You don’t have to flip the pages of your scrapbook back all that far to find a time that Notre Dame’s annual clash with Stanford was significant in the major college football landscape.
The Cardinal went to a bowl game each year from 2009, which was Jim Harbaugh’s third year on campus, to 2018, which was David Shaw’s eighth as head coach. Since then things haven’t gone as desired for the Cardinal as they’re just 1-4 overall this year and just 13-25 since the start of the 2019 season.
So what has gone wrong with Stanford, is there any hope in Palo Alto that they’ll be turning things around anytime soon, and would they really force Shaw, a coach who NFL teams were said to be kicking the tires on a few years back, out after what he’s accomplished?
Matt Zemek is the managing editor of our sister-site Trojans Wire where they cover all things USC. He also follows the Pac 12 incredibly closely and has insights to the rest of the league, not just USC.
Zemek was kind enough to take a few minutes away from his currently unbeaten football team to discuss how Stanford has fallen like they have and what to expect this Saturday.