Brian Kelly (with Air Force coach Troy Calhoun last year) is not a fan of playing the academies. (USATSI)
Brian Kelly (with Air Force coach Troy Calhoun last year) is not a fan of playing the academies. (USATSI)

The 86th meeting between Southern California and Notre Dame will take place Nov. 29. (ND leads the series, 45-35-5, and has won the past two meetings). As the two programs progress toward rivalry week, we'll take a weekly look at current trends, and the current state of hostilities, between the Trojans and the Fighting Irish.

Days until game: 31

2014 Notre Dame-USC power index: 1. Notre Dame (6-1); 2. USC (5-3)

Notre Dame last week: Notre Dame was off, trying to get its head right after a heartbreaking loss to Florida State as its supporters and detractors tried to figure out where the College Football Playoff committee would rank the Irish. The answer came Tuesday, when a team ranked sixth by the AP appeared at a disappointing No. 10. A lack of high-quality wins was the likely culprit, though there are those, such as CBSSports.com's own Brady Quinn, who think ND belongs in the discussion of the top four teams in the country. 

USC last week: USC saw its Pac-12 title hopes take a major hit with a 24-21 loss against an emerging Utah team, a game won on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Travis Wilson to Kalein Clay in the closing seconds. It was yet another 2014 Trojans game settled in the final seconds, a theme that has brought both highs (Stanford, Arizona) and lows (Arizona State and now Utah) in the first year of the Steve Sarkisian era. The defeat dropped SC to 4-2 in the Pac-12, in fourth place and a half-game up on similarly schizophrenic UCLA.

Notre Dame this week: vs. Navy, (Landover, Maryland), 8:00 (CBS)

USC this week: at Washington State, Saturday, 4:30

Notre Dame storyline: Notre Dame will try to exorcise the Florida State demon when it takes on Navy (4-4) in The House That Daniel Snyder Built (trademark pending). Given the cool reception given the Irish by the CFP committee, some style points might be in order. That said, you'd imagine the Midshipmen will offer their utmost concentration after these quotes by Brian Kelly last year, complaining about the style of play employed by the service academies, in reaction to a rash of injuries against Air Force.

Q. Coach, I was curious, a lot of leg injuries the last two weeks; how much do you attribute that to the cut blocks?

COACH KELLY: I can attribute it to Kona Schwenke's injury. He got cut, and it caused that injury. I can contribute it to Ishaq Williams' ACL. He was cut, and it caused that injury. And Sheldon Day, his reinjury, all of them contributed specifically to those. You know, it's unfortunate. It's the style of offense that the academies play. It is what it is.

Kelly went on to say that he was not in favor of scheduling games with the academies beyond 2016, "There is no question that as you look at our schedule moving forward, I don't believe that both [Navy and Air Force] appear on our schedule for quite some time," Kelly said. But Kelly's stance seems to have softened since that time, since he this week declared Notre Dame would "stop being crybabies" in regard to the cut blocks.

USC storyline: This might look like another nondescript Pac-12 matchup on paper, but you may recall some pain Washington State inflicted on the Lane Kiffin-era Trojans last year in The Coliseum. Losing a defensive struggle to a Mike Leach-coached team tends not to be a good look. Also of interest is Sarkisian's lone 2014 trip to his former home state of Washington, and the effort to keep WSU quarterback Connor Halliday to under 700 passing yards. 

Moment in hatestory: October 19, 2013

Tommy Rees may have been one of the more maddening quarterbacks in recent Notre Dame annals, but let the record show that he was the guy who snapped the Irish's five-game home losing streak to the Trojans, throwing both touchdown passes in last year's 14-10 victory and handing Ed Orgeron one of only two losses in his eight-game tenure (the other was to UCLA). Also of note was the play of a Notre Dame defense that held USC to 2 of 13 on third-downs. If you left at halftime, you didn't miss any scoring. 

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