Today in Just A Feeling

OK, then, so bring it. I can take it.

Tell me the reflection off the Golden Dome has blinded me.

Pat me on the head and say, "OK there, Domer Homer."

Ask me if I always genuflect when I hear Rockne's name. Or if I sing the Victory March in the shower in the morning. Or if I'd like some pompons to go with that cute cheerleader outfit.

Point. Laugh. Ridicule away.

I'll still say I think Notre Dame beats USC tonight.

And, no, I have nothing of particular substance with which to back that up. I just have this, I don't know, feeling,

Maybe it springs from all the times I've seen past performance not guarantee future results, especially in college athletics. College kids are goofy. They do magnificent stuff, and then they do stupid stuff. They fail to show up, and then they show up like Patton's Third Army.

I say that having watched Notre Dame demonstrably not show up last Saturday night in Louisville, where Jeff Brohm's unbeaten Cardinals and a stadium full of maniacs howling for Notre Dame's blood were waiting.

People (or at least the keepers of Notre Dame lore) like to say every road game for the Irish is the home team's Super Bowl. That's not nearly as true as it was back when Notre Dame was winning national titles and dinosaurs walked the earth. But it was close enough for government work last week.

The result was a 33-20 rump-roasting for the listless Irish.

And now the Irish have an old and bitter rival coming, a rival that's also unbeaten and happens to have the best college football player in America in quarterback Caleb Williams. They're the nation's 10th-ranked team, and they've still got a shot at the playoff if they can run the table, and so the Trojans have much for which to play. Plus there's that whole old-and-bitter-rival thing.

None of which explains why I think Notre Dame somehow jumps up and gets them.

What does explain it, partly, is the fact USC's offense is unstoppable -- the Trojans are averaging 42.5 points per game -- but so is everyone else's offense against USC's defense. It's giving up 27 points per game so far, and it's been even more a swinging gate in the last three games, giving up 36.6 per against Arizona State (28), Colorado (41) and Arizona (41).

Notre Dame ought to be able work with that, if it brings the want-to it left at home last week. And history, recent and otherwise, says it will.

Marcus Freeman hasn't been around long enough to establish much of a coaching M.O., but his Notre Dame teams have shown some bounce-back after defeats. After the wrenching 17-14 loss to Ohio State this season, for instance, they outlasted a then-unbeaten Duke team on the road. And last year?

They followed up that embarrassing loss to Marshall with wins over Cal, North Carolina by 13 on the road, and 16th-ranked BYU. And after a loss to Stanford, they beat UNLV, 16th-ranked Syracuse by 17 on the road, and No. 5 Clemson by three touchdowns.

Based on all that, I can't imagine the Irish looking anything tonight the way they looked in Louisville.  Besides (speaking of history), this series is littered with the unexpected, Notre Dame jumping up and beating USC when it shouldn't and vice-versa. 

So the Irish have that going for them, as they say. And this feeling of mine, of course.

It tells me Notre Dame wins. It tells me the Irish squeak by 31-28, 33-30, something like that.

You may now commence the pointing, the laughing, all that.