A smashing return

 OK, OK. So I didn't think it would be like this.

Remember yesterday, when the Blob predicted Notre Dame would be a different football team against USC than it was in the droopy loss to Louisville last week? That it would in fact prolly beat the 10th-ranked Trojans (and Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams), like, 31-28 or 33-30, something like that?

Well, color me a big stupid. 

I mean, not because the Irish lost, mind you. Because they won in a walk, 48-20.

I mean, 48-20 is how you beat a MAC school, or maybe Indiana on the rare occasions the Irish have scheduled the Hoosiers. It's not how you beat an old rival that came in ranked No. 10 and has a football tradition as proud as yours, and who until last night had been averaging more than 50 points per game.

Especially when you couldn't block, tackle or do all those football things against Louisville last week, and barely did them against Duke.

Apparently USC isn't as good as either. Because the Irish blocked, tackled and did every football thing imaginable to the Trojans, including some truly heinous things to Caleb Williams.

Williams swaggered into cold, wet Notre Dame Stadium with a chance to lock up his second Heisman, and instead the Irish made him look like Hiram Williams from down the street a-ways. Sacked him six times. Picked him three times and harassed him into untold bad reads. Beat up the USC offensive front to the tune of 11 total tackles for loss.

Did the same on the other side of the football, where the Irish simply lined up and slobber-knocked USC off the ball, with the Bus 2.0 (Audric Estime) crunching out 95 yards and two scores on 22 concussive carries.

It left everyone wondering just how counterfeit USC might be -- pretty counterfeit, it seems -- and just who the hell Notre Dame is. The Blob suspects the real Irish more resemble what we saw last night and against Ohio State than what we saw against Duke and Louisville, 

Don't think you'll see much of the latter after next week, when the Irish play Bye and get a much-needed breather from what has been a brutal eight-straight-week grind.

In any case, 48-20 was a sweet parting gift before that breather, and it fit neatly into the prevailing theme of the weekend as well  Which, if you gave it a title, would be something like "Them College Kids is CRAZY."

Start with Friday night and the Moulder In Boulder, when Colorado blew a 29-0 halftime lead against a one-win Stanford team and lost 46-43 in two overtimes. Then move on to Saturday, when all sorts of form-trashing happened.

A week after the big win against ND, unbeaten and 14th-ranked Louisville was ball-peened 38-21 by unranked Pitt. Unranked Arizona clubbed No. 19 Washington State 44-6, at Washington State. No. 23 Kansas and No. 24 Kentucky were also blistered by unranked opponents -- Kansas by a touchdown at Oklahoma State, and Kentucky by 17 at home to Missouri.

Exhibit No. 2,347 why college football is great.