired on his only pass attempt. Still, he offers a nice change of pace under center against good defenses, and he adds a little more creativity to an offense that has been stale at times early in the season. It is nice to see his size, speed and strength being put to use in some form or another as a redshirt junior.

These three stood out in Notre Dame's 35-21 loss to Oklahoma on Saturday:

George Atkinson III, RB: The junior ran the way everyone had been hoping he would coming into this season. He tallied a career-high 148 yards on 14 carries, and he ran for an 80-yard touchdown in the third quarter. No other running back carried the ball more than three times (Cam McDaniel and Amir Carlisle). Atkinson also had one catch that lost 5 yards, but we won't hold that against him.

TJ Jones, WR: The senior captain is arguably Notre Dame's MVP so far. He had four catches for 42 yards. Two of his catches came on third-down plays. Another was a 6-yard touchdown grab.

Bennett Jackson, CB: Another senior captain, Jackson delivered a number of big hits on the day, and he finished with two tackles for loss and seven pass break-ups. He had seven total tackles. A controversial second-quarter pass interference penalty hurt, but Jackson still played solid for the defense.