Few teams face the type of late-season challenge that No. 9 Notre Dame must confront this weekend.
To put it simply: How does a team stay desperate after posting a 70-7 victory?
The Fighting Irish (9-2) will try to avoid a follow-up letdown when they travel west to play Stanford (4-7) on Saturday night.
Notre Dame is coming off a massive home win against Syracuse last weekend in which the team posted its highest point total since 1932.
Coach Marcus Freeman said he and his coaching staff track “MAs,” which is short for missed assignments. He acknowledged that the staff counted fewer MAs last week than it had all season.
“But there still were some, all right?” Freeman said.
Yet even Freeman could not pretend that Notre Dame had a ton of mistakes to correct going forward.
“There were some guys that did grade 100%,” he said, “and their challenge is, ‘How can we do that the next Saturday?’ And the only way I know how to do that is to prepare the right way. And if you didn’t get 100% or grade at 100%, let’s go to work and let’s try to attack and find ways to fix it.”
The Cardinal will try to play the spoiler role in their season finale. They face little pressure as they already have been eliminated from bowl contention, and few will expect them to challenge a top-10 opponent.
Yet Stanford is coming off a 31-10 win over Cal, and it will attempt to end the season by registering back-to-back victories for the first time. Prior to beating the Golden Bears, the Cardinal lost by five points on the road against North Carolina.
Stanford interim coach Frank Reich said he and his players were excited for this weekend’s challenge.
“Obviously, this team that we’re playing is very good, so that’s where all our focus needs to be,” Reich said. “And I think as a player, you enjoy playing the legacy programs, the teams that have that kind of reputation, that have earned that reputation.
“It’s an opportunity to put our program, to measure our program, against someone like that and to really be in the spotlight against a very good team.”
The top task for Stanford will be to slow down Notre Dame’s potent 1-2 rushing attack that features Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price. Love has rushed for 1,306 yards and 17 touchdowns this season, and Price has produced 659 yards on the ground and 10 TDs.
Fighting Irish freshman quarterback CJ Carr also has shined, passing for 2,536 yards, 22 touchdowns and six interceptions. He also has tallied three touchdowns on the ground.
On defense, Leonard Moore and Tae Johnson lead the Fighting Irish with four interceptions apiece. Both players have returned one pick for a touchdown.
Stanford quarterback Elijah Brown, who replaced Ben Gulbranson as the starter this month, has completed 56 of 90 passes for 625 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
“Extremely poised, very accurate,” Reich said. “Nothing’s too big for him.”
Micah Ford leads Stanford with 643 rushing yards and four touchdowns. CJ Williams is the top target in the passing game with 58 catches for 735 yards and six scores.
Stanford is 4-1 at home. Notre Dame is 3-1 on the road. The Fighting Irish have won five of the teams’ past six meetings, including the past two.
