California's Potential Ascension In Football Could Be Good For Notre Dame
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
Over the past several seasons, Notre Dame has not gotten a lot of value out of their rivalries in California. USC has been a lukewarm program outside of their 2022 anomaly season, Stanford has been downright bad since 2018 and the Irish don't play California or UCLA on any regular basis.
For the years, the Irish had a strong recruiting presence on the west coast, and still do to a degree when you factor in players like Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, Madden Faraimo and Cooper Flanagan on their roster. But the value of their games on the west coast have certainly taken a step back.
From 2009 to 2017, Stanford had Notre Dame's number, but from 2018 on the Irish owned that rivalry. In the early to mid 2000's, USC owned Notre Dame in the Battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh but from 2010 to 2025, the Irish won 11 of their 15 matchups and most of them weren't overly close.
When BYU was added to the schedule to replace the Trojans, Notre Dame got a bump in strength of schedule. This upcoming season, they don't play Stanford and are playing a team like SMU who will likely be ranked in the Top 25 when they play in November.
With all that being said, there's still value to Notre Dame playing California, but recently, there haven't been teams worth playing on the west coast. But I don't think that will be the case for long. USC, UCLA, California and even Stanford are starting to trend up in the right direction which could bode very well for the Irish in future seasons.
Let's start with the USC Trojans, a team that I have not been shy around hiding my feelings about. After their addition of Chad Bowden as their GM, their recruiting operation has made a complete 180. They have one of the top classes in the country in 2025 and and looking to do the same in 2026. As of right now, the Trojans have the No. 6 ranked class in the country on 247Sports and the No. 5 ranked class on On3/Rivals. They're coming off of their second best season under Lincoln Riley, now it's up to him and the rest of the staff to develop that talent and make a push to the CFP.
Stanford is another team that's trending in the right direction. Last offseason, they made the move to bring back former quarterback Andrew Luck as General Manager. Big picture, their 2025 season was disappointing, but managing to go 4-2 at home is nothing to stick your nose up at. They hired former Stanford quarterback Tavita Pritchard are their new head coach and have landed some impactful recruits this cycle like quarterback Siona Kaho from Tacoma, Washington who's a four-star per 247Sports.
California had a surprising jump last season as well. At one point in the offseason, the Golden Bears didn't have a single scholarship running back on the roster, but through the second week of October, Cal was sitting at a 5-2 record. Quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele had an outstanding freshman campaign and returns this upcoming season.
Former James Madison head coach Bob Chesney is now at UCLA and is putting together an outstanding recruiting class his first year at the helm. The Bruins currently have the No. 7 recruiting class in the country in 2027 per 247Sports and have the No. 12 recruiting class in the country per On3/Rivals. Chesney is coming off of a season where he led James Madison to the CFP; he'll look to turn UCLA and move up in the ranks in the Big 10.
Notre Dame has four viable opponent options in California that are on the rise. Ideally, USC comes back on the schedule under the right circumstances here in the near future. They recently added Stanford back on their schedule for 2027 and 2028 and it could be a significantly improved Cardinal team from the ones they've face the last two seasons. Cal and UCLA continue to ascend as well. California's ascension as a football state will bode well for the Irish. Hopefully they continue trending in the right direction.
——-
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!
Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @TTrow5
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos