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Coach Brian Kelly insists he and his staff are still in the stages of building a program at Notre Dame.
But 20 games in, the Irish under Kelly are only 12-8, their latest defeat a lopsided loss at home to USC. The 31-17 setback certainly represents a step backward. Sloppy play and poor tackling put the Irish in a big early hole and then turnovers - a bugaboo most of the season - short-circuited a second-half comeback attempt.
Adding insult, a couple USC players said the Irish gave up in the latter stages of Saturday's game.
Now at 4-3, the Irish's hopes of meeting their preseason goal of a BCS bowl are gone and they'll have to regroup for a Saturday home game at Navy.
''We got plenty to play for,'' Kelly said Sunday in his weekly postgame conference call.
Kelly said one topic not discussed is using the final five games of the regular season to get ready for 2012.
''We just don't operate that way,'' he said. ''We're looking at how we can improve, how we can stop Navy. We don't really get into it. That's good talk again for the radio shows and the pundits. They can talk about that stuff. We don't get into those kinds of conversations.''
Kelly was greatly disappointed after Saturday night's loss by the Irish's tendency to take a step back after apparently moving forward with a four-game winning streak. He said it was something he wouldn't tolerate.
But on Sunday he added that it's all part of a process.
''It's program building. All the things that go along with being a successful football program: winning games, that's one of them. Preparation, recruiting, game day atmosphere. When we took this job on we had some work to do and we are making great progress,'' Kelly said.
''Four-and-three is not where we want to be. But clearly we are right in the midst of building the program. ... I like some of the things I see, I don't like some others. Our sleeves are rolled up. We are so entrenched in building our football program that it's hard some time for us to have that big picture view.''
Some USC players said they thought Notre Dame couldn't wait to get Saturday's loss over with.
''They just quit,'' USC senior linebacker Chris Galippo told the Orange County Register after the Trojans kept the ball over the final 6:43 and Notre Dame didn't use a timeout.
''We beat them down. We wore them out. They didn't want to play anymore,'' Trojans' running back Marc Tyler said.
Kelly's response?
''I don't know if that's the case. To the victors go the spoils. I think we would probably have said the same thing last year,'' he said. Notre Dame won 20-16 last season.
The numbers Saturday were glaringly one-sided. USC had a 443-267 edge in total yards, including 219-41 rushing, and the Trojans had the ball for more than 19 minutes longer than the Irish.
But it was the three second-half turnovers that really hurt Notre Dame, especially one by backup quarterback Dayne Crist. Crist fumbled a snap on a play from the USC 1 and Trojans' safety Jawanza Starling returned it 80 yards for a score that put USC up by two TDS in the third.
Crist had won a training camp competition to be the starter over Rees, but was yanked after just one half of the season opener.
Playing after Rees was momentarily sidelined by a hyperextended knee, Crist completed four passes and had the Irish ready to tie the game before he lost the handle.
Kelly was asked how concerned he was that the play might hurt Crist's mental makeup.
''I don't have to worry about it. He does,'' Kelly said, adding that as of Sunday Crist was still the backup to Rees.
Kelly said Rees and defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore, who injured his ankle, were scheduled for MRIs, but he expected Rees to be able to practice this week. Safety Zeke Motta got a concussion and receiver Michael Floyd had a sprained thumb.
