Three Predictions: USC-Notre Dame, Penn State flips a QB, coaching changes

Rivals national recruiting analyst Greg Smith has a trio of predictions on USC–Notre Dame, Penn State flipping a quarterback and whether there will be any head coaching changes in the Big Ten this offseason.

Rivalry games get weird, right? Notre Dame and USC match up this weekend in Los Angeles. Lincoln Riley’s team is a 7.5.-point home underdog and I was actually surprised that the number was that low. The Irish have been rolling, winning nine-straight games. The Trojans are coming off two-straight wins after making the move to start Jayden Maiava at quarterback.

I predict the Trojans spring the upset here, giving Notre Dame its second loss of the season. A loss in this game would almost certainly knock the Irish out of playoff contention, being that the two losses were to unranked teams. USC would love nothing more than to play spoiler in this one.

One thing that we know about recruiting in the stretch run of the cycle is that the quarterback dominos will continue to fall. James Franklin and his staff have been fairly consistent this cycle about adding a second quarterback to the 2025 class. They made a strong push for Missouri commit Matt Zollers but it appears that won’t get done.

That doesn’t mean Penn State will come up empty-handed in its quest. The firing of Mack Brown means that big-time quarterback Bryce Baker could take a look around. The Nittany Lions have stayed in good contact with him through the process and could get rewarded for it with a flip.

There are others in the mix, including Virginia commit Bjorn Jurgensen too.

It’s not a matter of if Penn State will flip someone, it’s just about who it will be.

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This is the time of year where we really start hearing buzz about head coach jobs and which ones will open up. This could end up being a unique year in the Big Ten because I’m predicting that none of the head coaches will be replaced this season.

The coach in the biggest danger of being fired right now is Ryan Walters at Purdue but there doesn’t seem to be a big appetite to make the change right now despite a 1-10 record before a date with Indiana this weekend.

There are always rumblings that a coach such as Dan Lanning, Ryan Day or Lincoln Riley will draw NFL interest but those types of moves don’t seem like a lock right now either.

To have one of the two power conferences without a single coaching change would be uncharted territory but signals a shift in thinking to save buyout money to just pay for better players. We’ll see how that works out long-term but it should benefit coaches trying to build programs in the short-term.