Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 25, 2023 33 GAME PREVIEW: STANFORD lor said after the loss to the Beavers. "I think the effort was there. The prepa- ration was definitely there during the week. The preparation was really good. They were into it. We just didn't play well enough. "That goes to the whole group, all of us, coaches included. It just wasn't good enough." That's Stanford to a T in the last five years. Not good enough. Since go- ing 9-4 with a win in the Sun Bowl in 2018, Stanford compiled a 21-35 record through Week 11 of this season. That Sun Bowl is the last postseason game the Cardinal have played in. This is a program that made 10 con- secutive bowl games, two with Jim Har- baugh and eight with Shaw. That run included three trips to the Rose Bowl and two victories in Pasadena. Har- baugh and star quarterback Andrew Luck demolished Virginia Tech in the 2010 Orange Bowl to really get the Car- dinal on a roll. Without looking, can you name Stan- ford's starting quarterback this season? It might be as difficult as finding the Pac-12 Network. And that's no disre- spect to sophomore Ashton Daniels. He's just no Andrew Luck or Kevin Ho- gan, and the talent around him isn't as strong as it was when those two were Stanford's signal-callers. Notre Dame still better beware. This is a streaky series, one that hasn't flip- flopped winners three years in a row since Stanford won in 2013 and 2015 sandwiched around a Notre Dame vic- tory in 2014. The Irish have also been a shaky road team in 2023, going 2-2 with wins over North Carolina State and Duke and losses to Louisville and Clemson. Notre Dame has not won on the road since Sept. 30, and the Irish needed a miraculous late-game drive kept alive by a fourth-and-16 conversion on a scramble by quarterback Sam Hartman to escape the Blue Devils by a touch- down that night. The environment in Durham, N.C., was bonkers. It won't be that way in Palo Alto. But that could be scary for a team that has tended to sleepwalk through games like this. At the end of it all, it's still a rivalry. And if Notre Dame does get the Stanford team that made it close versus Washington, or the one that erased a 29-0 halftime defi- cit against Colorado and won 46-43 in double overtime, watch out. ✦ Stanford head coach Troy Taylor had the tough task of taking over for David Shaw, the program's all-time leader in wins. PHOTO COURTESY STANFORD ATHLETICS 2023 NOTRE DAME SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Aug. 26 vs. Navy* W, 42-3 Sept. 2 Tennessee State W, 56-3 Sept. 9 at NC State W, 45-24 Sept. 16 Central Michigan W, 41-17 Sept. 23 Ohio State L, 17-14 Sept. 30 at Duke W, 21-14 Oct. 7 at Louisville L, 33-20 Oct. 14 USC W, 48-20 Oct. 28 Pittsburgh W, 58-7 Nov. 4 at Clemson L, 31-23 Nov. 18 Wake Forest W, 45-7 Nov. 25 at Stanford (Pac-12 Net.) 7 p.m. * at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland 2023 STANFORD SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Sept. 1 at Hawaii W, 37-24 Sept. 9 at USC L, 56-10 Sept. 16 Sacramento State L, 30-23 Sept. 23 Arizona L, 22-20 Sept. 30 Oregon L, 42-6 Oct. 13 at Colorado W, 46-43 (2OT) Oct. 21 UCLA L, 42-7 Oct. 28 Washington L, 42-33 Nov. 4 at Washington State W, 10-7 Nov. 11 at Oregon State L, 62-17 Nov. 18 California L, 27-15 Nov. 25 Notre Dame (Pac-12 Net.) 7 p.m.