The senior kicker, who hadn’t even attempted a field goal all night, calmly lined up and kicked a beauty through the uprights to give Stanford a 38-36 win.
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Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback DeShone Kizer (14) wears the special edition Shamrock Series helmet during warmups for the game against the Boston College Eagles at Fenway Park. “Obviously, this game – we don’t need anyone to tell us it’s a big game. Winning is hard.” And under the circumstances, it felt far more profound than gee whiz. However, with the hire of Brian Kelly as head coach, as well as the critical mass of social media, Notre Dame’s rivalry trophies are becoming better known throughout the fanbase. The play was ruled a touchdown on the field, but replay appeared to show Kizer’s knee hitting the turf just before the ball crossed the plane.
It’s not an unreasonable assertion. The loss knocked the Irish out of contention for the playoff.
A play here, a play there. A possibility that could ship Notre Dame to the Fiesta Bowl would be Temple beating Houston in the AAC Championship, and since Atlanta makes more sense for the Owls, it could lock the Irish into a trip to Arizona to avoid a re-match. One the Irish wish they could.
Schmidt, struggling to hold back his emotions, then waxed a little poetic.
“It’s been a lot of ups and downs”, Kizer says.
He’s right about that – Iowa is not pretty; they are not flashy; and, yes, they are 12-0 – one of just two teams, along with Clemson, who can make that claim. We’re 10-2 with a really tough schedule. Wins and losses are forgotten. Defensively, Notre Dame is allowing 21 points and 357 yards per game.
DeShone Kizer had given the Irish (10-2, No. 6 CFP) a one-point lead on his 2-yard run with 30 seconds left only to see Hogan drive Stanford to the win.
“I’m completely blank inside”, Kizer said. “Then you kind of talk to him and spend some time with him”.
Instead, the fairy dust settled on Stanford and its quarterback, Kevin Hogan.
“I just made the play, just like practice”, Cajuste said. This go-round, he turned in one of his best. With 30 seconds remaining, the Notre Dame defense could not hold as Hogan completed a 26-yard pass to Cajuste to set up the game-winning field goal. “But for us to think about anything other than Notre Dame is insanity because they’re good enough to get our full attention”. “And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh”. His most important drive ended in a field goal, however.
Cajuste said he sensed opportunity, despite the dire circumstances, before the play. The highest-ranked group of five team will earn a bid to either the Fiesta Bowl or Peach Bowl this year. “I was taking pictures with them and all the fans”. “The middle field was open….”
Not easily finished. First, Hogan threw an incompletion to the sideline. From Stanford, there was a bit of “what should be”.
The regular season is over for Notre Dame, while Stanford (10-2) will play Southern California next Saturday in the Pac-12 championship game in Santa Clara, Calif.
“This was the best”, Hogan said. “All we want to do is put ourselves in a position to be considered”.
Notre Dame is playing long time rival Stanford this evening. Stanford, which will be without starting fullback Daniel Marx for the rest of the season due to a leg injury suffered against Cal, leads the nation in time of possession at 35:18 and will face either UCLA or USC in the conference title game.EXTRA POINTS1.
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“Our big thing that we talked about earlier today was belief, ” Cardinal coach David Shaw said. “We don’t have anything to prove to anybody”.
