It's Official: Max Wittek gets the start against ND

I know I am a little late to the party on this...

Max Wittek gets the start against Notre Dame.

Trojans coach Lane Kiffin confirmed Sunday night that Matt Barkley will not play against Notre Dame on Saturday because of what Kiffin described as a sprained AC joint in Barkley's right shoulder. Barkley suffered the injury during a sack by UCLA's Anthony Barr in the fourth quarter of the Trojans' loss to the Bruins.

Freshman Wittek, 19, out of Mater Dei High, finished the game and will make his first career start Saturday at the Coliseum against Notre Dame, the No. 1 team in the BCS standings.

Barkley, a senior, will be denied a chance to play a final home game and will finish his career never having faced Notre Dame at home.

Not surprising, it was pretty obvious that Barkley wasn't going to start after his injury. Barkley can say that he went 2-0 against Notre Dame. He beat them both times in South Bend, having never played ND at home. Mitch Mustain had the reins pulled tight on him 2 years ago and Barkley is out this week.

On another note Manti Te'o has some thoughts on this weeks game (go to the 2:19 mark and listen carefully).

Kiffin better pull out all the stops!

Here is Kiffin's presser on ND.

At this point I don't really care what Lane says...just fucking win!

I found this article interesting.

There's nothing for USC athletic director Pat Haden to say right now. There may be nothing for him to say next week. Haden has so far expressed support for Lane Kiffin in the aftermath of USC's loss to crosstown rival UCLA, but if USC loses to Notre Dame on Saturday, sooner or later he's going to have to say: "Lane, you're fired."

Haden has been hearing complaints about his head coach from disgruntled alumni since the day he became USC's athletic director in 2010. Now, Kiffin's team has dramatically under-delivered on lofty preseason hopes and the chorus of dissatisfaction is growing louder and louder.

With good reason.

This week, USC became the first school since Ole Miss in 1964 to start the season as the No. 1 team in the AP poll and completely fall out of the rankings by the end of the season.

I can take or leave much of what Markazi says. There really isn't anything new in the article, we have read this all before and it's hard not to see Markazi sticking up for his MSM brethren. He has been on the same page as Wolf in the past in trying to be "impartial".

What is interesting in this piece is that he is saying that Robert Woods is leaving after this season. Woods will be eligible for the NFL draft after this season but unless I am mistaken this is the first I have heard about Woods' intentions to leave the school after the season.

I wonder what Robert Woods is thinking?