2015: No. 9 Stanford 38, No. 6 Notre Dame 36
There haven’t been many more painful losses in Brian Kelly’s now ten-year run than what happened to conclude the 2015 regular season.
Forget that.
There haven’t been many more painful losses for Notre Dame in the almost 30 years I’ve been watching as the regular season finale in 2015 was.
In case you’ve forgotten, Notre Dame entered this game No. 6 in the College Football Playoff. There is no guarantee they’d have made the playoff had they won but with their one loss being at unbeaten Clemson and Michigan State set to play Iowa in the Big Ten Championship, room to gain in the standings was there.
And Notre Dame appeared headed there.
The back-and-forth affair saw three lead changes before DeShone Kizer capped an 88 yard scoring drive on a two yard touchdown run with just 30 seconds left, that put Notre Dame ahead 36-35.
Against a Brian VanGorder led defense however, 30 seconds was way too long.
An Issac Rochell face-mask on the first play of the drive kick-started Stanford ahead 15 yards to their own 43.
Two plays later Kevin Hogan found Devon Cajuste for 27 yards to get to Notre Dame’s 30.
A Christian McCaffrey run of two yards got the Cardinal a hair closer before Conrad Ukropina drilled a 45 yard field goal to end Notre Dame’s CFP dreams.
Stanford would again go to the Rose Bowl where they’d run Iowa out of the building while Notre Dame would head to the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State.
Listen, I know Notre Dame would have been routed by probably any team they faced in the playoff that year had they made it, but given a chance I’d retroactively rather see them missing tackles against Alabama or Clemson in a game with national championship implications than I would see them do the same against Ohio State in a bowl game that was viewed as being infinitely less significant.
Next Up: The Latest Late Lead Blown