Notre Dame’s Culture Defeats USC: More Than Just a Win

Notre Dame's run game and defense win the battle

Notre Dame's offense has changed somewhat in 2025. For the first time in a long time, the Irish have been able to present opposing defenses with a true downfield passing game threat with the emergence of CJ Carr and his natural passing ability.

As Carr has leveled off a bit regarding some of the gaudy pass game numbers he put up earlier in the year, vintage Notre Dame style took over vs the Trojans.

The formula for Notre Dame to defeat USC has been constant over time. If the Irish play solid defense and can run the ball, they beat USC. Sure enough, that's what we saw Saturday night in rain-soaked Notre Dame Stadium.

The Irish held the high-powered USC offense to just 24 points, created three turnovers to go along with two fourth-down stops, and ran the ball for over 300 yards.

The weather may not have been beautiful, but those statistics sure are. Notre Dame's culture is more established, ingrained, and reliable than USC's way of playing football, as Lincoln Riley tries to find his footing in his fourth season in LA.

JD Price — Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price (24) returns a kick for a touchdown in the second half of a NCAA football game against Southern California at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, in South Bend. | MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Lincoln Riley needed to win this football game

Lincoln Riley and former Notre Dame GM and new Trojan GM Chad Bowden desperately needed and wanted to win this football game.

Chad was looking to prove he made the right decision ditching South Bend weather for LA sunshine, and Lincoln Riley is on a mission to prove his program has turned a corner and can be a consistent winner. He failed in this mission.

USC needed to prove this year that its program isn't "soft" anymore in vintage Pac-10 style and that it could be a physical force in the Big Ten. The win over a Michigan team the week before facing Notre Dame provided false hope that this corner has been turned.

In reality, we learned that Michigan has a much worse team this year than Wolverine fans had hoped for and that USC still hasn't "arrived" at the level Riley had hoped.

This was a culture win for Notre Dame. Playing good defense and being able to run the football is a winning formula that withstands modern trends in the sport, and the Irish showed that Saturday night.

If this was the last game played between these two programs for the foreseeable future, at least the jeweled shillelagh will be under safekeeping in South Bend, where it rightfully belongs.