Sports

Notre Dame ends regular season on perfect note with win over USC

The win sealed Notre Dame's perfect regular season, a likely trip to the BCS title game and gave the players a reason to douse coach Brian Kelly with green Gatorade (above).

The win sealed Notre Dame’s perfect regular season, a likely trip to the BCS title game and gave the players a reason to douse coach Brian Kelly with green Gatorade (above). (AP)

BIG BANG THEO-RY: Irish running back Theo Riddick dives into the end zone during the first quarter of Notre Dame’s 22-13 victory over USC last night. The win sealed Notre Dame’s perfect regular season, a likely trip to the BCS title game and gave the players a reason to douse coach Brian Kelly with green Gatorade (inset). (
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LOS ANGELES — Wake the echoes. Shake down the thunder. Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish are all the way back.

Back from irrelevance. Back from years of wandering in the coaching desert, looking for the right leader. Back from flirting with league after league while trying to hang on to its cherished independent status.

In its 125th season of college football, the Irish (12-0) have had a season for the ages, capped last night with a taut 22-13 win over USC in a raucous Coliseum. It is their first undefeated season since 1988, the last time the Irish won the national championship.

“You get this far into it, you start to look up,’’ coach Brian Kelly said of the perfect season. “Eleven-and-O, you want to finish it.’’

The Irish finished the season just as they finished so many games this year. The offense played error-free. The offense ran the ball at the Trojans with a vengeance, gaining 233 yards.

The defense, this defense that will live in Notre Dame lore, made a goal line stand that would have made the Four Horseman tip their cap.

Leading 22-13 with 10 minutes left, the Trojans struck. Marqise Lee, who might have wrapped up the Heisman Trophy, returned a kickoff 43 yards. Then he made a stunning reception and run for 53 yards to the Notre Dame 2. The Trojans had six chances from the 1 or 2.

Star linebacker Manti Te’o said there was calm in the huddle — calm and purpose.

“Do whatever it takes to not them score,’’ he said. “Just be calm. Everyone was calm.’’

After the last stop, after quarterback Max Willek, playing in place of the injured Matt Barkley, low-balled a one-yard throw to Soma Vainuku, the Trojans had not scored and the Irish were on their way to the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7, where they will play the winner of Saturday’s SEC title game between Alabama and Georgia.

“Nineteen eighty eight,’’ Te’o said without hesitation when asked if he knew the year of the Irish’s last national title. “I’m reminded of that every time I walk down that tunnel [in Notre Dame Stadium]. To see that date. I’m hoping we can add a 2012 to that.’’

Kelly, who just completed his third season in South Bend, Te’o a game ball. Te’o presented Kelly with a game ball in return. Perhaps the only ones who believed this could happen were in the emotional Notre Dame locker room.

“When I’m asked that question, it’s easy to say, ‘Well, yeah I’m surprised,’’ Kelly said. “But when you go in that locker and your around the guys that I’m around. You’re not surprised.’’

Had the Irish lost, it would created BCS chaos and left open the possibility of second straight all SEC title game, a driving reason why college football is going to a playoff. Instead the nation will be split between rooting for a team from America’s premier conference or rooting for America’s team.

Oh yes, the Irish are the Yankees of college football. They are the Dallas Cowboys and Duke Blue Devils wrapped into one and topped by a golden helmet. The Irish always have been loved or hated. But since the 1989 season they have not been a factor in the national championship picture.

This game was a synopsis of the season — the come-from-behind triple overtime win over Pittsburgh; the goal line stand against Stanford; the last-minute win over Purdue.

“This was the way we should win this game,’’ said athletic director Jack Swarbrick. “Six plays from the two-yard line, leaning on our defense, running when we had to, control the line of scrimmage. It defined this team. To win it any other way would not have been right.’’

The Irish led 10-0, only to fail to put away USC. The Trojans closed to 10-7, 13-10 and were still very much in the game when the fourth quarter began and Notre Dame leading 19-10. The Trojans closed to 19-13, the Irish extended to 22-13 and the tension among 93,607 fans was thicker than West Coast fog.

“Our guys have an incredible resolve, regardless of the circumstances of coming up and finding ways to win,’’ Kelly said. “That’s all we talk about. We don’t talk about style points. We don’t talk about anything else. Just find ways to win. And these guys continue to do that.’’