Oct. 20, 2001

Recap?|? Final Stats?|? Quotes?|? Photo Gallery

The capacity crowd of 80,795 marks the 159th sellout of Notre Dame Stadium. All six of Notre Dame’s games this season have been in front of stadium record crowds, including crowds of 87,206 at Texas A&M and 78,118 fans at Nebraska.

DE Ryan Roberts recorded four QB sacks against USC. Roberts entered the game with six career QB sacks.

K Nicholas Setta extended his streak of regular-season games with a field goal to eight games with his 38-yard kick in the first quarter. The eight-game streak is tied for the second best in school history, behind only John Carney, who kicked a field goal in 11 consecutive games in 1986.

K Nicholas Setta has connected on his last nine regular-season field goal attempts, including all eight attempts he has had this season. The school record for consecutive field goals made is 13, by Mike Johnston, in 1982.

K Nicholas Setta extended his streak of consecutive PATs made to 44 in a row. Setta has not missed a conversion kick since Oct. 7, 2000 vs. Stanford. The streak is the fourth longest in school history.

KR Vontez Duff’s 39-yard return in the second quarter is his longest career kick return. Three of his five career returns have gone for 30 yards or more.

Vontez Duff also recorded his first interception of the season to end Southern California’s hopes in the fourth quarter. It was the second interception of his career.

USC’s missed PAT kick in the second-quarter is the first unsuccessful PAT kick by a Notre Dame opponent since Kansas’ Joe Garcia missed his first PAT kick on August 28, 1999.

TB Terrance Howard’s four-yard touchdown run in the second quarter is his first touchdown of the season. It is the sixth touchdown of his career.

Notre Dame’s last 10 touchdowns have been rushing touchdowns. On the season, 11 of 12 touchdowns have been rushing touchdowns. The only passing touchdown of the season was a six-yard touchdown to Javin Hunter from Matt Lovecchio against Michigan State.

With 30 kick return yards on the day, Julius Jones moves past Raghib Ismail into second-place all-time on Notre Dame’s list of career kick return yardage. With 1,294 career return yards, Jones is second only to Tim Brown, who had 1,613 return yards in his career.

QB Carlyle Holiday had a career high in passing yards, with 133 yards. That exceeds his previous career high of 73 yards against Texas A&M earlier this season. Holiday also rushed for 98 yards, barely missing what would have been his third consecutive 100-yard rushing effort. Carlyle Holiday’s 42-yard pass to Javin Hunter in the third quarter is both his career long and the team’s longest pass completion of the season. It was the longest Irish pass-play since a 48-yard pass to Javin Hunter from Matt Lovecchio against USC in 2000.

S Abram Elam’s interception in the fourth quarter was his second career interception. Elam also helped cause the fumble in the fourth quarter that was recovered by Donald Dykes. Julius Jones’ 95-yard total is his season-high, exceeding his 92-yard effort against West Virginia. Jones’ 27-yard run in the fourth quarter is his longest carry of the season.

After thwarting Southern California’s fake punt attempt in the second quarter, Notre Dame outscored the Trojans 24-3.

Notre Dame finished with 346 yards of total offense, making it the third consecutive game with more than 300 yards.

The last time Notre Dame turned the ball over three times and still won was against Navy in 1999.

Notre Dame wins its third consecutive game against USC, the longest win streak for the Irish against the Trojans since a series-long 11-game success run from 1983-93.

The Irish claim their ninth win in their last ten meetings with USC at Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame is now 7-2 in the regular season against Pacific-10 Conference teams over the past four years.

The Irish have now won five consecutive home games against a Pacific-10 opponent. The last Pacific-10 opponent to win at Notre Dame was USC, which claimed a 20-17 victory on Oct. 18, 1997.

Notre Dame stretches its winning streak in the month of October to 16 games and move to 17-2 overall in October under head coach Bob Davie.