On a weekend when a few teams will be unofficially eliminated from postseason contention, No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 13 Stanford will meet in a virtual “must-win” game on Saturday at Stanford Stadium. The top four teams are awarded an opportunity to compete in the national playoff. And a rivalry game against SC may appear to be a low bar, until you consider Clemson’s aptitude for tripping over said low bars. Notre Dame averages 35 points scored per game while Stanford averages 37 points scored per game.
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Where Stanford’s defense is able to generate success is with its strong kickoff team, which is limiting opposing teams to an average starting field position of the 25.5-yard line, fourth nationally. I’m not saying Stanford should run some option plays, but they should rely on HB Counters to trick Smith and hopefully minimize his impact. But will it be enough? ND battled back from an 11-7 deficit in the final frame to tie the score at 11, 12 and 13, but surrendered two straight points to suffer the loss. Injuries at quarterback and running back that might have buried less-impressive teams were papered over impressively.
After another week of craziness, Notre Dame moves a step closer to finding out how their season will finish.
As Bill Connelly’s S&P+ ratings illustrate, Stanford is built to pound the rock. The pool of realistic candidates for the College Football Playoff has been whittled down since the unveiling of the selection committee’s first set of rankings at the beginning of the month, but there’s still a lot to sort out. And for us to win, they’ll have to play great.
Senior quarterback Kevin Hogan has been solid as well, leading the nation’s 13th-best passing attack by S&P+. Notre Dame is coming into town and will bring these key players. But that is a bit of an outlier.
“I’m hoping they’re really ready to do that again and they help some of the younger guys, the inexperienced guys”. But for Notre Dame, the road to the playoffs goes through Palo Alto and this won’t be a cake walk. Notre Dame has struggled when he’s had trouble running the ball, suffering their only loss when Prosise totaled 50 yards on 15 attempts. “I don’t know if we were nervous or what”. Which means the Irish players and coaches have to readjust their annual goal of “playing for a championship”, which has been Kelly’s mantra since he took over reins of the program. That should make for some exciting football. Notre Dame will look to contain Monika Salkute and Nicolette Serratore, who combined for 38 kills, 24 digs and seven blocks in the first meeting between the two programs. Through three games, Notre Dame’s basketball team has seen both. Notre Dame is taking a page out of the 2014-2015 Ohio State playbook and redefining the meaning of the phrase next man up. A big Notre Dame win and an unimpressive OU win could still juggle things. No they don’t. But they do control how they react to Tuesday’s disappointment. They probably do deserve to be at the top of the one-loss teams (along with Alabama), especially given how tough the schedule has been. MI State got a boost by beating three teams now ranked in the top 25, and the play of OR certainly boosts their standing much like Notre Dame got a short boost by USC. It wasn’t. Notre Dame is in the midst of a 10-1 season and has a game with 9th-ranked Stanford (9-2) looming, but as the sun rose over the Guglielmino Athletic Complex this morning, that game now isn’t almost as critical. On average, the Fighting Irish have allowed 110.3 return yards per game.
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Notre Dame hasn’t had an easy road this season.
