The way we look at Notre Dame is we have our non-conference opponents and our conference opponents.
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When: Saturday, 5 p.m.
A 45-yard field goal off the foot of former walk-on kicker Conrad Ukropina sailed through the uprights at Stanford Stadium late Saturday night, giving the Cardinal a dramatic 38-36 victory over Notre Dame and new life to the team’s national title hopes.
“Our big thing that we talked about earlier today was belief”, Cardinal coach David Shaw said.
“And at some point, it was going to come down to making a play to win”. However, Stanford, which will play USC for the Pac-12 title Saturday at Levi’s Stadium a few miles south of here, regained the lead 28-23 midway through the period on a 76-yard drive capped by a 1-yard scoring run by Wright. And even then, there would be no guarantees. This may be a two-loss team trying to convince the committee, but the losses coming against Northwestern (10-2) and OR (9-3) aren’t as bad as losses by other potential playoff teams.
“We’re two plays away from being undefeated and being the number one team in the country”, coach Brian Kelly said. Really, we could be one, seven, nine, 11 and it does not matter. And instead of testing its red-zone offense again, Notre Dame opted for a big play instead when DeShone Kizer who found Will Fuller behind the Stanford defense for a 73-yard touchdown to give Notre Dame its first lead, 20-14, with 2:15 left in the half. Florida’s offense has looked horrendous for the past four games, and the Gators’ only points against the Seminoles came on a safety.
With both Notre Dame slimming and Stanford’s very slim playoff hopes hanging in the balance, these two teams – rivals – turned in one of the best games in either school’s history. That would become a theme for the night for Notre Dame, as Justin Yoon hit what would be the first of his three chip-shot field goals of the game.
Playing for their postseason, Notre Dame will have to stop Christian McCaffrey, Stanford’s starting running back who is second in the nation in rushing behind only Leonard Fournette.
With six seconds left, Ukropina trotted on to attempt the first game victor of his career.
Ukropina said he wasn’t nervous going into the kick, even after Notre Dame called a timeout to ice him. “It was the same kick I’ve done hundreds of times in practice”.
Aside from the Michigan St vs Iowa game, the conference championship games seem fairly predictable for this upcoming weekend.
After leading Stanford on 30-second drive that led to a game-winning 45-yard field goal, Hogan put his Senior Day into perspective.
The Irish drove from their own 9 to the Stanford 7 on their next possession, but had to settle for Yoon’s 25-yard field goal that made it a 14-13 game.
Mayfield was knocked out of the previous game with a concussion but was fearless against the Cowboys, rushing for 77 yards and a touchdown. McCaffrey and his 3,035 all-purpose yards have him in the Heisman Trophy conversation. We don’t need anyone to tell us that it’s a game we have to play our hearts out in. “The coverage dictated it”.
Hogan was awarded the game ball after throwing as many touchdown passes (four) as incomplete passes in his emotional home finale.
“His father had passed away, he was a Notre Dame grad and was always fired up for the Notre Dame games”, Shaw said.
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Expectations are always high from a fan and alumni base that, right or wrong, expects the Irish to compete for national championships every year. “We know we kind of took it out of our hands a couple weeks back (with the loss to Oregon), but I think that no one in the country wants to play us right now”. “We’ll see where we are after those two games and we’ll see where everybody else is”.
