By Antonio Morales, Pete Sampson and David Ubben

Powered by its tremendous running back duo, No. 13 Notre Dame beat No. 20 USC 34-24 on Saturday to clear one of the most significant hurdles on its path to a return trip to the College Football Playoff.

Jeremiyah Love rushed for a career-high 228 yards, while backfield mate Jadarian Price added 87 and returned a third-quarter kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown to put Notre Dame (5-2) back ahead after the Trojans briefly took the lead with a long touchdown.

The Trojans (5-2) had a chance in the fourth quarter after a series of Notre Dame miscues — a missed extra point, a crucial third-down drop in the red zone and a missed field goal — but they couldn’t capitalize on the opening the Fighting Irish left for them. USC did get the ball into Notre Dame territory, but receiver Makai Lemon fumbled the ball away on a questionable trick play call in the rain, which ended the threat. (“It was a stupid call,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said afterward.)

The Fighting Irish’s defense came up with some critical stops when the Trojans were making a push. That and Notre Dame’s control of the trenches ultimately decided the game. Notre Dame outrushed USC 306 yards to 68. Though Trojans quarterback Jayden Maiava passed for 328 yards, he was also intercepted twice.

This was a critical win for the Fighting Irish, who won’t have many more (if any at all) opportunities for a victory against ranked teams. Notre Dame’s remaining schedule is: Boston College (road), Navy (home), Pitt (road), Syracuse (home) and Stanford (road). The Fighting Irish will be heavy favorites in all those remaining games and should expect to finish 10-2. Whether Notre Dame’s resume would be good enough compared to teams from the Big Ten or SEC who might have the same record remains to be seen. The Athletic’s Austin Mock gives the Irish a 73 percent chance of making the Playoff as of late Saturday.

The loss puts a serious damper on the Trojans’ Playoff hopes. The Trojans still have a road game at Oregon remaining and will be an underdog in that one.

On top of dealing a serious blow to USC’s CFP aspirations, Notre Dame’s win could potentially be the last one in this rivalry for a while. The two programs are not contracted to play next season and have yet to reach an agreement on an extension for the series.

Love makes his Heisman case

Love has had Heisman Trophy moments before but never a game like the one he posted against USC with 24 carries for a career-high 228 yards and a touchdown, plus five catches for 37 yards, as he rampaged through the Trojans defense from start to finish. The Irish basically needed all of his production, too, considering quarterback CJ Carr looked like a redshirt freshman for the first time all season.

For a back blessed with breakaway speed, Love’s power carried the night for Notre Dame, eventually breaking the USC defense. Notre Dame played the part of the Midwestern bully against the West Coast finesse team almost perfectly, only slipping up when it took the ball out of Love’s hands or away from Price. Notre Dame averaged seven yards per rush and its tandem of backs accounted for three touchdowns, including Price’s kickoff return.

This was Love’s night to shine, delivering much more than a singular highlight or hurdle, going beyond that 98-yard touchdown run to open the College Football Playoff or that 2-yard epic against Penn State in the Orange Bowl. Love was the best player on the field on Saturday night, perhaps belatedly launching a Heisman Trophy campaign that felt impossible after Notre Dame’s 0-2 start. Love even threw the decisive lead block on Carr’s touchdown run in the fourth quarter that clinched the outcome.

For anyone looking for evidence of why Love is projected to be the first running back off the board in the NFL Draft next spring, Saturday night offered four quarters of proof. — Pete Sampson

USC’s Playoff hopes take big hit

USC entered the day with a 30 percent chance to make the College Football Playoff field, according to The Athletic’s projections. Those odds fell to 18 percent Saturday night.

The Trojans, hopeful after a massive win over Michigan a week ago, might say all but say goodbye to their Playoff hopes on the way home from South Bend. The Trojans’ loss to Illinois put them behind in the Big Ten title race, and they’ll likely need an at-large bid to qualify, as they have just a 4 percent chance to win the conference in Mock’s model.

At 5-2, with no nonconference wins to speak of, the Trojans will need to run the table to re-enter the conversation. That would include a win vs. Iowa and at Oregon, as well as holding serve against Nebraska on the road and in the season finale against UCLA. The Trojans’ physical win a week ago against the Wolverines re-inspired hope of a run to the CFP. But after a loss with too many mistakes to overcome at Notre Dame Stadium, USC is looking like a long shot, at best, and is in a much different position than a Notre Dame team with two losses of its own. — David Ubben

Irish defense steps up

If Saturday night was a mid-term exam for defensive coordinator Chris Ash, he passed — even if he didn’t ace it.

Notre Dame had two primary goals in bottling up USC’s offense, which led the nation in yards per play and ranked third in scoring entering the day. The first was to shut down the Trojans’ ground game, even if it was relying on walk-on running back King Miller. The second was to not let Lemon, a midseason All-American wide receiver, burn Notre Dame’s secondary in favorable matchups against corner Christian Gray and freshman nickel Dallas Golden.

Even without defensive tackle Gabe Rubio, the run defense was outstanding, as USC’s top two backs combined for 24 carries for just 92 yards. There were no explosive plays and the Irish kept the Trojans behind the chains, basically leaving Maiava to try to win the game on his own during a downpour.

Stopping Lemon proved to be as difficult as advertised, as he got loose for a couple of big gains while also pulling coverage away from Ja’Kobi Lane, whose 59-yard touchdown late in the third quarter gave the Trojans their only second-half lead. Still, Notre Dame’s focus on Lemon proved critical in the fourth quarter when USC attempted a receiver pass with Lemon to Lane, a play that never had a chance as Adon Shuler closed on the receiver in the backfield, stripping Lemon. Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa recovered, setting up Notre Dame’s decisive touchdown drive that gave the Irish some breathing room.

It wasn’t a perfect performance for Notre Dame’s defense, but the Irish basically followed Ash’s script all night, including a fourth-down stop in the fourth quarter.

The defense felt like a trap door for Notre Dame’s CFP hopes in September, but Ash and Co. are feeling like part of the solution heading toward November. — Sampson

USC run defense regresses

USC held Michigan to just 109 yards on 31 carries a week ago. Saturday was a much different story.

The Trojans have been mostly solid against the run this season (39th in yards per carry allowed before Saturday), but the Irish offense plowed through them, with Love and Price coming for 315 yards on 37 rushes. The duo topped 100 yards in the first quarter and consistently found room to run, getting to the second and third levels of USC’s defense before a defender could get hands on them.

Though USC limited Carr, who had been looking like a breakout star in recent weeks, and intercepted him at the goal line, it gave up 300 rushing yards for the first time since November 2023 against Washington.

USC’s defense has improved under coordinator D’Anton Lynn, but Saturday’s performance was more akin to the days under Riley before his arrival. — Ubben 

What’s the future of the rivalry?

Ranked No. 5 in our top 100 rivalries, the Notre Dame-USC intersectional series began in 1926. With the exception of three seasons during World War II (1943-45) and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the two programs have met on the field every year.

The future of the series is in serious doubt, however. The agreement between the programs ended when the clock hit zero on Saturday night, with no deal yet for games in 2026 and beyond. Notre Dame has been public about its desire to keep the rivalry going and USC has too, though it has said it wanted to see what the College Football Playoff format will look like in the future. We’ll see if they can reach a compromise and extend the rivalry.

If the series is put on hold, Notre Dame will have won the last three meetings — all by double digits. It’s also won seven of the last eight games in the series.

After Notre Dame picked off Maiava to seal the win, it blared Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” over the stadium speakers. Just another reminder that it’s been the superior program — and could have the last laugh in the series for quite a bit. — Antonio Morales