Rally, sons of [1] Notre Dame:

Expectations will be sky high in coach Charlie Weis’ second season. Brady Quinn to Jeff Samardzija should again be one of best passing threats in nation, and RB Darius Walker should shine on ground. Defense should be better with nine starters, including DB Tom Zbikowski, back. Season finale at Southern California could be Irish’s most important game in years.

That’s probably true. The later it gets in the season, the more a loss hurts. But that’s not peculiar to ND/USC.

Simply put, a lot of Trojans fans are going to be disappointed this season. USC will have a fine year, but they won’t make a run at the national championship. USC is going to disappoint a lot of people this year. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a hell of a team, but there are problems. They’ve just lost too much talent and they still have to figure out the quarterback role.
That said, they’re still a force to be reckoned with, and [2] anything can happen in the ND/USC game.