USC Football: Rivalry Showdown vs. Notre Dame Is Must-Win Game for Sark

First-year USC head coach Steve Sarkisian said he does not believe in weighing certain games more heavily than others and would thus certainly shy away from calling Saturday's rivalry tilt with Notre Dame a must-win.

"I feel the same pressure every week," Sarkisian said on his conference call Sunday. "So whether it's Notre Dame or UCLA, they all mean the same. I know not everyone wants to hear that, but if you're truly and innately a competitor, I don't pick and choose which games I'm going to get up for."

But on the heels of a 38-20 loss to UCLA during which the crosstown rival Bruins scored 24 unanswered points to take command, Sarkisian's first foray in the Notre Dame series as the Trojans' head coach takes on paramount importance.

USC sits at 7-4 on the season with only Saturday's affair and a bowl game remaining.

Seven is a not-so-magic number if you're Sarkisian. In his tenure at Washington, he finished 7-6 on three consecutive occasions from 2010 through 2012, earning the derisive nickname "Seven-Win Sark" in some circles.

Seven has its own dubious symbolism at USC.

The beginning of the end of the Lane Kiffin era started when the Trojans finished a 7-6 campaign with a sluggish, 21-7 loss to Georgia Tech in the Sun Bowl. That set in the motion the events which eventually led Sarkisian back to USC, a program he helped guide as an assistant to an unprecedented seven consecutive conference championships between 2002 and 2008.

And Sarkisian returned with an unambiguous goal of recapturing the success of that era under Pete Carroll.

However, the USC to which Sarkisian returned was not the program he left for the Washington job in 2009. The Trojans saw programs bypass them as a result of NCAA sanctions and Kiffin's disappointing run as head coach.

Among those making strides while USC stagnated were UCLA and Notre Dame.

Last week's loss at the Rose Bowl was the third straight decision USC dropped to UCLA. Similarly, Notre Dame rolls into the Coliseum with wins in each of the last two against the Trojans.

The last time USC had concurrent, three-game losing streaks in both of its rivalry series was 1991-1993, as the late Larry Smith's abortive tenure as head coach transitioned into the second John Robinson era.

USC matches up well with this Notre Dame team, an opponent in its own dire straits. The Fighting Irish are losers of four of their last five and have been manhandled throughout the last month-and-a-half.

Notre Dame has given up over 200 rushing yards in its last three contests and, according to Max Meyer of Neon Tommy, will be without two starting linemen on Saturday:

For a USC offense that failed to reach the 100-yard mark on the ground in the last two weeks, this rivalry game could be the cure to what ails the Trojans.

A win may also give Sarkisian the positive energy his program needs to build up in his second year.

He called a strong finish "a piece of the puzzle to have a really successful next 12 months."

And, really, that's what this next month is about for USC: putting together the pieces for a more successful 2015.

Sarkisian talked previously about the importance of a strong showing in November, alluding to Carroll's success. While Sarkisian's former colleague endured a trying first season, Carroll parlayed a torrid run in the 2001 campaign's last month into the first of those seven conference titles the next year.

Something else Carroll did: He never went 0-2 against rivals UCLA and Notre Dame in the same season.

Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise cited. Statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com.