Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 17, 2026 19 field, offered another sign of progress in the evolution of this Irish offense. "It just means that we have another point of attack — whether it's throwing, whether it's running," Walton said. "It makes us a really scary team. It makes the room so competitive because ev- eryone wants each other to succeed. But also, everyone wants to get their time in. It makes us get better every single day." Walton led the Irish rushing attack for a second consecutive game. This time he set a program record for rushing yards by a true freshman with 181, including a 40- yard touchdown run in the second half, on just 13 carries against Stanford. His total surpassed running back Josh Adams' 168- yard performance against Stanford in 2015. The Irish offense finished the day with 47 rushing attempts for 361 yards and 5 touchdowns. Everyone who attempted a rush for Notre Dame, including Carr, averaged at least 4.0 yards per carry. James, who started the game, carried 10 times for 73 yards and 2 touchdowns. Williams, who rotated in before Walton, turned his 7 carries into 28 yards. Even freshman running back Javian Osborne, who was the fifth running back to receive a carry for the Irish on Saturday, reached 31 yards on 6 carries, including his first career touchdown. In addition to the big plays from Notre Dame's running backs, Carr threw a 3-yard touchdown to senior wide re- ceiver Jaden Greathouse in the first quarter and a 30-yard touchdown to sophomore wide receiver Elijah Burress in the third quarter. The latter was the first touchdown of Burress' young career. Carr completed 14 of 20 passes (70.0 percent) for 181 yards with 3 touch- downs and avoided taking a single sack in a game for the fourth time this season. His decision-making comple- mented the dominant rushing attack. "The talent on this roster is unbeliev- able," Carr said, "and in every position group there's guys who can make you miss and win one-on-ones and are dan- gerous weapons. So, it's exciting from my perspective of having a lot of guys that you can trust and can go win for you." Notre Dame's defense started tena- ciously from the first play of scrim- mage. Stanford didn't block senior defensive end Boubacar Traore, so he hit quarterback Davis Warren from his blind side to force a fumble that senior linebacker Jaiden Ausberry recovered. Traore also intercepted a Warren pass in the second quarter when he dropped into coverage and returned the pick 18 yards in an attempt to score. Running back Jonaz Walton set a Notre Dame true freshman single-game record with 181 rushing yards, which included touchdowns of 97 and 40 yards. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER STAN ND FIRST QUARTER ND James 2-yard run (Porath kick) 13:06 0 7 Drive: 4 plays, 18 yards, 1:42 ND Greathouse 3-yard pass from Carr (Porath kick) 2:55 0 14 Drive: 12 plays, 70 yards, 6:46 SECOND QUARTER ND Walton 97-yard run (Porath kick failed) 14:48 0 20 Drive: 2 plays, 99 yards, 0:59 ND Porath 33-yard field goal 12:27 0 23 Drive: 4 plays, 4 yards, 1:27 ND James 31-yard run (Porath kick) 7:05 0 30 Drive: 3 plays, 39 yards, 1:15 ND Williams 70-yard pass from Carr (Porath kick) 3:26 0 37 Drive: 3 plays, 81 yards, 0:56 THIRD QUARTER ND Burress 30-yard pass from Carr (Drescher kick) 4:37 0 44 Drive: 9 plays, 71 yards, 5:11 STAN Blackburn 3-yard pass from Warren (Kenney kick) 2:43 7 44 Drive: 5 plays, 75 yards, 1:54 FOURTH QUARTER ND Walton 40-yard run (Drescher kick) 13:47 7 51 Drive: 8 plays, 75 yards, 3:56 ND Osborne 3-yard run (Drescher kick) 3:00 7 58 Drive: 16 plays, 90 yards, 8:46 STAN ND Total First Downs 9 26 Rushing 2 13 Passing 5 13 Penalty 2 0 Rushing Attempts 21 47 Yards Gained Rushing 67 374 Yards Lost Rushing 9 13 Net Yards Rushing 58 361 Net Yards Passing 144 237 Passes Attempted 23 27 Passes Completed 12 19 Had Intercepted 2 0 Percent Completion 52.2% 70.4% Yards Per Attempt 6.3 8.8 Yards Per Completion 12.0 12.5 Total Offensive Plays 44 74 Total Net Yards 202 598 Average Gain Per Play 4.6 8.1 Fumbles: No.-Lost 2-1 0-0 Penalties: No.-Yards 6-55 4-28 Punts: No.-Yards 8-380 2-76 Average Per Punt 47.5 38.0 Average Net Punt 41.6 38.0 Punt Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 2-47 Kickoff Returns: No.-Yards 4-81 0-0 Interception Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 2-18 Fumble Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 0-0 Miscellaneous Yards 0 0 Possession Time 22:50 37:10 Third-Down Conversions 2-11 8-13 Percentage 18.2% 61.5% Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 Percentage 0.0% 0.0% Sacks By: No.-Yards 0-0 1-2 NOTRE DAME 58, STANFORD 7 Oct. 10, 2026 ✦ Attendance: 77,622 Notre Dame Stadium ✦ South Bend 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final Stanford 0 0 7 0 7 Notre Dame 14 23 7 14 58