Playing at Stanford stinks.
From afar it appears nobody in the home-crowd cares, the field is reminiscent of Notre Dame Stadium’s pre-field turf and there have been plenty of nightmares there for the last decade.
With that said, No. 16 Notre Dame has to go there and win if they’re going to finish the regular season with ten wins and have even the smallest of chances of getting to the Cotton Bowl (which I declared them dead for Tuesday night).
So what happens when 9-2 Notre Dame hits the wet and torn up turf at 4-7 Stanford at 4 pm ET today? Here’s our best guesses:
Jeff F:
It’s fitting that again Notre Dame, needing to put on a show for the playoff committee, ends up in Stanford. This place has been full of nightmares the last decade but after last season’s playoff experience they’ll be better equipped to handle today, regardless of how mediocre Stanford has been. Time to erase a decade of heartbreak clean and get a victory today.
Notre Dame 34, Stanford 13
Nick S.:
Like some people complain about the Navy game and want to see it gone, I say the same for Stanford. They’ve been good for ten years, otherwise just been mostly-trash that has only caused trouble once this series began being played annually. They’re pretty much west-coast Boston College without being a Catholic school.
Show me where this beat up Stanford team is better than Notre Dame because I’m having trouble thinking the Irish don’t walk in and push around this Cardinal defense for 60 minutes with Ian Book going crazy for 150+ in the run game.
All Irish who make the Cardinal quit, yet Brian Kelly keeps it respectable against David Shaw.
Notre Dame 38, Stanford 10