Notre Dame Fighting Irish VS USC Trojans: Staff Picks

Welcome to week 7 of the college football season and another night game for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who are now 5-2 and ranked #21 in the country. Next up for Marcus Freeman and company are the USC Trojans in the Battle of the Jeweled Shillelagh.

The One Foot Down staff will be making their weekly picks on Tallysight all season long. While this will generally mean the number of games will be around 5-8, the actual number from week to week will be quite flexible.

According to DraftKings Sportsbook, Notre Dame is a 2.5 point favorite over Southern Cal with an over/under of 60 which is down a couple of points from earlier this week.

The full list of games for the staff to pick this week are:

Ohio State Buckeyes VS Purdue Boilermakers
Oregon Ducks VS Washington Huskies
Texas A&M Aggies VS Tennessee Volunteers
LSU Tigers VS Auburn Tigers
USC Trojans VS Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Miami Hurricanes VS North Carolina Tar Heels
UCLA Bruins VS Oregon State Beavers
Duke Blue Devils VS NC State Wolfpack

All of you can play along this week and for the rest of the season by dropping your picks in the comment section below.

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.

It’s dawned on me that with there no longer being an Anti-Preview for me to give a printed prediction, and although we go to great lengths on the podcast to offer our predictions, I really need to start doing that here.

This game has me twisted. Every day this week I sold myself on one particular scenario, and the next day I change my mind with a lot of confidence — but it’s the confidence part that seems to be the real problem. I don’t have any. Southern Cal’s defense is awful, but Notre Dame’s offense has been awful over the last three games. So I guess I’m just going to have to believe that the offensive line gets back to being functional, and the running game takes over. I’m also going to have to believe that Notre Dame gets a few turnovers and a couple of other solid stops on defense to help slow down Caleb Williams and the Trojan offense. I’m going to have to believe it, but I have no idea how.

Notre Dame 38, USC 31