Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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38 OCT. 12, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: STANFORD BY TYLER HORKA STANFORD RUNNING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME RUN DEFENSE New year, same ole Stanford. The Cardinal can- not run the football. Through Week 4, Stanford ranked 90th in the FBS in rushing yards per game with 137.7. The Cardinal also came in 90th in rushing yards per attempt at 4.1. Stanford's saving grace on the ground is junior quarterback Ashton Daniels, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound athlete with getaway ability. In Stanford's first three games, he led the team with 39 carries for 163 yards. Freshman Chris Davis Jr. came in second in rushing yards with 15 carries for 132 yards. Those are where the acceptable — and in Davis' case, exceptional — averages end. The next best yards per carry figure for a Stanford ball carrier through three games? Sophomore Sedrick Irvin with a mark of 3.4 yards per tote on 10 attempts. Notre Dame's defense, meanwhile, could cer- tainly stand to be better against the run in the first half of 2024. The Irish ranked tied for 51st in the FBS in rushing yards allowed per game (121.0) through Week 4. Like Stanford, Notre Dame's yards per rush allowed average was also the same in the national rankings as its yards per game allowed. The Irish allowed each rushing gain to go for 3.6 yards on average through four games. Much of it comes down to will for defensive coordinator Al Golden's unit, but some of it also comes down to scheme. Golden, for example, said he called a bad game when Miami (Ohio) ran 28 times for 110 yards in Week 4. "I put the guys in some bad situations, especially that last drive," Golden said Sept. 24. "I was call- ing the wrong game at that time. It was just poor by me." Golden said his guys could have done more themselves, too. "There's some other ones we have to fit better," Golden said. "We have to tackle better, no doubt about it." When a coordinator as good as Golden realizes those things and has a bye week to prepare for an opponent that's been subpar in a certain area, you have to like the team's chance. Advantage: Notre Dame STANFORD PASSING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME PASS DEFENSE If you were to go to the NCAA's official statistics website Sept. 25, you'd have to go to the third and final page of the individual passing efficiency cat- egory to find Notre Dame's Riley Leonard. That's also where you'd find Stanford's Daniels. He had a passing efficiency metric of 118.13 through his first three starts of 2024. That was slightly better than Leonard's 110.30 through his first four Notre Dame starts. Daniels ranked 106th nationally. Leonard came in at No. 118. There are only 134 FBS teams, mind you. Still, Stanford's attacking through the air was its best form of offense through Week 4. The Cardi- nal ranked 79th in passing yards per game then, slightly better than 90th in rushing yards per game. Daniels and Stanford put up 220.3 passing yards per game in matchups with TCU, Cal Poly and Syracuse. The tune-up game against the FCS opponent On PaPer Junior quarterback Ashton Daniels was Stanford's leading ground gainer with 163 yards in the team's first three games, but he ranked just 106th in the nation in pass efficiency rating (118.13) through Week 4. PHOTO COURTESY STANFORD ATHLETICS