Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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STANFORD GAME NOTES A SLOPPY START ND A SLOPPY FIELD Notre Dame's troubles against Stanford started on its first offensive snap of the game. The Irish were flagged for back-to-back false start penalties before they even ran a play, which led to an ugly three-and-out series to start the game. "We definitely started off too slow," Irish captain and fifth-year senior safety Harrison Smith said. "We ended up coming around, but you can't beat good teams like Stanford if you start out too slow." Sophomore quarterback Tommy Rees was drilled on the next play and narrowly avoided an intercep- tion. The hit knocked Rees out of the game temporarily and his replace- ment, sophomore Andrew Hendrix, also nearly threw an interception two plays later. Penalties were among the primary culprits in a poor start for the Irish. Notre Dame finished the game with 10 infractions. Four of them came in the first quarter. Irish senior center Mike Golic Jr. was flagged twice for jumping the gun because he was lift- ing his head quickly before snapping the ball. "There was an issue with bobbing the head and the snap," junior tight end Tyler Eifert said. "But those false starts, I don't know what was going on. We need to clean up the penalties. Penalties really killed us." Notre Dame started with a similar pace in its previous marquee chal- lenge in a home game against South- ern California. Following that game, coaches and players said there may have been too much hype and pres- Sophomore quarterback Tommy Rees was shaken up on his first pass attempt of the game and struggled thereafter before getting replaced late in the first half by classmate Andrew Hendrix. PHOTO BY AARON SUOZZI sure leading up to kickoff. Against Stanford, the staff made it a priority to keep the players from getting over- excited before the game. The players said that too much self-induced pres- sure wasn't the problem this time around, just a confluence of mental MISCELLANEOUS NOTES • The Cardinal halted Notre Dame's six-game win streak in the month of November under head coach Brian Kelly dating back to last season. Before Kelly arrived, the Irish had lost eight of their last nine contests in November. • Notre Dame is 40-38-10 (.511) all time in regular-season finales on the road. At Stanford Stadium to wrap up the year, the Irish are 2-3. The only head coach at Notre Dame to finish undefeated on the road in the final game was Jesse Harper (1913-17). The only two head coaches in school history to go without a season-ending road victory were Hugh Devore, who went 0-2 to cap the 1945 and '63 seasons, and Tyrone Willingham, who was 0-3 from 2002-04. • Prior to facing Notre Dame, Stanford's offense had gone three-and-out just 10 times in 11 games. The Irish defense forced one three-and-out on top of stopping the Cardinal from getting a first down on two other posses- sions. Stanford failed to gain a first down on a third-quarter drive because of a holding penalty, and also missed a field goal on the fourth play of an early fourth-quarter possession. 26 DECEMBER 2011 • The Irish defense allowed Stanford just five first downs, 29 rushing yards and 50 passing yards in the opening 15 minutes. However, in the second quarter a potent Cardinal offense heated up, registering 12 first downs, 103 rushing yards and 105 passing yards. • Junior middle linebacker Manti Te'o had a game-high eight tackles, in- cluding half a stop for a loss. The Hawaiian now boasts 307 career tackles and became just the 10th Irish player to eclipse 300. Fifth-year senior safety Harrison Smith became the 11th and now has 303. • Sophomore quarterback Andrew Hendrix claimed his first career touch- down pass when he hit senior receiver Michael Floyd for a six-yard score with 6:21 left to play in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 14 points (21-7). • Fifth-year senior offensive tackle Taylor Dever served as a game captain along with permanent captain Smith. Dever grew up in Nevada City, Calif. • Freshman defensive end Stephon Tuitt missed his second straight game while recovering from an illness that has been reported to be mononucleosis. BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED mistakes and miscommunication. Notre Dame played a much cleaner game in the second half, but the Stanford Stadium turf took over the sloppy title. The Irish players lost their footing several times during the game, including on some plays when BY DAN MURPHY AND WES MORGAN