Irish Step Up to the Plate

You could say Notre Dame was starved for a victory before last week’s 45-21 win over Pittsburgh ended a four-game losing streak.

“We have a thing around here called the Victory Dinner that we have on Monday nights,” Coach Bob Davie said. “We have had to put that thing on hold for the last four weeks. We had an awful lot of food waiting for these kids to eat. You can imagine how many calories those kids and coaches consumed.”

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USC receiver R. Jay Soward had a limited practice Thursday because of hip and thigh soreness and is one of a number of Trojans playing with injuries. Tailback Malaefou MacKenzie had a full practice a day after missing some of the session because of a shoulder sprain. He is expected to play, but Delon Washington and Petros Papadakis probably will get carries as well.

“I’m going to turn to whoever moves the ball,” offensive coordinator Hue Jackson said.