The Sports Report: USC focused on slowing down potent Notre Dame

Howdy, I’m your host, Iliana Limón Romero, filling in for Houston Mitchell, who is probably figuring out how to maintain sandwich integrity while piling all his Thanksgiving leftovers between two slices of bread. Let’s get right to the news.

From Ryan Kartje: When D’Anton Lynn inherited one of the worst defenses in college football, the expectation was that even a middling performance would make a major difference at USC. Especially when paired with one of the most electric offenses in college football.

A year later, Lynn’s defense has made significant strides. USC leaped from 121st to 32nd in scoring defense, from 119th to 43rd in rush defense and from 119th to 65th in total defense, while its third-down conversion rate, red-zone conversion rate, missed tackles and explosive plays allowed all went down considerably. But with one game left in the season, the Trojans are still barely clinging to bowl eligibility.

That’s no fault of Lynn, whose USC defense is peaking right when it was supposed to.

“We’re playing our best ball right now,” cornerback Greedy Vance said. “We’re communicating at a high level. We’re playing fast. We have less mental errors. And you know, we’ve just been around each other for a longer time now. So we’re more comfortable playing together.”

No. 5 Notre Dame has been playing its best ball since mid-September. No team in college football has been more dominant since the Irish were upset by Northern Illinois early in the season. Notre Dame leads the nation with a +301 point differential, despite having the No. 10 strength of schedule according to FPI, and have won each of their last six games by an average margin of almost 34 points.

As Lynn sees it, Notre Dame is “the best offense that we’ve played.” Which should make for an ideal measuring stick, to finish out his first year at the helm.

“They’re very talented,” Lynn said. “Their offensive line is probably going to be the best offensive line we played all year. Both of their backs are very good backs. They have big tight ends. They have speed on the outside.”

Here’s what else you should watch during USC’s matchup with Notre Dame on Saturday (12:30 p.m. PST on CBS) at the Coliseum:

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UCLA

From Ben Bolch: Kelly Skipper coached DeShaun Foster at UCLA.

Jim Skipper coached Foster with the Carolina Panthers.

Tim Skipper would like to teach Foster a thing or two at the Rose Bowl.

It’s nothing personal, it’s just that being considered part of the family only goes so far in circumstances like these. A victory over Foster’s Bruins on Saturday afternoon just might land Tim Skipper a permanent job.

After being made the interim coach before the season when Jeff Tedford stepped away for health reasons, Skipper has guided the Bulldogs to a 6-5 record and bowl eligibility. Fresno State posted its best victory of the season last weekend when it handed Colorado State its first Mountain West Conference loss.

The last time Skipper faced Foster on this field, the latter prevailed. Foster ran for 140 yards and two touchdowns during UCLA’s 24-21 victory over Fresno State in September 2000. Skipper, a middle linebacker for the Bulldogs, made one tackle for loss that day.

There’s been nothing but handshakes and hugs ever since given their family ties. Kelly Skipper, who was Foster’s running backs coach with the Bruins, said he still calls Foster to get his evaluations on West Coast running backs. Jim Skipper, who was Foster’s running backs coach with the Panthers, has a photo of Foster diving into the end zone in Super Bowl XXXVIII in what he described as “my little man cave” inside his home in Gilbert, Ariz.

Jim Skipper called this week to deliver some bad news: He’s not coming to the game.

“I think it’s just a little too emotional, you know, you got his son and then his godson on the other side,” Foster said with a laugh. “He wished me luck and I’m sure he told Tim the same thing.”

Before the season, Jim Skipper called the matchup “a win-win. … It’s going to be a nailbiter, I know that.”

Here are five things to watch when the Bruins (4-7) face the Bulldogs at 12:30 p.m. PST in a game televised by the Big Ten Network:

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USC BASKETBALL

Jordan Ross scored 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting Thursday night to help Saint Mary’s beat USC 71-36 at the Acrisure Classic.

Saint Mary’s (7-0), which is off to its best start since the Gaels tied the program record with nine consecutive wins to open the 2013-14 season, plays Arizona State in the championship game on Friday. The Trojans take on New Mexico, which lost to the Sun Devils Thursday, in the consolation game.

Paulius Murauskas and Augustas Marciulionis scored 11 points apiece for the Gaels.

Jordan Coehn led USC (5-2) with 12 points.

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GALAXY

From Kevin Baxter: Will Kuntz’s life changed with a letter.

He was a small-college basketball player at Williams College, an even smaller liberal arts college in Massachusetts, when he found himself alone in a dorm room flipping through the school’s alumni directory out of sheer boredom. On that list of former Purple Cows — that’s the school’s mascot, not a description of the alumni — was George Steinbrenner, then owner of the New York Yankees.

A lightbulb went on.

“I wrote this cheesy letter, introduced myself and asked to be considered for an internship,” Kuntz remembered over a cup of tea 22 years later.

By his own admission, it was a bold, brash and possibly stupid move for someone who barely knew the difference between a spitball and a spitwad. Yet five months, later Steinbrenner personally signed off on a summer internship in baseball operations.

“That Purple Cow mafia must work,” Brian Cashman, the Yankees’ longtime general manager, said last week.

If Kuntz was a made man though, it was Cashman who benefited, because once Kuntz got through the door, he never looked back. In 10 seasons with the Yankees, he went from running errands to running the pro scouting department, helping the team win a World Series.

Now, a decade after leaving the Yankees, he’s proven to be an even quicker study as an MLS general manager. In less than 19 months in charge of player personnel for the Galaxy, he’s taken them from near the bottom of the table to the Western Conference final, where a win over the Seattle Sounders on Saturday would give the team its first spot in the MLS Cup since 2014.

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DODGERS

Baseball star Shohei Ohtani wants his former interpreter to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of baseball cards he says were fraudulently bought using his money.

The Dodgers star is also requesting that Ippei Mizuhara, who previously pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud for stealing nearly $17 million from the unsuspecting athlete, return signed collectible baseball cards depicting Ohtani that were in Mizuhara’s “unauthorized and wrongful possession,” according to court documents filed Tuesday.

The legal filing alleges Mizuhara accessed Ohtani’s bank account beginning around November 2021, changing his security protocols so that he could impersonate him to authorize wire transfers. By 2024, Mizuhara had used that money to buy about $325,000 worth of baseball cards at online resellers eBay and Whatnot, according to the court documents.

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THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1890 — Navy beats Army 24-0 in the first matchup of this historic series.

1934 — The Detroit Lions play their first traditional Thanksgiving Day home game and lose to the Chicago Bears 19-16 in front of 26,000. CBS Radio does the first national broadcast of an NFL game.

1987 — The New Orleans Saints hold off the Pittsburgh Steelers 20-16 to assure themselves of their first winning season in their 20-year history.

1992 — New York Jets defensive end Dennis Byrd is paralyzed in his lower body after colliding with teammate Scott Mersereau and breaking his C-5 vertebra in a 23-7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

1995 — Grant Fuhr becomes the 11th NHL goalie to win 300 games as the St. Louis Blues beat Winnipeg 4-1.

1998 — Miami’s Dan Marino becomes the first player to throw 400 career TD passes, passing for 255 yards and three TDs in the Dolphins’ 30-10 win against New Orleans.

2003 — LeBron James, 18, becomes youngest player in NBA history to score 30 or more points in a game with his 33-point effort in the Cavaliers’ 122-115 double-overtime loss to Memphis. Kobe Bryant was 19 when he reached 30 for the Lakers in 1997.

2003 — Maryland’s Bruce Perry rushes for 237 yards while Wake Forest’s Chris Barclay gains 243 yards, marking the first time in ACC history and only the fifth time in NCAA history that opposing backs have more than 200 rushing yards in the same game. Perry scores three touchdowns in the Terrapins’ 41-28 win.

2004 — Brett Favre celebrates his 200th straight regular-season start with three touchdown passes and yet another record in the Green Bay Packers’ 45-17 rout of the St. Louis Rams.

2008 — Chris Duhon passes out a franchise-record 22 assists in New York’s 138-125 victory over Golden State. Duhon breaks Richie Guerin’s team record of 21 assists set in 1958. New York scores 82 points in the first half to break the record for most first-half points at the present Madison Square Garden, set when Kansas City scored 81 on Dec. 8, 1979.

2009 — Francesco and Edoardo Molinari become the first brothers to win the World Cup of Golf, giving Italy its first title in the team event with a one-stroke victory over Sweden and Ireland.

2009 — The Indianapolis Colts earn their 20th straight regular-season victory with a 35-27 win over Houston. The Colts came back from fourth-quarter deficits in each of their past five games to become the first NFL team to win five in a row when trailing in the fourth quarter of each contest.

2012 — Drew Brees throws a career-high five interceptions and his record touchdown streak of 54 consecutive games ends in New Orleans’ 23-13 loss to Atlanta. Brees completed 28 of 50 passes for 341 yards.

2013 — David Fales throws for 543 yards and six touchdowns in an entertaining showdown with Derek Carr and San Jose State ends No. 16 Fresno State’s run toward a possible BCS bowl with a 62-52 victory. Carr passes for 519 yards and six touchdowns.

2015 — Andy Murray gives Britain its first Davis Cup title in 79 years when he beats Belgium’s David Goffin 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 in the first of reverse singles. The win gives Britain an unassailable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five series.

Compiled by the Associated Press