Freshman Costello thrives — 4 TD passes
On a night when everything went right for Stanford, redshirt freshman quarterback K.J. Costello came of age.
He has been fine in most of his previous four starts, but with the national spotlight on him, he threw four touchdown passes for the No. 20 Cardinal to turn a close game with No. 9 Notre Dame into a 38-20 thumping Saturday night.
It’s not easy for a football team to win twice on the same night, but the Cardinal pulled it off. On the final day of the regular season, they not only played what head coach David Shaw said “might have been our best game of the year” but won the Pac-12 North title when Washington routed Washington State 41-14.
“For our players to go from 1-2 to win eight out of nine and get back to the Pac-12 championship game says a lot about who they are,” Shaw said.
Bryce Love, who said he didn’t know what happened in the Washington game until after his game was over, rushed for 125 yards on 20 carries. “I really had no idea until ESPN told me after the game,” he said.
He said his ankle felt “better as the game went on” and was sounder than in any game since he hurt it six weeks ago.
The Cardinal scored three touchdowns in a span of 3½ minutes in the fourth quarter.
Their next game will come just six days later and about 17 miles from campus. They’ll play South Division champion USC in the conference title game Friday night at Levi’s Stadium.
The Cardinal (9-3) won their fourth straight home game in
the series with the Irish. The Irish (9-3) have lost nine straight road games to top-20 teams.
Costello threw his third touchdown pass, a 19-yard strike to tight end Kaden Smith, early in the fourth quarter, putting Stanford ahead 24-20.
Just 1:25 later, following Curtis Robinson’s interception, Costello got No. 4, a 12-yard lob to tight end Dalton Schultz for a 31-20 lead. Costello released the pass just before he was hit hard by Andrew Trumbetti.
Notre Dame’s C.J. Sanders fumbled on the ensuing kickoff as he was hit by Jordan Fox, and Malik Antoine recovered at the Irish 18. Cameron Scarlett gave Stanford a 38-20 lead with a 3-yard run four plays later.
“It was going to go down to the last possession if we didn’t hand them two touchdowns,” Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said.
Costello completed 14 of 22 passes for 176 yards without an interception.
“At the end of the day, this was for the seniors,” he said. “Being able to play for guys that have put four or five years of their lives into this program, it means a lot for me to serve them.”
Shaw said, “We put a lot on his shoulders this game. Ninety percent of the plays we ran tonight were on his shoulders. We called three plays (for each snap) in the huddle. He had to pick the right play at the line of scrimmage.”
Overall, the Cardinal did a good job containing Irish quarterback Brandon Wimbush. His receivers turned two short passes into long touchdowns. He rushed for 61 yards on 17 carries and completed 11 of 28 passes for 249 yards, and two of his passes were intercepted in the fourth quarter, by Frank Buncom and Robinson.
The Irish took a 7-0 lead in spectacular fashion: an 83yard pass from Wimbush to wide receiver Kevin Stepherson, Notre Dame’s longest pass play in seven years. Equanimeous St. Brown later went 75 yards on another pass play.
Trent Irwin tied the score 7-7 in short order with a leaping touchdown catch of a 29yard pass from Costello. Costello connected with JJ ArcegaWhiteside on a 4-yard touchdown pass to take a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter.