LOS ANGELES — Deliverance arrived on a crisp southern California night, welcomed in a frenzy of arms thrust in the air and throats cleared by cathartic screams. Notre Dame waited decades for this, all right, the end to the interminable search for its long-lost promise. It just needed to climb to the top of college football to find it.
The Irish will play for a national championship in January, inextricably No. 1 and impossibly 12-0 after a 22-13 victory over USC before 93,607 witnesses on Saturday night at the Los Angeles Coliseum, a sparkling moment of rapture in the City of Angels.
Whether Notre Dame is back may be of little import now. The Irish have arrived.
They did so not with a thunderclap against a reeling archrival.
It was a grinding, imperfect but relentless effort, and maybe there couldn't be any other way. Everett Golson, the redshirt freshman quarterback, cramped up but cut loose for 217 yards passing. Theo Riddick, the senior, stampeded to 146 yards and a score.
And the Heisman hopeful, Manti Te'o, picked off another pass and helped spearhead another adrenalized goal-line stand in the fourth quarter that stomped out USC's last hope and created a save-the-date for Jan. 7. There, Notre Dame will play in the BCS title game against the winner of the SEC championship.
One game, now, to look upon everyone else as national champions for the first time since 1988.
Notre Dame had USC where it wanted the Trojans early, on-heels and tested, on the spot to demonstrate any mettle or desire at the end of a season gone wrong and going nowhere.
The Irish thundered to a 10-0 first-quarter lead that could have been more but for the usual sputtering around in the red zone. First came a Kyle Brindza 27-yard field goal, then a Riddick 9-yard touchdown run after a 12-play drive. If this was the last hurdle to the BCS title game, it appeared knee-high.
Then USC showed it could be resolute, swiftly moving to an 11-yard Robert Woods touchdown reception to create some drama. After the teams both added field goals, USC's first mistake allowed Notre Dame to re-extend its lead at the break.
A Max Wittek interception returned the ball to Notre Dame with 85 seconds left in the first half, and Brindza was able to come on for a 52-yard attempt he pushed through with no time left, making it a 16-10 lead at intermission.
One chance to blow open the game came and went after intermission: Te'o's seventh interception set up the Irish offense, but the Irish offense couldn't hit paydirt and then Brindza sent a 34-yard field goal wide left.
Brindza hit a 33-yarder late in the third quarter that extended the lead to 19-10, and then Notre Dame watched in glee as USC coach Lane Kiffin exacted a bit of self-torture. Kiffin called a timeout just before a snap that resulted in an apparent Trojans touchdown, wiping out the score, and a post-timeout pass sailed incomplete.
Brindza pushed the lead to 22-13 with just less than six minutes left — a crucial two-score cushion. Crucial, because Marqise Lee's 53-yard catch on the next USC snap after a long kickoff return and two pass interference penalties set up a goal-to-go situation for the Trojans at the Irish 1.
And that set up the Irish defense for its signature moment. Three runs and an incomplete pass later, Notre Dame had made its stand, exploding off the sideline and into celebration.
The clock wound down. Te'o hopped up and down on the sideline, waiving a towel. The Notre Dame fans in attendance counted down the Coliseum clock, as if it was New Year's Eve. And then the celebration began, wild and joyous, for a date decades in the making. The Irish will play for a national title. They have arrived.
bchamilton@tribune.com
Twitter @ChiTribHamilton
No. 1 Notre Dame beats USC 22-13 to finish season 12-0
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No. 1 Notre Dame beats USC 22-13 to finish season 12-0
