As the USC Trojans and Notre Dame Fighting Irish get ready to battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh, Trojans head coach Lane Kiffin is trying to make sure his team doesn't make the same mistakes they've made in the past when heading to South Bend, like they did back in 2001.
Scott Wolf, resident insider at Inside USC, tweeted this on Friday about how the USC coaching staff (Kiffin included) treated their trip to Notre Dame in 2001, when the Trojans were stunned by an 0-3 Irish squad by the score of 27-16:
@InsideUSC
InsideUSC Lane Kiffin said USC treated its 2001 trip to ND like a bowl game by touring the sights and he does want to repeat that mistake today
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This was the last win the Irish recorded against USC until 2010's 20-16 come from behind victory, and until 2009, the Irish were the only team to have beaten a Pete-Carroll-coached USC team by more than seven points.
Obviously Kiffin didn't like how Carroll handled the situation back in 2001, enough so that he felt like mentioning it to the media. Kiffin will be bringing his serious face to South Bend, allowing his players no sight seeing tours or brevity of any kind until the final whistle blows on Saturday. Hopefully that will give USC some sort of advantage when they take on Brian Kelly's formidable Irish squad.
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