The rivalry between the No. 13 USC Trojans and Notre Dame Fighting Irish has often gone the way of the Irish, but Notre Dame comes into this Week 13 matchup as a big underdog this year. While USC enters red hot, the Fighting Irish have been fighting to stay relevant at 4-7.
Notre Dame is coming off a 34-31 loss to Virginia Tech last week while USC easily took care of business against Pac-12 conference foe UCLA 36-14. Both teams feature strong quarterbacks, but USC has more depth and all the momentum.
The Trojans have knocked off a boatload of teams rather easily of late and this should be more of the same.
This contest in Week 13 of the regular season will go down Saturday, November 26, 2016, at 3:30 p.m. ET at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
College Football Odds at BookMaker.eu
Notre Dame +16.5
USC -16.5
Over/Under 57.5
Odds Analysis
USC will really need to pull away to cover this spread but the betting public is all in on that, with more than 72 percent of the early action choosing the Trojans to cover. The scoring total isn’t very high for a college football game and the”over” has been the more common wager.
Southern California is 8-3 straight up and 7-3-1 against the spread. The Trojans have excelled as the favorite, with a record of 5-0-1 when attempting to cover. USC has covered four times in five home games, and pushed the other time.
Notre Dame is 5-6 against the spread despite its poor record, and it’s been able to mostly keep games close this season. The Fighting Irish has only been the underdog one time this year and covered in that matchup.
Player to Watch
Sam Darnold – The USC quarterback has been a consistent threat behind center this year since taking over in Week 4. He has averaged more than 200 yards passing in every game since, including three games were he put up 300 yards or more.
His dependability has been key for the Trojans lately and although his season hasn’t been completely absent of freshman moments, the young quarterback has certainly risen to the occasion for USC. Darnold has thrown for 2,428 yards with 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
The young quarterback has the luxury of one of the nation’s top receivers on the outside in JuJu Smith-Schuster who leads the team at the position with 59 receptions for 758 yards and eight touchdowns. Beyond the star power of Smith-Schuster, however, USC has a ton of talent at the receiver position this year giving Darnold a lot of options downfield.
Key Stat
7-0. After starting the season at 1-3, USC has been red hot lately winning seven in a row heading into the final game of the regular season. Included in that winning streak are wins over ranked opponents No. 21 Colorado and No. 4 Washington.
The 26-13 win over Washington on November 12th was particularly impressive and marked the Huskies’ first loss of the season. The Trojans early schedule was brutal, beginning with a loss to the No. 1 team in the country Alabama and also including losses to two more ranked teams in Stanford and Utah.
Free ATS Pick
Notre Dame has won four of the last six meetings between these two programs including last year’s matchup in South Bend, but comes in as a big underdog this year. The Fighting Irish lead the Trojans 45-35-5 in this series all-time.
While the Fighting Irish have mostly kept it close in losses, USC is rolling right now and should be able to cruise to the victory. Expect Darnold to have a big day, and if DeShone Kizer can’t excel Notre Dame won’t have enough firepower to avoid a blowout loss to end a disappointing season.
College Football Odds: USC 41, Notre Dame 20
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