Espn Radio host and former Notre Dame lineman Mike Golic talks about the Irish’s showdown with USC on Saturday night with The Post’s Justin Terranova. A win puts Notre Dame and Golic’s two sons in the national title game.
Q: How much does Matt Barkley’s injury change Notre Dame’s approach?
A: With or without Barkley the whole idea of that offense is to get the ball to the playmakers. And (Robert) Woods and (Marqise) Lee are the real deal, these are NFL wide receivers. So that will be the job of this redshirt freshman (Max Wittek) to get the ball to them. It’s up to Notre Dame’s defense to get in his face, hit him, whatever they need to do to make it not so easy.
Q: Coach Brian Kelly hasn’t shown concern about the Irish dealing with the pressure of being No. 1. Do you agree?
A: Yes, because they don’t have to spend a lot of time worrying about that. It’s one week and you’re going into a rivalry game anyway, you know you just have to take care of business against a rival. There’s not a whole lot of time we have to spend there, worrying about getting everyone’s best performance week after week.
Q: At what point did you think this season might be special?
A: Two points: When we went to Michigan State early on, and that’s always been a tough game, and we really hammered them in their place. That and then going to Oklahoma and getting that win. That game is where Everett Golson took some big steps in his maturation. It really opened people’s eyes for Golson to have the best game of his career against a team no one expected us to beat.
Q: What’s been the biggest difference between this year’s team and the ones in Kelly’s first two seasons?
A: All the close games we had, we lost. We didn’t make the play we needed to make. The biggest thing about these guys now is they find a way to win, find a way to get the turnover or the stop or to take control on offense. When you start doing that — having positive outcomes in close games — that builds your confidence.
Q: With Barkley out, have you started thinking ahead about a possible BCS title game with Alabama?
A: I just want Notre Dame to be there. I could care less otherwise. I have gone through the whole year with every week someone telling me why Notre Dame isn’t any good. I don’t care if they are 20-point underdogs in the national title game. They’re there, they get to play in the game and we’ll see what happens on the field.