ESPN College Football

Lots of great stuff out there today. Away we go ...

• Mel Kiper has one Notre Dame player on his Big Board. Todd McShay has two.
• Brian Kelly's interview with Ivan Maisel aired on Maisel's Tuesday podcast.
• Scouts Inc. breaks down this weekend's Notre Dame-USC matchup.
• Brad Edwards thinks a win over USC could start a turnaround for Notre Dame.
• Notre Dame fans will like the weekend forecast from our friends over at ESPNLA.com. Mark Saxon writes that the rivalry has lost some luster. Pedro Moura re-visits the 2009 game.
• WeAreSC.com's Garry Paskwietz looks at the former USC players returning to Notre Dame this weekend as assistants. Paskwietz and four others look back at USC's memorable wins over the Irish.
• SI.com's Andy Staples has an, um, interesting choice of video to correspond with Notre Dame's No. 19 ranking in his power poll.

Here's what to keep an eye on this weekend as the Irish host the Trojans:

• USC throwing early: Matt Barkley will make up for missing last year's game by throwing the ball a lot in the early going. With the Trojans' talented receiving corps and question marks in the backfield, which may be without Marc Tyler, look for USC to try to take the crowd out of the game with a big play.
• Punt return success: Well, it can't be any worse, right? Michael Floyd will likely get a chance to return punts for the first time, and he certainly has the athleticism and big-play capability the Irish have been missing back there. I wouldn't expect him to take any to the house just yet, but a few solid returns to better position the offense is a reasonable expectation.
• Let there be light: Brighter helmets, a later start and a rivalry that is finally two-sided should contribute to an atmosphere that Notre Dame Stadium hasn't seen in years. Let's hope for everyone's sake that it is a safe one, too, so that night games can possibly become annual affairs.

Lane Kiffin called this game Notre Dame's Super Bowl because it is coming off the Irish's bye week. He is also upset that the Irish announced it was a night game in March, somehow messing with USC's travel plans.

No, this isn't the '70s, when this annual intersectional matchup often had national title implications. Neither team is ranked, and USC won't even be able to play in a conference title game, let alone a bowl game, due to NCAA sanctions. But Kiffin has done what he can to inject some juice into this showdown, which will certainly make for an enhanced atmosphere under the lights of Notre Dame Stadium.

On the field, USC is the better team in the standings, at 5-1. But Notre Dame has the better personnel. This is a Trojans team that managed just a two-point season-opening home win against Minnesota, after all.

Did USC's defense turn a corner last week against Cal? A unit that gave up 40-plus points in consecutive weeks shut down the Golden Bears in a 30-9 victory. It remains to be seen, but one thing I'm certain of is USC's offense has the firepower to hang with the Irish.

I see this one similarly to the way I saw Notre Dame-Air Force -- to an extent. Both offenses are capable of exploding, but only the Irish's defense appears capable of making a stop when push comes to shove. And, for the second game in a row, I think the Irish jump to an early lead and never look back, leaving USC to play catch-up in another high-scoring affair.

No alleged flukes here. And no injury excuses, either, regardless of how much Marc Tyler can actually play, if at all. The Irish start a winning streak of their own against USC with their second win in as many years, and just maybe help restore this rivalry in the process.

Prediction: Notre Dame 35, USC 24

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Brian Kelly entered his meeting with reporters after practice Wednesday carrying a gold helmet, which he placed in front of his feet before fielding more than two minutes of questions about the Irish's wardrobe for the weekend.

The helmets, which Notre Dame will wear this Saturday against USC, are closer in color to that of the Golden Dome. The 23.9 carat golden dust from the Golden Dome will still be used in the helmets. And managers will no longer paint them.

"We finally got it right," Kelly said. "Jack [Swarbrick] and I have been frustrated with the color of the helmet and we got Ryan Grooms, our equipment manager who's worked diligently in getting this put together, and we felt that we finally got the gold the right way. It's not all of, it's not those different shades that we've seen over the years, so we're pretty excited about it. We'll wear those this weekend."

Kelly said he noticed the tints of the old helmets were changing ever-so slightly in his two years at Notre Dame, and he said he feels this model does a better job of maintaining the tradition of the Irish's uniforms.

"We've been frustrated with the helmet," Kelly said. "It just has never gotten to the right color. We want it to be the Golden Dome. I mean, that's the representation for me. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but that's the gold that we were looking for. Still has the flake, the gold flake in it. The only difference is our managers won't paint these."

Kelly said the helmets were already tested under high-definition colors and should stand out even more under the lights this weekend.

He also said the Irish would wear their "traditional colors" this weekend, though his vagueness with those were consistent with the past two weeks, as he has dodged all jersey questions.

"Last I checked they were blue, white and gold," he said, before quickly adding, "and green."

Grooms, the team equipment manager, seemed to clear that up on Twitter, however, posting that Notre Dame would wear blue jerseys.

Notre Dame athletics' Facebook page has several photos of the new helmets, along with the old ones, here.

Notes: The helmets of Irish players will feature a green shamrock sticker featuring a black "X" for the rest of the season, in honor of late team intern Xavier Murphy, who lost his battle with leukemia Oct. 11. The team will hold a moment of silence before next week's game against Navy, as that would have been Murphy's 23rd birthday and is technically the first game after fall break, which Notre Dame students are currently on. Murphy's family is scheduled to attend the Oct. 29 game. ... Long-snapper Jordan Cowart (broken hand) is cleared to play, but Kelly said he is still competing with Ryan Kavanagh and Braxston Cave this week for snaps. ... Defensive end Ethan Johnson (ankle) is cleared to play but is not yet 100 percent. He won't play his normal 50-60 snaps Saturday.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Gary Gray initially described his situation coming off Notre Dame's Week 2 loss at Michigan as "just a little adversity" that his teammates helped him overcome.

Pressed further, the cornerback confessed it was more than that.

"I mean, it was a lot," he said. "We lost the game, but I mean, they stuck behind me, so they still believe in me and I still believe in myself, so that's all that matters."

Gray, a fifth-year senior who has started 26 straight games for the Irish, experienced a nightmare at the Big House, low-lighted by the game-winning touchdown catch he surrendered to Roy Roundtree with two seconds left.

Cornerbacks coach Kerry Cooks, not wanting the disappointing performance to get to Gray -- and knowing that the obligatory "24-hour rule" is easier spoken than exercised after a bad game -- immediately went into the film room and showed Gray that all wasn't lost.

"As a coach you pull out some of the old clips, and you remind Gary Gray what he did and how many plays he's made on numerous great wide receivers in big games and that shows him that, 'Hey OK, it wasn't a fluke, I just didn't play up to my abilities, I didn't play technically sound. Michigan's got good players and that is what it is, it's behind us now,' " Cooks said. "But you do things like that, you show him what he's done in the past to help him move forward in the future. Just kind of as a reminder that, 'You know, things happen. Short-term memory. This is what you've done. You didn't do it this game. But this is what you've done. This is what you're capable of. We've got confidence in you as a staff.'

"His teammates rallied around him and let him know that they have confidence in him as a player and he went out and just performed well."

Cooks shared with Gray a saying he often heard throughout his four-year NFL career, a cliche that helped him bounce back after rough outings:

"They get paid, too, to make plays," Cooks said of receivers.

Notre Dame touted Gray as one of the top cornerbacks in the country this season, though fellow starter Robert Blanton has garnered more attention so far through six games.

Gray, the most decorated recruit of the Irish's defensive backfield, admitted to being a little shaken after the Michigan game but was picked up by his teammates the next day.

"I think that throughout that game he was kind of wondering what was going on," Cooks said. "Because if you watch the game closely on tape, he was in position to make some of those plays and just didn't come up with them.

"But coming out that following week in practice there was nothing different. He knew that he had to come out and he needed to improve on some certain things from a technical standpoint and he did those. He was positive. He was excited. He went out that very next week and played ball."

Gray has steadily improved his play in the four games since, and his game-opening interception at Purdue in Week 5 set the tone for a rout.

Defensive coordinator Bob Diaco called Gray one of the stalwarts of the defense, saying he hasn't missed a beat in practice following the prime-time blemish.

"The demons he was going through, we all work with," Diaco said. "But he really didn't let them -- I don't know how long it caused him to decelerate, but we didn't see it. By the time he came to work he was ready."

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- There are no more special feelings when Manti Te'o faces USC.

The what-could-have-been scenarios no longer run through the mind of the man who shocked everyone when choosing to go to Notre Dame three years ago.

"My first two years I said, 'OK, this is USC. I almost went there. I grew up a USC fan,' " Te'o said of facing the Trojans. "So I used to have those kind of emotions mixing in with all the anxiety and excitement. But going into his year I don't have that feeling anymore. I'm just happy to get out there. I'm happy to play another game. I'm happy to play with the guys I'm with, so it's just another game for me."

Te'o said he is friends with Matt Barkley and a few other current Trojans players, though many of the older ones he knew have graduated.

On Wednesday, the linebacker re-told the story of how just how close he was to choosing USC out of high school.

"I was gonna go to USC, then I prayed about it and I was directed here," Te'o said. "So I think that was the only thing that could persuade me to come here. I was sold on USC. I grew up a USC fan. But I prayed about it and everything pointed this way."

• ESPNLA.com's Pedro Moura looks at the "dark cloud" surrounding USC. Marc Tyler's chances of playing Saturday are looking better.
• If Tyler can't go, Curtis McNeal is ready to step up, Garry Paskwietz writes on WeAreSC.com.
• Jack Swarbrick clarifies some of his quotes last week about Notre Dame's student section to the South Bend Tribune's Eric Hansen.
• The Chicago Sun-Times' Neil Hayes writes that winning out would all but guarantee Notre Dame a BCS bowl bid.
• Matt Barkley is eager to get back and play Notre Dame again, Gary Klein writes in the Los Angeles Times.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Jonas Gray saw what USC did to Cal's rushing attack Thursday and, without hesitation, pointed to the strength of the Trojans' defense when asked about it five days later

"The front seven," Gray said Tuesday. "They block a lot of passes, they play a lot of games up front, they tackle well in the secondary. They're a physical group."

USC held Cal to 35 rushing yards in a 30-9 win that was the Trojans' most convincing defensive performance to date.

In its two previous games, USC had allowed 43 and 41 points to Arizona State and Arizona, respectively, the first time in school history it allowed 40-plus points in consecutive contests. The Trojans allowed a school-record 37 first downs against Arizona as well.

The Trojans are 56th nationally in total defense and 46th in scoring defense. But they rank 19th against the run, allowing 99.5 yards per game and have held three of their six opponents under the 100-yard mark as a team.

"I think they've got a specific scheme that they like to employ," coach Brian Kelly said. "It's very similar to what we've seen. They're very consistent in that respect. They're not gonna give you just one look. They played well, they tackled well. I think they got up on Cal and forced them to throw the football. I think one of the things that's really important to point out is Monte still has his influences in that defense. … You can still see there are some Monte Kiffin influences in what they do defensively.

"If they get up on you, they're a tough group to rally on. I think that's probably more of a difference than anything else.

Notre Dame, meanwhile averages 194 rushing yards per game, 30th in the nation.

Gray and Cierre Wood have accounted for the majority of those yards. Wood, an Oxnard, Calif., native, was recruited by the in-state Trojans before choosing Notre Dame, where he thought he would have an easier time making a name for himself early.

"I've never really been big on it," Wood said. "I was growing up and I see everybody going there, and I had a lot of friends and whatnot and it was always a big school, but it just seemed there was way too many people there and whatnot. And you hear about five different people on the team who like, you hear about them at one time and then you don't hear about them because something happens to them.

"But at the same time, you hear the next man in because there's five different running backs or five different tight ends and stuff like that. So I've always thought [of them] being like a great powerhouse but it's never really something that I was too big about, really."

Some games you want to win because you want to win every game. Others games feature highly ranked teams and therefore generate national interest. Some are rivalry games. But Notre Dame-USC is something else entirely, even if the 83rd game of the storied intersectional contest on Saturday features two unranked teams for just the 10th -- and second consecutive -- time in the series.

The battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh is a showdown of national programs. Top recruits across the country who don't feel pinned down to a home-state school or region watch it to test their allegiances. Most of the elite players who are recruited by USC are recruited by Notre Dame and vice versa.

And if you're looking for a marker for which direction either program is going, it's this game. Lou Holtz went 9-1-1 against USC. Pete Carroll went 8-1 against Notre Dame. Where do their tenures rank among their program's histories?

So that's why USC's 20-16 defeat last year resonates, particularly considering how it went down. Start with the obvious: Two rookie coaches who'd both been burned by off-field controversies, trying to make their marks during uncertain times for their programs.

And then Trojans receiver Ronald Johnson dropped a sure touchdown pass with 1:17 remaining, and Notre Dame ended an eight-game losing streak in the series. Brian Kelly became 1-0 against USC. And Lane Kiffin fell to 0-1 against Notre Dame.

"It was a horrible feeling because of the streak and how long it was and how much work goes into that," Kiffin said. "And there it is right there, one fluke play and all those years are over with."

"Fluke" plays can lead to sea changes. In Holtz's first game against USC in 1986, Notre Dame overcame a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit to stun USC 38-37. The Fighting Irish went from a losing season in 1985 to a national title in 1988. In 2001, Carroll lost by 11 at Notre Dame. The next season, his Trojans handed the Irish a historically bad 44-13 whipping, outgaining them 610 yards to 109. And away USC went.

And then there's last year's game, which ended a run of 19 consecutive nonconference victories for USC.

"We knew that if a talented receiver like that was going to drop a ball like that in a situation like that, it's definitely our night," Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o said after the 2010 game. "Things like that don't happen without a reason. It's a huge night for this program and in our lives."

Te'o, of course, is the player that broke USC's hearts on national signing day in 2009. Long considered the next in a long line of elite Trojans linebackers, the top-rated player switched to Notre Dame seemingly out of nowhere.

When considering last year's game, USC takes heart from knowing that it lost in the waning moments without two key injured players: offensive tackle Tyron Smith and quarterback Matt Barkley. While Smith was the ninth overall pick in the 2011 NFL draft and now plays for the Dallas Cowboys, Barkley is back and healthy and playing well. He and receiver Robert Woods are one of the nation's best pass-catch combinations.

And another streak is on the line: USC has won 13 consecutive nonconference road games. That, by the way, is the last of many winning streaks established during the Carroll era.

The Trojans this year have been mostly about Barkley and Woods and a notably mediocre defense. But it was the defense that stepped up in the Trojans' 30-9 win over California on Oct. 13, while Barkley and Woods struggled to find their rhythm.

"We needed a game that our defense won for us," Kiffin said.

That defense will need to step up again because Notre Dame won't be easy to move the ball against. Other than an implosion against Michigan, the Irish have played well on defense, surrendering just 21 points per game.

USC went 8-5 in Kiffin's first season, which was mostly given passing grades because of the circumstances. If Johnson had caught that pass, however, most would have viewed the season as a success.

Going forward, Kiffin's Trojans will be saddled with severe scholarship reductions -- each of their next three recruiting classes can only include 15 signees instead of 25 -- which almost certainly will reduce the number of wins the program produces.

But on Saturday, there won't be any real excuses. This game is a national measuring stick, and the Trojans don't want to fall short again and see power and esteem in the storied intersectional rivalry shift back to the Midwest.

Said Kiffin, "We've got to go back and start a new streak this year."

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- For much of the aughts -- the past eight years of the decade, to be exact -- Notre Dame-USC was the rivalry that wasn't. The Irish dropped eight in a row to the Trojans by an average margin of 24.5 points per game, and they weren't even favored in any of those contests.

"It doesn't make for a great rivalry," Brian Kelly said, "if you haven't won any games."

USC's Matt Barkley missed last year's game, Ronald Johnson dropped a potential go-ahead touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and, just like that, the Irish escaped Los Angeles with a 20-16 victory, their first over the Trojans since 2001.

Be it luck, a breakthrough or just good timing -- USC's in the second year of a two-year bowl ban and in the first of three years with 30 fewer total scholarships because of NCAA violations -- Notre Dame, in its second year under Kelly, finally feels it can make its rivalry with the Trojans an actual rivalry again.

"I think it is, definitely, to get the monkey off the back," Jonas Gray said of the importance of last year's win. "But also it's just taking each game as a playoff. Coach Kelly has talked about it and the rest of the coaches have talked about it. We gotta take each game with the same type of urgency that we've taken the last game. Just like Air Force, we're trying to win out. We wanna play a playoff-type atmosphere. We know what it is, what it would be like to lose another game."

The atmosphere will be enhanced this Saturday, as Notre Dame Stadium hosts its first night game in 21 years and just its eighth overall.

Whether the Irish break out alternate green jerseys for the game remains to be seen after Kelly dodged the question for the second time in as many weeks, but he did acknowledge an added excitement in his team given the environment surrounding this weekend's contest.

"We are. There is no question," Kelly said. "We're at home. We're excited about being on national television. Clearly our players are looking forward to being that one game at night at Notre Dame Stadium. They haven't experienced anything. So this is a first-time experience. You know, like anybody else, they love those first-time experiences."

The circumstances are slightly different from, say, the 2005 and 2006 matchups, when both teams finished their seasons in BCS bowls.

Each team enters Saturday's game unranked, and USC is ineligible to play in the inaugural Pac-12 title game or a bowl game this season after being slapped with the "lack of institutional control" tag stemming from violations centered around former Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush.

Second-year coach Lane Kiffin took over for Pete Carroll, whose reign of dominance out West included four straight Rose Bowl appearances, with three straight wins in the historic contest.

USC may not be at that level again, and it will be an uphill climb once the sanctions have finally come and gone, but Notre Dame isn't downplaying the team that will enter its house Saturday.

"I see them as still a great team," Darius Fleming said. "It's hard to look at them like I did my freshman year when they had like Clay Matthews, Rey Maualuga and all those guys, but they still have some awesome athletes. They replaced those guys really well with the players they have and I think they're a dominant team. I'm not gonna look at them any differently because once you do that they'll come in here and take care of you.

"But I don't think that will happen because I think that we understand that they're a good team and we have to prepare very hard for this team, so there might be a little difference within personnel. But the atmosphere of the team and the vibe of the team, I don't really think that changed too much."

In the week leading up to Notre Dame's Oct. 8 game against Air Force, Paqui Kelly had a much bigger task on her hands than simply preparing for the Falcons' triple-option offense.

She hosted a pair of golf outings — one in Grand Rapids, Mich., another two days later in South Bend, Ind. — and helped spread the message that may have helped save her life: be proactive.

The wife of Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly is a two-time breast cancer survivor, undergoing a double mastectomy in the spring of 2008. October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, is of particular importance to the Kellys. Notre Dame's uniforms and accessories featured pink accents in its win over Air Force, and Brian Kelly wore pink ties to his midweek and postgame press conferences.

"We need to get the word out that it's not doomsday like it was 25 years ago," Paqui Kelly said.

The Kellys started what would in 2009 become known as the Kelly Cares Foundation, a non-profit focused on breast cancer education, prevention and research.

The groundwork was laid in 2007, when Brian Kelly was coaching at Cincinnati. But cancer soon returned to Paqui Kelly, putting the paperwork for what was originally the Kelly Family Foundation on the backburner.

"We just did two events a year, and it was very much smaller than what we're doing now," Paqui Kelly said. At Notre Dame, she added, "the platform's allowed us not to spend a whole lot of money on advertising, which can be very costly. So just the number of people we've been able to help has been pretty efficient."

In December 2002, a mammogram Paqui Kelly underwent on a doctor's recommendation revealed two cysts on her breast, which she was told to monitor for six months. She felt they were growing, returned in May and was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She waited to see if the cancer would return before choosing to undergo a double mastectomy, something two of her five sisters, Monie and Eli, had done between the first and second time she was diagnosed.

"Immensely," Paqui Kelly said when asked how much it helped to have her sisters to lean on.

She can also credit her light-hearted personality.

A mother of two boys and one girl, Paqui Kelly hosted a head-shaving party during her second battle with cancer, reasoning that her hair would eventually come out anyway.

"The two boys were like, 'Oh I get how funny this is,' and they were asking the neighbors' kids, 'C'mon, we're shaving Mom's head,' and tried to sell it,' " Paqui Kelly recalled with a laugh.

"I think that was a little more offbeat than most people do."

She said the first time the entire extended family saw her bald, at a buffet-style dinner, one of the kids had been grossed out by what appeared to be a piece of hair on one of the plates.

"It's not mine," Paqui Kelly replied, lightening the mood for everyone.

"I tell people I'm not making light of the seriousness of it, we just all handle things differently," she said. "Humor helps me through it and our family through it. Denial is one of those tools that doesn't work with cancer in any form."

Her husband has a humorous side, too, she said, but it comes out in different ways.

"His job doesn't allow for shenanigans, in terms of leading a team and an administrative staff in his type of position," Paqui Kelly said. "But he's quite able to be entertaining as well, just in his own little way. Sometimes it's more dry than a 'ba-dum' kind of deal."

Brian Kelly cannot help but turn serious when discussing the strength of his wife, who has now been cancer-free for four years.

Together, they have used their platform to spread awareness, hoping to, as Paqui Kelly puts it, be "the difference between a really long healing process or a story that doesn't end as well you hope."

"My best friend," Brian Kelly said of Paqui. "When you have those tough days you go and see her and it makes it a lot easier."

Eric McKinney : USC and Notre Dame are rivals on the recruiting trail and the field, with several recruiting battles over the years reflecting that.

Kyle Williams : A look at the Notre Dame defense position-by-position leading into Saturday's game with USC

In announcing his conference's decision to double its exit fee to $10 million and move toward a 12-football team model, Big East commissioner John Marinatto credited Notre Dame for its role in helping keep the conference together.

Though football independence remains a priority for Notre Dame, 18 of its other sports compete in the Big East, including the school's men's and women's basketball teams.

Marinatto cited Rev. John Jenkins, the school's president, for helping the conference weather the realignment storm that has seen Pitt and Syracuse leave for the ACC and create a cloud of uncertainty.

"Father Jenkins is part of our board," Marinatto said on a conference call. "I can’t tell you how hard he’s worked in the last 21 months, been with me 24-7, he's been with me during the two most challenging years this conference has gone through given the realignment climate.

"Notre Dame has worked side by side with our 13 other schools as we try to figure our way out of this. Notre Dame is committed, if not more committed to this conference than any other member because they view it as a very positive place to house all their other sports and are committed to moving forward with us. They like the model and they’re excited about it as we move forward."

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Brian Kelly entered his weekly news conference Tuesday with a camera crew following him.

"You guys all know the Republican debate is here today," he joked before taking the podium.

USC week is not exactly a political affair. And, despite what Trojans coach Lane Kiffin may have said this week about the game being the Irish's Super Bowl, a championship won't exactly be decided this Saturday, either.

Kelly understands the importance of this intersectional rivalry, but he isn't going to let it cloud his team's motive for the rest of the season:

Win out.

"We talked about that the other day. For us, we wanna get into a BCS game and we know what we have to do, and that is we gotta win each and every game we play," Kelly said. "So every game for us since going 0-2 has been that way. It's been the same focus for us. It's a huge game for us against USC, there's no question about the tradition and the rivalry. But if we beat USC and don't beat Navy, it doesn't mean much. So I think that's the perspective we take."

Notes: Kelly said Manti Te'o (ankle), Ethan Johnson (ankle) and Daniel Smith (leg) are all cleared to play Saturday, though Johnson will not be able to go every play.

Fall is finally here.

• Kyle Williams shares his memories from the Bush Push game on WeAreSC.com. Jeremy Hogue looks at the similarities of both programs this season.
• ESPNLA.com's Pedro Moura looks at Notre Dame from the Trojans' side of things.
• George Atkinson's future is set, Brian Hamilton writes in the Chicago Tribune.
• Andrew Hendrix shows the nerves of a surgeon, Al Lesar writes in the South Bend Tribune.
• Questions surround USC's backfield, Gary Klein writes in the Los Angeles Times.