Notre Dame CB KeiVarae Russell in action against rival USC

Irish Back From Bye Week To Face Rival USC

Oct. 14, 2013

Game Notes Get Acrobat Reader | ND-USC Gameweek Central

DATE

– Saturday, October 19, 2013

TIME

– 7:41 p.m. ET

SITE (CAPACITY)

– Notre Dame Stadium (80,795); Notre Dame, Ind.

TELEVISION

– NBC national telecast with Dan Hicks (play-by-play), Mike Mayock (analysis), Alex Flanagan (sideline), Matt Marvin (producer) and Jeff Simon (director).

RADIO

– IMG College Sports is the exclusive national rights-holder for Irish football radio broadcasts. IMG College manages, produces and syndicates the Irish national football radio network. Notre Dame games will be broadcast by Don Criqui (play-by-play), former Irish great Allen Pinkett (analysis) and Jeff Jeffers (sideline). This broadcast can be heard live on both SIRIUS and XM Satellite Radio (channel 129). – All games can be heard in South Bend on News & Sports Radio 96.1 FM & 960 AM WSBT.

TICKETS

– Saturday is the 235th straight sellout at Notre Dame Stadium. Since 1966, every home game for the Irish has been a sellout except one – a 1973 Thanksgiving Day game vs. Air Force. Notre Dame has played in front of sellouts in 283 of its last 284 home games. – Notre Dame has played in front of sellout crowds in 261 of its previous 304 games (.859) overall. Notre Dame has played before 632 sellouts in 905 total games (.698) since 1930.

WEB SITES

– Notre Dame (UND.com), USC (USCTrojans.com)

POLLS

– Notre Dame and USC are each unranked in the Associated Press poll and USA Today Coaches’ poll.

REAL-TIME STATS

– Live in-game stats will be provided through CBS College Sports via UND.com.

SERIES INFO

– Notre Dame and USC will be meeting for the 85th time in series history. The Irish lead the all-time series 44-35-5 overall and own a 23-14-1 advantage in the series when it shifts to Notre Dame. – This rivalry began in 1926, when legendary Irish head coach Knute Rockne became the first Midwestern coach to take a team to the West Coast (Notre Dame won that game, 13-12) and the teams have meet every season since (taking 1943-45 off due to travel restrictions during World War II).

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

– Notre Dame has won nearly 80 percent of its games (62-17-2, .788) when it plays after a regular-season bye week (since 1900). – Fourth-year Irish head coach Brian Kelly is 13-2 over his career coming off a bye week.

COUNTDOWN TO KICKOFF

12 Notre Dame is 12-0 under Brian Kelly when it does not commit a turnover in the contest.

11 Notre Dame has played 19 games decided by a TD or less since the arrival of Brian Kelly in 2010. The Irish went 2-5 in the first seven games, but have since gone 11-1.

10 Senior QB Tommy Rees has 10 completions of at least 32 yards. Irish signal callers recorded 11 such passes in 2012.

9 Notre Dame has won 24 of its last 30 games. The Irish have the ninth-best overall FBS winning percentage since Sept. 17, 2011.

8 Notre Dame has won eight consecutive games under head coach Brian Kelly when the game was decided by a TD or less. He ranks third on the all-time Notre Dame list.

7 Notre Dame has allowed an average of 18.91 points/game over the last four seasons combined, which would rank as the seventh-best average from a BCS automatically-qualifying conference.

6 Senior QB Tommy Rees ranks among the top six in school history in six career passing categories. He ranks third in 300-yard games (five), third in completion percentage (60.7), fourth in completions (508), fourth in TD passes (47), fifth in attempts (837) and sixth in passing yards (5,907).

5 Notre Dame has allowed four sacks and ranks tied for fifth in the FBS. Only Fresno State (three sacks on 265 pass attempts) has allowed fewer sacks and attempted more passes than Notre Dame (four sacks on 210 pass attempts) this season.

4 Junior TE Troy Niklas has four TD catches in 2014. Only four tight ends in the FBS have collected more.

3 Senior OLB Prince Shembo equaled his career high with three sacks against No. 22 Arizona State. No FBS player has registered more sacks in a game this season.

2 The junior TE duo of Troy Niklas and Ben Koyack each had a TD grab against No. 22 Arizona State. Multiple Notre Dame tight ends had not registered a touchdown catch in the same game since 2006.

1 Notre Dame has lost just one time in 28 games under Brian Kelly when the Irish hold their opponent to 20 or fewer points. In fact, Kelly’s teams have won 70 of its last 71 games when allowing 20 points or less.

0 No FBS defense has allowed fewer rushing touchdowns than the 16 by Notre Dame over the last 37 games. Alabama has also limited its opponents to 16.