Cavalier Corner Digital

✦ News & notes By Lou Somogyi to get to 20 points the winner again. "Our margin for keeping the points down is keeping it in the teens," Kelly said. "Then we've got a great chance of winning." Benchmarks To Victory Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly has at least three benchmarks to determine whether his No. 25-ranked and 14-point underdog Irish can topple No. 8 Stanford. The first is turnovers. In its eight victories this season, Notre Dame has only six turnovers and generated 10. "One or less [for Notre Dame], in terms of turnovers, that's been a win," Kelly said. "That's got to happen." Fourteen turnovers by Notre Dame this season would rank among the best ever at the program over an 11-game season. The Irish have lost only three fumbles, which is tied for third best in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and the running backs have lost only two. Conversely, in its three defeats the Irish have had eight turnovers while forcing only one. From the outside looking in, a greater problem appears to be the measly 11 turnovers forced by Notre Dame. Only four teams in the country have created fewer, and the current pace would break the unofficial school record of 14 from two years ago. Still, Kelly puts a higher premium on protecting the football than taking it away. "I'd love to get some turnovers, but I don't look at that as, 'We can't win if we don't get a turnover,'" Kelly said. "It's not a marker for us. It doesn't mean we are not going to win if we don't get a turnover." The second is the running game. Last year Notre Dame outrushed Stanford 150-147, a huge victory in itself after netting only 44 and 57 yards on the ground against the Cardinal during 2010 and 2011 losses, respectively. It's not necessarily about duplicating the 235-yard output on the ground last week against BYU, but doing enough to make the third-ranked A New Center Of Attention Last year, Cierre Wood and the Irish outrushed the Cardinal 150-147 in their 20-13 overtime victory — an effort Notre Dame will need to duplicate if it is to beat Stanford on Saturday. photo by bill panzica Cardinal run defense (89.5 yards allowed per game) not be able to tee off on senior quarterback Tommy Rees without having to honor the run. "There's got to be a running game — an effective running game — as part of it," Kelly said. Finally, there was a third common thread in the losses to Michigan, Oklahoma and Pitt. The Wolverines tallied on a 61-yard touchdown pass, and added 41- and 31yard completions as well. Oklahoma scored on a short pass that turned into a 54-yard catch and run, and added another 26-yard score on a pass that traveled about 35 yards in the air. Pitt scored on a 63-yard touchdown off a missed tackle in its 28-21 upset victory. Kelly can live with the eight- to 12-play drives as long as the defense excels in the red zone (like it did last year), and in victories this year against Michigan State, USC and BYU. "What's more concerning is if we give up big-play touchdowns defensively," said Kelly, going back to the theme of how that is more significant than forcing turnovers. Last year Notre Dame scratched out a 20-13 overtime win against the Cardinal in what Kelly called a battle for inches, rather than yards. He expects a similar battle this season — with perhaps the first ✦ Page 11 Notre Dame junior center Nick Martin tore his medial collateral ligament (MCL) late in the first quarter against BYU and won't return this season. He is projected to rehab for about six months and will be shelved during spring drills. Junior Matt Hegarty played the final three quarters against the Cougars and will be the starter in Palo Alto, Calif. Notre Dame already lost senior right guard Christian Lombard to a season-ending injury earlier in the year and have had freshman Steve Elmer and junior Conor Hanratty rotating there. In November 2012, Hegarty suffered a mini-stroke during a practice that necessitated surgery to patch up a couple of holes in his heart. Now a year later, he will be a first-time starting center against one of the more ferocious defenses in the land. Head coach Brian Kelly thought Hegarty acquitted himself well against BYU and attributed the transition to spending two years of football purgatory on the scout team, practicing against star nose guard Louis Nix III and "getting his brains beat in." Getting through that experience while learning how to play center (which he did not play in high school) made Saturday a little easier. "He's been able to take it all, and he's been able to develop through that," Kelly said. "When the wind was 30 miles an hour and there was snow blowing around and we were on the 4-yard line and he was on the shotgun snapping, all of that worked for him.

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