WHO IS MAX WITTEK? Like all USC quarterbacks, America's last, best hope for maximum Notre Dame schadenfreude this weekend is a towering, blue-chip slinger from just down the road – Mater Dai High, in fact, the same school that produced Matt Leinart and Matt Barkley – who will eventually command the same slobbering praise as his prototypical predecessors. Whether he's good enough yet to flash any of that potential Saturday against the No. 1 scoring defense in the nation, we don't have a clue: He's attempted a grand total of nine passes this season as a redshirt freshman, including the three he put up last week against UCLA after Barkley was knocked out with a separated shoulder on the Trojans' final, meaningless drive. At least Wittek sounding confident. For now.
For the record, no quarterback of any pedigree, style or experience has delivered anything that might be mistaken for a "good" performance against the Fighting Irish this season: Oklahoma's Landry Jones had 364 yards passing in October, but it took him 52 attempts to get there, and he didn't have a touchdown pass in a 30-13 loss; Purdue and BYU managed two touchdown passes apiece, but were both picked off twice, too. The closest thing to a standard bearer may be Tino Sunseri, who was 19-of-29 passing for 164 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions in the triple-overtime scare against Pitt. But Sunseri was also sacked five times and finished with one of his lowest-rated performances of the season.
