Titans clash on Senior Day as Stanford hosts No. 4 Notre Dame

The series between Stanford and Notre Dame might not have the tradition or the hatred seen in most of the other games played on Rivalry Weekend, but make no mistake: What it lacks in hate is more than made up for in quality.

Saturday’s regular-season finale between No. 13 Stanford (9-2, 8-1 Pac-12) and No. 4 Notre Dame (10-1) will mark the fifth consecutive time both teams will be ranked going into their meeting, and on what is sure to be an emotional Senior Day at Stanford Stadium and in a matchup with College Football Playoff implications, don’t expect the string of tight games to be snapped on Saturday.

“They’re a really good team,” said fifth-year senior linebacker Kevin Anderson. “We’ve definitely got a challenge this week, but as far as rankings and standings, we don’t really look into that.”

That said, it’s impossible to ignore the dichotomy in the stakes for the two teams this week: Stanford is essentially playing with nothing to lose this week, with the Pac-12 North already on lock and fringe hopes at best for the Playoff, while Notre Dame is playing with everything to lose, as Saturday will practically serve as a play-in game for the final four.

With that said, don’t expect head coach David Shaw to be looking for a “statement win” to impress the Playoff committee or whatever on Saturday — he’s got more pressing matters to attend to. He’s very vocally made his distaste for Playoff talk known all season, and even with the implications this weekend, his response this week was no different.

“Instead of wasting my time and effort on trying to guess what might happen, I’d rather just play our games and see what happens,” Shaw said.

He’ll instead look to dedicate that time and effort to one of the most talented teams Stanford will have faced all season. Despite a rash of injuries to several key players, the Irish’s immense recruiting draw has meant that they have filled in adequately at all of those positions and have still won 10 games despite having 14 players listed on the injury report.

“There’s a whole lot of them. They’ve done a good job of recruiting,” Shaw said. “Very well-coached. All very aggressive and physical and they got after us last year.”

Although the Irish lost starting quarterback Malik Zaire a few weeks into the season, sophomore DeShone Kizer has quickly become a dynamic dual-threat replacement at the position. He’s accounted for 2,362 passing yards and 371 rushing yards this season and a combined 26 touchdowns, and despite the Irish’s recent struggles with turnovers and in the red zone, Kizer represents one of the most talented quarterbacks the Cardinal will have faced all season.

In order to combat the Irish’s attack, Stanford’s defense has been focusing especially hard on forcing turnovers this week while in practice. The Cardinal currently sit at 10th in the Pac-12 with a -2 turnover margin.

“We haven’t been doing a great job getting takeaways, so there’s definitely an emphasis on that this week,” Anderson said.

Given that Stanford could potentially be without its top two cornerbacks (Ronnie Harris and Alijah Holder) on Saturday, Stanford could probably use some turnover help, especially with dynamic receiver Will Fuller leading the charge for the Irish.

Fuller is currently averaging over 20 yards per reception and has accounted for 1,009 yards and 12 touchdowns on the season and will be looking to take advantage of a battered Stanford secondary that gave up a season-high 397 yards against Cal last Saturday.

The Irish also have two more dynamic receiving threats in seniors Chris Brown and Amir Carlisle, meaning that Stanford’s young secondary has a tall task ahead of it.

That’s not to say that it’ll be easy for the front seven, either: Although star running back C.J. Prosise will likely miss the game due to injury for Notre Dame, the Cardinal are taking the challenge of having to meet Notre Dame’s talented offensive line and freshman running back Josh Adams very seriously.

“Their O-line is probably the most physical and probably the best group that we’ve gone against,” Anderson said. “They’ve got some really good athletes as well.”

Because of Notre Dame’s big-play potential, Stanford’s offense will need to have a big day against the talented Irish defense, which limited the powerful Clemson and Navy offenses to 24 points apiece.

Fifth-year senior quarterback Kevin Hogan will have a more favorable matchup in his last home game with top Notre Dame cornerback KeiVarae Russell set to miss the game due to injury, which will also deprive the Irish of their second-leading tackler.

However, the more important matchup will likely be that of Notre Dame’s front seven against Christian McCaffrey and the Stanford offensive line, and the presence of linebackers Jaylon Smith and Joe Schmidt could prove the biggest obstacle yet in McCaffrey’s quest for the Heisman Trophy.

“If you like football, you watch film and you gain appreciation for a guy like this that really can do it all,” said Shaw about Smith. “There are a lot of guys that are fast and quick but not tough and not physical. The guys that are tough and physical and fast and explosive, you get a lot of respect for them.”

“Extremely fast and physical,” McCaffrey added. “They don’t put themselves in situations to fail. They put themselves in situations to succeed. Guys play their gaps right, and it’s definitely going to be a huge challenge.”

After McCaffrey’s school-record 389-yard performance against Cal on Saturday, he only needs 444 more all-purpose yards to break Barry Sanders’ all-time NCAA record of 3,250 yards and only 326 more rushing yards to break Toby Gerhart’s Stanford record for rushing yards in a season.

Another big day from McCaffrey will likely be a huge key for Stanford to win, especially because a slow day from the sophomore will mean that Stanford won’t be able to establish its running game as it likes to and will thus be out of its comfort zone.

But given the stakes — not just in terms of Playoff and rivalry value, but also with the emotions of Senior Day — look for Hogan, in his home swan song, to rebound from two rough career outings against the Irish (1 touchdown, 4 interceptions) to find a way to push the Cardinal to victory against an injured Irish secondary, with or without McCaffrey, as his storied Stanford career finally begins to draw to a close.

“It’s definitely a bittersweet moment because [Hogan is] someone that you want on your side forever,” McCaffrey said. “He’s such an unbelievable leader, an unbelievable person on and off the field, and the legacy that he’s left here is right up there with all the greats.”

Stanford will look to use the strong emotions from Senior Day and a Heisman moment or two from McCaffrey to push past Notre Dame at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on FOX.
Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dhpark ‘at’ stanford.edu.