Personal fouls, preening and fumbles are the province of coaches. They may not cause them but they sure have the ability to correct them. I don’t blame Crist for the fumbled snap. There are two people involved in that exchange. I know from personal experience that sometimes it’s the center that causes the bad exchange. And this is not to blame the center, either. The center/qb exchange needs to be constantly practiced. Given the doghouse Crist seems to have been occupying since the first game, I suspect that was the first snap he has taken under center in a month. He clearly had been pushed to third string. He is still our best qb and under a non-screamer would probably thrive (not everyone can play well under a Bobby Knight type of coach).

The hoopla over a game with our greatest rival was ridiculous. Neither team is going anywhere from a championship perspective. Making this game more than it should have been clearly motivated USC, who beat us like a drum. I had hoped last year’s ND win would have put the series on more even footing. Last year’s win now looks like an abberation. We don’t need loud music to make the stadium loud. We need a team worth cheering for. I remember a very loud stadium when we beat USC in ’73 when the game meant something for both schools. Same in ’93 between ND and FSU. Saturday was reminiscent of the green jerseys being used against Boston College in Willingham’s first season. That was nothing more than the business people in charge of the Notre Dame brand using the gimmick to sell jerseys (which is what it was – those jerseys were available on the internet and in the bookstore a week after the game – very different than Devine’s inspired motivating technic in 1977). I still remember the horror in the stands when the team came out in those jerseys. We all knew it was mistake and it did nothing to help ND and only energized BC to hand ND its first loss of the season. Our fancy new helmets and other “Super Bowl” trappings, clearly were used by Kiffin to motivate his team.

Another season of high expectations is now lost to the reality of mediocre players and coaches. One reason USC won so much under Pete Carroll was you could see how loose his players were and how much fun they had playing for him. Contrast that with our players withering under the purple faced screams they are confronted with everytime they make a mistake. Everyone plays scared. That is one of many reasons this season is now about playing in some third rate bowl in mid-December. In marketing, we are No. 1. On the field of play, we are a mid-major and nothing more.

The bad news for ND is that 18 underclassman started for USC that included 10 freshman. So you get to see most of these same players for at least two more years @ they will get better and bigger between now and then.

Final note: playing load music through the PA system when USC had third downs is flat unsportsman like. I would think ND was above this but apparently not.

See you next year in LA … for another beat down.

USC leading rusher Marc Tyler showed little effects from a dislocated shoulder suffered in last week’s game at California.

On USC’s first offensive play, Tyler, a 5-foot-11, 230-pound senior, sprinted 15 yards for a first down.

In the first half, he rushed for 59 yards on 10 carries.

Irish fans may remember Tyler, from Lancaster, Calif., as a former Notre Dame prospect.

Tyler was a high school teammate of former Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen and attended Clausen’s national letter of intent signing at the College Football Hall of Fame.

He chose not to follow Clausen to Indiana.

“It would have been nice to go to school with Jimmy,” Tyler told the LA Times last week. “He had a nice house out there, but it was just too far, it was cold out there and there wasn’t much to do. I don’t think I would have lasted.”

I think he gets the rivalry, Jack. I just think he was out-coached in all phases of the game. Against a quality opponent, Brian Kelly was out-coached again.

And I will say it: I effing hate the taunting and the late hits and the constant questioning of every single play that doesn’t go our way. If Michael Floyd doesn’t catch the pass, he complains of pass interference every single time. It’snuts. And clearly Kelly tolerates it, which is why he’s out-coached against strong programs like SC (notably, I don’t recall USC acting like this at all, but that could be that I am looking for issues with the program).

I know that their ethics don’t match ours as a whole. But on the field, when it’s man-on-man, SC is a much stronger program than we are right now. Five penalties for 48 yards. That isn’t terrible, but it’s 23 more yards than SC gave up in penalties. You combine that with the awful fumble at the one yard line — the second such fumble in that situation this season — and you see a lot of points coming off the scoreboard.

It just sucks. Another year before we face them. .. .