Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 25, 2023 31 GAME PREVIEW: STANFORD BY TYLER HORKA U nless you're among the 30,000- ish people who stroll into Stan- ford Stadium Nov. 25, you'll be watching the Notre Dame- Stanford game on the Pac-12 Network. And that seems fitting. Because for some time over the last decade-plus, Notre Dame versus Stanford was a mar- quee matchup in college football. One of the Pac-12's greatest out-of-conference games, year in and year out. The Brian Kelly versus David Shaw rivalry was one of the more underrated ones in the sport. Both head coaches got their licks in over the years. Kelly won five times. Shaw won five times. Notre Dame scored 265 points in those 10 matchups. Stanford scored 237. Neck and neck. There were some blowouts both ways, too. As there should be in any good ri- valry. Games like that create fodder for the next year. Stanford had a three- game winning streak from 2015-17. Notre Dame matched it with a trio of victories of its own from 2018-21 (the two teams did not face each other dur- ing the COVID year of 2020). None of those three wins for the Irish were close. Ironically, in a season that meant nothing but his undoing after back-to- back 3-9 campaigns, Shaw got the last laugh in the rivalry on his way out of Palo Alto. He ended his 12-year reign there with a 6-5 record against Notre Dame because somehow, someway, his troubled, oft-injured, much-maligned Cardinal went into South Bend and squeaked out with a 16-14 victory over Marcus Freeman's Fighting Irish last October. This year it's Freeman versus first- year Stanford head coach Troy Taylor in the first game in the series that won't feature Kelly or Shaw since 2006. Shaw was Stanford's offensive coordinator before he became head coach in 2011, one year after Kelly got to Notre Dame. If you have to ask yourself, "Who is Troy Taylor?" then you're probably one of thousands, maybe millions, whose Thanksgiving dinner talk will entail how to find the Pac-12 Network on your channel guide as well. Both answers are not commonplace. Troy Taylor and a game televised on a channel named after a dying confer- ence. Notre Dame versus Stanford just isn't what it used to be. Taylor's first season at Stanford has mirrored Shaw's last few. The Cardinal got out of the gates with a Week 1 win over Hawai'i, but then they lost their next four games. The quartet of defeats included a 30-23 loss to Sacramento State, an FCS program Taylor spent four seasons with as the head coach. Andy Thompson, Taylor's defensive coordinator all four years at Sacramento State, said he has a lot of respect for his former boss. But it was certainly tell- ing of the state of the Stanford program that the understudy was able to beat the mentor with a group of players that's supposed to be vastly inferior on paper. The game is played on grass. And Stanford has not been good at it at all lately. "It's awesome that we got this op- portunity," Thompson said. "We got to come over here, I think we collected a little bit of money, too, and got a win. … They should be proud of how they played against a really good opponent." Really good is relative. But there was a moment this season when Stanford could say the same exact thing about itself. The Cardinal gave Heisman hope- ful Michael Penix Jr. and Washington (now No. 5 in the CFP) all they could handle Oct. 28. The Huskies eventually prevailed 42-33, but it was a two-point game in Palo Alto when the clock dipped under two minutes to play in the fourth quarter. Washington running back Dil- lon Johnson put the game on ice with a 13-yard score with 1:36 remaining. Stanford tried a trick play from its own 28 on fourth-and-2 with 3:20 left. A receiver was wide open and dropped the ball. The Cardinal was that close to knocking off one of college football's A NEW-LOOK RIVALRY Notre Dame faces Stanford for the final time with the Cardinal a member of the Pac-12 conference Facts & Figures NOTRE DAME AT STANFORD Date: Nov. 25, 2023 Site: Stanford Stadium at Palo Alto, Calif. Kickoff: 7 p.m. ET Television: Pac-12 Network Radio: This game can be heard on Notre Dame IMG affiliates. Series facts: Notre Dame leads the all-time series 22-14. The Cardinal won the last meeting 16-14 in South Bend on Oct. 15, 2022. Head coaches: Stanford — Troy Taylor (3-8, first season); Notre Dame — Marcus Freeman (17-8, second season). Noting Stanford: The Cardinal was No. 110 nationally in scoring offense at 20.9 points per game through Week 11 … Stanford was surrendering 36.9 points per game, which ranked No. 129 out of 133 FBS teams … The Cardinal's yards allowed per game ranking is nearly as bad at No. 128 with a whopping 456.4 yards al - lowed per game … It is the passing defense that has plagued Stanford the most; the Cardinal ranked dead last in the FBS at 314.2 yards allowed per game … Stanford has allowed 36 sacks, which ranked No. 121 nationally … The Cardinal has a turnover margin of minus-6; only 13 teams in the FBS had a worse mark through Week 11 … Stanford is just what the doctor ordered for a struggling Notre Dame third-down offense; the Cardinal allows opponents to convert 50.4 percent of third-down tries, which ranks No. 129 nationally.