Irish-delivered rout clinches ugliest scorecard in 15 years
STANFORD >> Stanford’s loss to No. 5 Notre Dame was a fitting end to an ugly month and the worst season in 15 years.
The Cardinal finished 3-9, their worst record since going 1-11 in 2006 under Walt Harris, and lost its last seven games after upsetting Oregon. The last four losses, culminating with Saturday’s 45-14 drubbing by the Fighting Irish: were: 52-7 to Utah, 35-14 to Oregon State, and 44-11 against Cal.
Composite score: 176-46. The lack of competitiveness in November appears to signal serious issues for a program that was a Pac12 title contender for a decade but is now 11-19 in its last three seasons.
“Too many mistakes, too many errors,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “That’s going to be our focus going into next year.”
Here are three reasons for Stanford’s regression, and whether there is hope that the results will be any different in 2022: SCHEDULE >> Stanford was the first team since USC in 2011 to play 12 opponents from the Power Five conferences. It was especially unlucky in its crossovers with the Pac-12 South — it had to face Utah and Arizona
State (combined record: 17-7) instead of Arizona and Colorado (combined record: 5-19).
The schedule won’t necessarily get easier next year, however. The Cardinal plays Utah and Arizona State instead of Arizona and Colorado again, and in 2022 they will have five of their nine conference games on the road after playing five of nine at home in 2021.
The nonconference schedule may not be easier, either. While this year’s team played at Vanderbilt,
at a neutral site against Kansas State, and home against Notre Dame, next year’s team hosts BYU and travels to Notre Dame. It does host an FCS team, Colgate, to begin the season, which should at least get Stanford off to a good start. INJURIES >> Injuries are part of the game, but Stanford seemed to be hit particularly hard this season. Safety Jonathan McGill, who was the unofficial MVP of the spring, came back for only the final two games (and intercepted a pass in both contests) as the secondary started 10 different players. But the biggest issues were on offense.
QB Tanner McKee missed two games and played his two worst games after returning, and Stanford lost two of its three top running backs, all four top receivers, and two of its three top tight ends to injury at different times. Thus, the offense was held to 14 points or fewer in six of its last seven games.
IN THE TRENCHES >> The Cardinal likely will finish in the bottom five out of 130 FBS teams in both rushing offense and rushing defense.
The defense changed its base alignment from a 3-4 to a 4-3 late in the season and performed slightly better, but five of the six defensive linemen on the twodeep against Notre Dame were seniors or graduate students. On offense, the entire line and all four scholarship running backs are eligible to return, but they have a lot to work on.
“There are some things here that we’ve done extremely well in the past that we need to do better,” Shaw said. “Some things we (have) to tweak and change. So we’re not going to be stagnant and rest on the things we did in the past. We’re going to get back to work.”