Sputtering Stanford sets its sights on No. 5 Irish
Cardinal has lost six straight games
Stanford won’t be playing in a bowl game this season. Instead, the Cardinal is ending its season with the next best thing— a prime-time, nationally televised game against No. 5 Notre Dame.
Or at least that’s how junior tackle Walter Rouse is viewing it.
“There’s nothing after this game. This is everything for us,” Rouse said. “We’re not scared, we’re not going to back down. We’re very excited to play them.”
Still, the team isn’t naïve about the challenge. Stanford coach David Shaw said that Notre Dame (10-1) is “no question” the toughest team the Cardinal (3-8) will face this season.
“It’s going to take our best effort of the year to give ourselves a chance,” Shaw said of Saturday’s game at Stanford Stadium (5 p.m., Fox)
Notre Dame is coming off a 55-0 win over Georgia Tech, its third straight game without allowing a touchdown. The defense under firstyear coordinator Marcus Freeman has been extremely disruptive, ranking fourth in the NCAA in sacks (38) and fifth in interceptions (15).
Stanford did beat a top-5 team this year when it beat then-No. 3 Oregon in early October. But the Cardinal has lost all six games since then—its longest losing streak since 2006, the year before Jim Harbaugh arrived.
November has been particularly rough. Stanford has been outscored 128-32 in three games this month, including last week’s 41-11 loss to Cal, Stanford’s biggest Big Game loss in 17 years, and a 52-7 home loss to Utah, its biggest loss overall since 2003. But Shaw thinks the program is capable of a turnaround.
“It’s not about we have the wrong players, not about we have the wrong coaches,” Shaw said. “People can say whatever they want to say. That’s fine—our record has earned criticism and I’ll never shy away from it. But at the same time, I’m comfortable saying you want to take your shots at us and take your shots at me, take them now. I think we’ve got some special guys here. I think you’re going to see a lot of what you saw early in the season in the near future for these guys.”
With the return of quarterback Tanner McKee last week, the Cardinal are the healthiest they’ve been all season. But it didn’t help the Cardinal improve against Cal in its biggest deficiencies — a rush defense that ranks 127th out of 130 FBS teams, and a rush offense that ranks 126th. The Cardinal was outgained 352-43 on the ground by Cal, which put up a Big Game-record 636 yards of offense.
But Shaw said he won’t need to make any rah-rah speeches to motivate the team this week. Saturday will be Senior Day, and 27 Cardinal players (including up to 10 starters on defense) are expected to participate in the pregame festivities. Shaw said those seniors will want to go out on top, and the underclassmen will do everything they can to make that happen as well.
“Hopefully the Golden Domers bring out the best in our football team,” Shaw said. “And for the first time in over a month, we can see the best of Stanford football.”