Notre Dame Football: Hot and Cold Takes for USC

How’d we do last week?

As mentioned last week, I will feature the Most Interesting, Most Wildly Inaccurate, and Most Accurate Takes for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from the previous week. Here we go!

Interesting

I mean.....Creative is an understatement. This could have honestly been a short film, and I would have watched it, twice.

Wildly Inaccurate

The mumble was correct, but the blowout was just as easy as expected. Not a whole lot of wildly inaccurate takes this week, but this game felt....well.....just plain easy.

Accurate

When you got it, you got it. Ian Book completed 80% of his passes en route to 5 touchdowns and 261 yards. Not bad at all.

And now onto the takes for this weeks matchup between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the USC Trojans

Cold Take

TaRiq Bracy leads the team in passes defended

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

It is no secret that USC is going to try and target a great trio of wide receivers this weekend. Michael Pittman Jr., Tyler Vaughns, and Amon-Ra St. Brown are among the top core in the entire country. Even if they aren’t open, they are the types of receivers who are open. USC quarterback Kedon Slovis will target them often, and look to exploit the newly starting cornerback, TaRiq Bracy. Though Bracy doesn’t have a lot of starts under his belt, he has shown elite skills with the ball in the air at times, especially against Georgia. I have noticed he played a bit back on his heels for the first couple weeks, but is VERY VERY close to breaking out. With an aggressive pass rush coming this week and young quarterback returning from injury, Bracy will make a LOT of plays. Look for a possible out route being taken to the house from Bracy who will play with more confidence after approaching the last couple weeks as the starter.

Hot Take

Jafar Armstrong has over 125 yards in under 18 total snaps

Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Jafar won’t play a ton, but he will make a big impact. The Trojans will absolutely blitz Ian Book all night (insert Remember the Titans, “WE BLITZ ALL NIGHT”) and try force him to beat them under duress. Chip Long knows this, and will build a game plan around this with strategic slants, draws, and screens. At some point there will be a time where Armstrong lines up in the backfield, motions out and gets lined up man to man vs. a linebacker. He will win these matchup and make some big plays.

Your Takes: Please leave your takes below (hot, cold medium-any temp). I will feature the Top Takes next week. GO IRISH!