CFB: Notre Dame Fighting Irish Week 14 Preview
By Stiofán Mac Fhilib
Off the back of a truly remarkable 70-7 demolition of Syracuse on Senior Day, Notre Dame makes their annual regular-season-ending trip out to the Pacific Coast. To face Atlantic Coast Conference foe and rival, Stanford. The Irish are one more win away from winning their final ten regular-season games for a second consecutive year. Do that, and they will be well-placed for the final playoff ranking debate.
Looking Back at Last Week
In my 25 years following Notre Dame football, I’ve never witnessed anything close to the first quarter against Syracuse at Notre Dame Stadium. And those who have been fans for twice as long, or more, would say the same thing.
Over eight minutes of playing time had elapsed before the Irish offense first took the field. And not because of an impressive opening drive by the Orange. Former Lacrosse player and walk-on Syracuse QB, Joe Filardi, threw a pair of pick-sixes to Jalen Stroman and Leonard Moore, with a short Luke Talich punt return TD off a partially blocked punt sandwiched in between for good measure. It would be the second consecutive game where the ND first team defense outscored the opponent’s first team offense.
When CJ Carr finally did get onto the field for Notre Dame, it took precisely two plays for Jeremiyah Love to run into the end zone from 45 yards out. The next Irish drive lasted 50% longer. On the third play, Jadarian Price’s 58-yard TD run made it 35-0 with just eleven minutes played. A short Carr pass to Will Pauling made it 42-0 on the first play of the second quarter, and Love’s second TD run gave ND a 49-0 halftime advantage.
On the third play of the second half, Love ran for 68 yards and his third and final TD, on what may well turn out to be his final play at The House That Rockne Built. If so, what an exit! 8 carries, 171 yards and 3 TDs. An invite to the Heisman Trophy Award in December seems inevitable, and who knows how the next two weeks will impact the voting.
Marcus Freeman then pulled the starters and watched the backup offense run another pair of TDs in. Finally, Syracuse, who had amassed just 132 yards on 68 plays in the first 54 minutes, ended the game with a TD inside the final ten seconds. To their credit, unlike a desperate Pitt coach a week earlier, they didn’t call a timeout just before it, though.
The final snap was a Notre Dame kneel-down with Tyler Buchner under centre. Not many people can say they won a Lacrosse national championship with the Irish AND started a game at QB for Nick Saban’s Alabama, before graduating with a diploma from the University of Notre Dame.
The Irish defense had themselves a day: three interceptions, two for TDs, five sacks and 15 Tackles For Loss. The only downside, however, was not insignificant. ND’s best linebacker, Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, left the game with a non-contact ACL injury that will keep him out until next year. The Irish LB room is excellent this year, and talented true freshman Madden Faraimo (1 sack, 2 TFL against Syracuse) will see more playing time, but losing KVA is a blow that ND will feel should they make the playoffs.
Statistically, this was one of the more anomalous games I’ve ever witnessed. CJ Carr threw only nine times for just 49 yards, and the Irish put up 70 points. Notre Dame had more points than total passing yards (67). They ran just 39 plays and lost the time of possession battle 42 minutes to 18. Their four top rushers averaged 21.4, 17.5, 29.5 and 13 yards per carry, respectively, with a team average of 13.7 ypc. If nothing else, they ought to be relatively well-rested before flying west this week.
The Week Ahead
Stanford Cardinal (Stanford Stadium); 10.30pm EST; 3.30am GMT
Notre Dame leads Stanford 24-14 all-time in a series which began with a 27-10 win over the Cardinal in the 1927 Rose Bowl. All but four of the 38 games to date have been played in the last 40 years, as the Irish established Stanford as their Thanksgiving week destination in odd-numbered years.
The Cardinal’s purple patch mainly came under Brian Kelly’s watch. Between 2009 and 2017, they went 7-2 but have only won once since. ND has scored 45, 45 and 56 points on their last three visits to Palo Alto and will fancy their chances to get close to those numbers again this week.
Under interim HC, Frank Reich, 4-7 Stanford are 4-1 at home this season, and are coming off the high of winning The Big Game 31-10 over Cal. That was a game that summed up Stanford’s strengths or lack thereof. They punted four times, missed two FGs and were outgained by Cal. But they returned two of Cal’s three fumbles for TDs and converted the third into a 20-yard TD drive. They also stopped the Golden Bears on a pair of fourth-quarter fourth downs.
With their underwhelming offense they will likely struggle to trouble the scoreboard operator against the Irish. Their OL is young, and redshirt freshman QB Elijah Brown has thrown fewer than 150 times in his career. This may be another game where we see the opponent’s backup QB take the field. In which case, Ben Gulbranson would face the Irish for a second time, having lost the 2023 Sun Bowl 40-8 with the Oregon State Beavers.
Given the recruiting battles that play out each season between the two schools for high school athletes seeking a quality education, it’s perhaps not surprising that Stanford has several players who were not only recruited by ND but were also once committed to sign with the Irish. WR, CJ Williams, swapped his Notre Dame commitment for USC, then spent two seasons at Wisconsin before heading back home to California. And RB Sedrick Irvin was also once an Irish commit before signing with the Cardinal. Coincidentally, his younger brother, LB Amarri, committed to Notre Dame earlier this week.
The Cardinal defense lost its best player, Edge, David Bailey, to Texas Tech’s large NIL deal, but they have improved from poor last season to the dizzy heights of average. They are better against the run and will presumably stack the box early against the Irish. When they tried that last year, Riley Leonard made them pay through the air. This season, ND has a better passing QB and superior receivers. Expect Carr to make up for his lack of action against Syracuse.
Their kicking game isn’t anything to write home about, though, until Irish fans see their own team successfully make a field goal again, they can have little to boast about. I would be surprised if ND doesn’t attempt at least one FG from a decent distance, ahead of the postseason. The Cardinal are also below average on kick coverage, which ought to have Marty Biagi’s ears pricking up, and Price and Faison looking forward to seeing what they can do on Saturday evening.
Game Prediction
NOTRE DAME 45-6 STANFORD
Love will get his 100 yards and obligatory TD, but CJ Carr will get plenty of throwing practice before the Irish rest their starters in the fourth quarter.
Where to Watch
DAZN (coverage starts at 3.30am GMT)
ESPN (in the USA)
Playoff Picture
Last week, all 14 top-ranked teams won, including key victories for Oregon and Oklahoma. Pitt also had an eventful victory at Georgia Tech, which kept their ACC title hopes alive and gave them fresh impetus ahead of Miami’s visit to a freezing Steel City this week.
Most of the other games Notre Dame will be most keenly interested in this weekend will be rivalry matchups. Upsets for Mississippi State, Washington and Auburn would all be gratefully received by ND fans, as would an LSU win at Oklahoma. And Texas A&M going into Austin and winning would help the Irish as well.
With two losses and the potential for Texas Tech to lose the Big 12 championship game, letting a second team from that conference in, and Alabama having a path to jump Notre Dame by winning its next two games, ND’s playoff participation is not certain at all. All the Irish can do is try to beat Stanford as heavily as possible and see where the dice fall.
STIOFÁN MAC FHILIB
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A VERY LONG-DISTANCE SUBWAY ALUMNUS OF NOTRE DAME, COUNTY ANTRIM-BASED STIOFÁN HAS BEEN A FAN OF THE FIGHTING IRISH SINCE 2000. FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER @SMACFHILIB.