That’s right, Irish fans; it’s been 1,792 days since Southern Cal has defeated the University of Notre Dame in football! That means that every current undergraduate student at ND has never seen their Irish lose to the hated Trojans. What a blessing for them! Most slightly older fans remember the years (2002-2009) when Pete Carroll’s Trojans beat the Irish 8 games in a row. For those fans, last night’s game and those which most recently preceded them have been a pleasant relief and reason for raucous celebration at Notre Dame Stadium.

It was obvious from the start that this game would be different. From the unexpected stadium “black-out” with “All of the Lights” blasting to the quick tempo ND offense, we all knew that the night would be electric. Michael Mayer in all of his glory was back out there. Kyren Williams was spinning off defenders like a whirling dervish. Defensively, we watched as Isaiah Foskey, TaRiq Bracy, Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa and even back-up safety, DJ Brown stepped up their games after an early exit by All-American Kyle Hamilton with what we hope is a quickly healing knee pad injury.

The Irish led this game from start to finish. There was a brief scoring flurry from the Trojans late in the 4th quarter which narrowed the lead to just 8 points, but the QB combo of Tyler Buchner and Jack Coan helped the team maintain the lead which resulted in a 31-16 victory for the Irish.

Besides having the Irish offense function well together for the 1st time this season, the other positive take away from this game was the impression it left on the many recruits who were on campus this weekend for official visits. Not only did they witness a decisive victory by the Irish in an electric atmosphere, they also had the opportunity to make connections on the sidelines with several Notre Dame alums who are either former or current NFL athletes.

Another night game looms on the horizon as Coach Mack Brown’s Tarheels of North Carolina head up to South Bend for our next game this coming Saturday October 30th at 7:30 PM ET on NBC.