Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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GAME PREVIEW: STANFORD Fitzgerald said. "The bigger problem with the wide receivers is not getting the separation. They don't have a lot of depth. Terrell disappeared against Washington. He's a terrific blocker and a tremendous punt return guy, but he just doesn't seem to get separation. As a result, they wind up going back to the tight ends, which is what they did all last year." In 2011, the tight end trio of Coby At outside linebacker, Chase Thomas (6-4, 248) made a surprising decision to return for his final year of eligibility after piquing the NFL's interest with 52 tackles and a Pac-12-best 1.35 tack- les for loss per game. "We didn't know that Skov would Fleener — who was selected in the second round of this year's NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts, joining top pick Luck — and Zach Ertz and Levine Toilolo accounted for 53 percent of Stanford's 38 passing touchdowns and 37 percent (1,356 yards) of the team's total output through the air. This fall, Ertz (6-6, 252) and Toilolo (6-8, 265) have teamed up for 389 yards and two touchdowns. Helping make Nunes' life easier is senior running back Stepfan Taylor, who is averaging more than 100 yards per game and has three rushing touch- downs to go with his 14 catches for 89 yards and a score. He's on track for his third consecutive 1,000-yard season. The Cardinal defense ranks second be able to come back from his injury, and we didn't know that Thomas would come back for another year," Fitzgerald explained. "But they have some other really good players. Their secondary has really come along, es- pecially with safeties Ed Reynolds and Jordan Richards. The secondary has played pretty well. They played great against USC, but not so well for a cou- ple of plays in the Washington game." Special teams continues to be an inconsistent unit, with placekicker Jordan Williamson, who missed three crucial field goals in last year's Fiesta Bowl loss in overtime to Oklahoma State, connecting on 7 of 11 attempts thus far in 2012. ✦ Date in the conference and 21st nationally in scoring, allowing just 15.2 points per game. It's also the league's top rushing defense and ranks third in the country (65.0 yards allowed per game). Senior inside linebacker Shayne Sept. 1 vs. Navy* (CBS) Sept. 8 Purdue (NBC) Skov missed nearly all of 2011 with a severe knee injury. As a sophomore in 2010, he finished as the team's top tackler with 84 stops, including 7.5 sacks and 10.5 total tackles for loss. Nov. 10 at Boston College (TBD) Nov. 17 Wake Forest (NBC) Nov. 24 at USC (TBD) Oct. 20 Brigham Young (NBC) Oct. 27 at Oklahoma (TBD) Nov. 3 Pittsburgh (NBC) Oct. 13 Stanford (NBC) Sept. 15 at Michigan State (ABC) W, 20-3 Sept. 22 Michigan (NBC) Oct. 6 2012 NOTRE DAME SCHEDULE Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) W, 50-10 W, 20-17 vs. Miami^ (NBC) 3:30 p.m. 3:30 p.m. TBD 3:30 p.m. TBD 3:30 p.m. TBD * at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland; ^ at Soldier Field in Chicago W, 13-6 W, 41-3