Notre Dame is just over two weeks away from hosting Stanford in a night contest that, for all intents and purposes, shouldn’t be much of a game. That likelihood probably just grew a slight bit because Stanford will make the trek to South Bend without running back E.J. Smith.
Smith, the sun of NFL all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith, will be out the remainder of the season with an undisclosed injury according to Cardinal head coach David Shaw.
Smith had a big start to the season, rushing for 206 yards on 30 carries, finishing with three touchdowns. He hasn’t played since, however, and will not play the rest of 2022.
Stanford was already playing from behind; it is 1-2 with blowout losses to both USC and Washington. Its only victory was against Colgate.
The David Shaw-led program isn’t too far removed from being a West Coast powerhouse. It had four top-10 finishes between 2010 and 2015 but hasn’t finished a year ranked at all since 2017.
With what appears to be another long fall ahead for Shaw and Stanford, you wonder how much longer he’ll be given to lead the Cardinal program.
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