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Who should the Irish key in on? Find out here
The Cardinal are entering this game on a six-game losing streak, not exactly ideal as they face off against as an Irish team that is hitting their stride. This should be a fairly easy contest for Notre Dame, but that doesn’t mean the Cardinal will just roll over. Here are five Stanford player who could give Notre Dame problems.
How did Stanford football get so bad, so quickly? It’s clearly @Ian_Book12’s fault.
Notre Dame fans associate the 2018 season with a win over Michigan to start the year, a quarterback change in late-September, and a 12-0 regular season that concluded with hard-fought victory on Southern California’s home field.
Did something Notre Dame did that year have a lasting impact on a rival, though?
Stanford started that 2018 season 4-0 and entered Notre Dame Stadium ranked seventh in the AP Poll, a spot ahead of the Irish at the time. The Cardinal were coming off a road-victory over No. 20 Oregon and seemed primed to be making another Rose Bowl run.
For Notre Dame, Ian Book was making his third career start but first at his home venue.
Related: SEE IT! A photo from every Ian Book victory at Notre Dame
What followed was a coming out party for the Irish as Book and running back Dexter Williams, who made his season-debut that night, led Notre Dame to out-gain Stanford 550-229 yards in a 38-17 victory.
Notre Dame has spent nearly the entire time since competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff while Stanford has gone into a tailspin.
Starting with that night that Book made his first home start for Notre Dame the Irish have gone a mind-boggling 38-3 in regular season games while Stanford, who had won eight or more games in nine-straight seasons entering 2018, has gone just 16-22 overall since.
The Cardinal are a lowly 3-8 as they welcome Notre Dame to the Stanford for Saturday’s regular season finale for both squads.
Somehow one of those three however was against an Oregon team that was ranked third-nationally in the CFP rankings before they were routed at Utah this past weekend.
How did it get this bad, this fast for Stanford?
There are probably more logical explanations but I’ll go ahead and blame, or actually, credit Ian Book.
Related:
Projecting the next College Football Playoff rankings after Oregon upset
10 things that happened the last time Notre Dame and Stanford didn’t play (from 2020)
Bad news from one of Notre Dame’s rivals on Wednesday as Stanford cuts 11 sports in wake of the pandemic. Find out the details right here.
You can probably count on one hand the amount of colleges and universities that have as impressive as athletic program across all sports as Stanford University. The Cardinal have won a combined 126 team national championships, the most of any Division I athletic program.
On Wednesday bad news was made by this historic athletic program as Stanford is dropping 11 sports to cut costs during the pandemic.
The school will discontinue men’s and women’s fencing, field hockey, lightweight rowing, men’s rowing, co-ed and women’s sailing, squash, synchronized swimming, men’s volleyball and wrestling after the 2020-21 academic year. Stanford also is eliminating 20 support staff positions.
If interested, you can read the entire letter penned by university officials that was released Wednesday.
In case you were wondering, Stanford had a reported endowment of $27.7 billion in 2019. I won’t pretend to be an expert when it comes to how that money all works but I feel like there is enough there and that there would probably still be around 27.6 or so billion dollars left over if they chose not to cut these sports.
This flat out sucks for all of the student-athletes that are effected and their family and friends but also touches on a bigger part. That is, if it happens at Stanford, chances are great it’s going to happen at a lot more colleges that it hasn’t already in the coming days and weeks.
Mercy, what a start and not in a good way. Don’t know if it was too much wine with the turkey or what but the first roughly 25 minutes or so were about as flat as a team trying to give any reason to get elevated in the CFP rankings could look. A …
Mercy, what a start and not in a good way. Don’t know if it was too much wine with the turkey or what but the first roughly 25 minutes or so were about as flat as a team trying to give any reason to get elevated in the CFP rankings could look.
A blocked punt while trailing 17-7, capped by a quick touchdown from Ian Book to Tommy Tremble bailed out an offensive line who was unable to help punch it in from the one before false starting.
The touchdown pass to Tremble was an incredible throw by Book, one he made while moving away.
The then 41 yard touchdown pass from Book to Chase Claypool put the Irish ahead for the first time today. Claypool took a while to find his feet at Notre Dame but is an absolute beast of a playmaker who is going to be missed next season.
5 First Half Thoughts:
Stanford might be young and bad at 4-7 but this game clearly means something to them. They came out guns a blazing while the Irish needed 25 minutes to get warmed up it appeared.
If it ain’t Lenzy, it ain’t working in the running game. I know the offensive line is beat up and regulars are and have been out for sometime but even on a sloppy track I expected a lot more out of the run game early today.
Notre Dame’s pass defense entered today as the third most efficient unit in the nation but don’t tell that to Stanford. Have been impressed largely by Davis Mills, specifically his willingness to stay in the pocket, deliver a strike while knowing a huge hit was coming on the second Cardinal touchdown of the day.
Defensive line took this game over the last few Stanford possessions. Tell me how they play the rest of the way and I’ll tell you if Notre Dame wins and/or covers.
Notre Dame has had better special teams the majority of this season than its opponents. The blocked punt was huge in waking up the Irish but that’s something that has felt like a rarity during the Brian Kelly era and deserves praise again early today.
Enjoy the second half.
