Among the many legends surrounding the Notre Dame-Southern Cal rivalry is that ex-Trojan coach John McKay once left the field at South Bend, Ind., after a loss whistling the Notre Dame victory march. When asked why, so the story goes, he replied, “It kind of gets to you.”

And it does. Whether you love it or hate it, the season always seems to be a little more fun when the Fighting Irish are in the big hunt. It’s even more fun when both Notre Dame and Southern Cal are in the big hunt. And this Saturday’s game, which might possibly be the most watched regular season contest of the year, represents a renewal of college football’s greatest and most important rivalry.

That last statement isn’t hyperbole. College Football Data Warehouse lists Notre Dame no. 1 in its all-time football rankings based on winning percentage, schedule toughness, and “national championship points,” meaning how often a school has played for games of national championship importance and how well it has performed. USC is third.

Notre Dame has won somebody’s version of the national championship 12 times, the most of any team in the 80 years between 1924 – when the Irish won their first national title – and last season. Southern Cal is third with 10. That’s at least 22 times in eight decades that the game has had national title implications; add the eight times when one school was ranked no. 1 only to be upset by the other, and it means the Notre Dame-Southern Cal game has impacted the national championship in nearly 40% of the last 80 seasons.

And that doesn’t include the last eight seasons, when Notre Dame sagged under the Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham regimes (a combined 56-41). Meanwhile, over the last four years, USC has been on a roll as spectacular as any in history. The Trojans have won 30 of their last 31 games and the last two national championships. It’s hard to find three-year records to equal that of the 2003-05 Trojans, and many power rankings had them as the best team in the country back in 2002 when they were 11-2.

How impressive have they been this season? Well, their stats are ridiculous: Through five games, they have averaged 51.6 points per game with an average margin of victory of more than 30 points. They’ve averaged 604 yards per game – 349 passing and an amazing 291 rushing. USC’s weak spot is supposed to be its defense (which has given up 19.2 points per game), but in truth, there’s no real evidence of this, at least not yet. The Trojans’ opposition knows that they have to score a lot just to stay in the game, so they throw the ball the way they vote in Chicago – early and often. Considering that it has had nearly 40 passes a game thrown at its way, it’s surprising that the USC defense hasn’t given up more than 96 points.

On Saturday, the Fighting Irish will have to throw at least that many times just to be competitive, and they will have to avoid interceptions and sacks while doing it. Much has been made of coach Charlie Weis as the most brilliant offensive mind in football, and justifiably so.

As offensive coordinator with the New England Patriots, he was the man responsible for the drafting of Tom Brady. In retrospect, it’s amazing that the only previous place he’s ever been a head coach was at New Jersey’s Franklin Township High School in 1989.

Weis has turned the Notre Dame program sharply around from the slackness and ineffectiveness of the Davie and Willingham years. His Irish are currently averaging 37.6 points per game on offense, which would be eye-opening in a normal season. But this isn’t a normal season, and it remains to be seen whether Weis has the horses to win a duel with those of his old friend and foe Pete Carroll. (For what it’s worth, in the NFL teams Carroll coached either as head or assistant were 6-5 against Weis’s teams.)

Carroll isn’t quite in Weis’s category as a “genius”; in his only four seasons as a head coach with the Jets and Patriots, he was just 33-31.And in 2001,his first year with the Trojans, he was just 6-6. Since then, he has revealed his primary talent: recruiting. As he told the Los Angeles Times last year, “I like the college game much better than the pros. There’s no salary cap and you can ‘draft’ whoever you like.” No other school in the nation can beat Southern Cal’s twin recruiting lures of tradition and attractive location. It’s as if Notre Dame had moved to the Florida State campus.

It’s inevitable that within the next few seasons, Pac 10 rivals will start grabbing some of those would-be USC blue chippers, but right now the Trojans have stockpiled the nation’s best talent. For most sportswriters, the biggest question is whether the Heisman Trophy should go once again to quarterback Matt Leinart – who is threatening to become the first passer in Division 1-A history to throw more than 300 passes and average 10 yards per pass – or Marshall Faulk clone running back-receiver Reggie Bush – who is averaging more yards per rush, 8.5, than most good teams pass for. And, as Weis pointed out at a Tuesday press conference, running back LenDale White (7.6 yards per rush), the team’s leading rusher for the past two seasons, would probably be a Heisman Trophy candidate at any other school.

Irish quarterback Brady Quinn has blossomed under Weis, averaging just under eight yards per pass with 10 touchdowns against just two interceptions. Running backs Darius Walker and Travis Thomas each average five yards per rush.

It’s likely that Weis will be capable of exploiting any weaknesses the Trojans may have on defense. If they don’t have any, Weis can create some. What isn’t likely is that Notre Dame has the defensive talent to stop the overpowering Trojan offensive machine, which could probably put up 30 points on some NFL teams. Notre Dame could score 35-40 points and still find itself playing catch-up all day. 45-38 Trojans sounds about right.

Mr. Barra is the author of “The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.”