At the beginning of the year this game was marked down as one of the possible losses, Stanford under Shaw has been a tough out for the Irish. We have beaten them in South Bend, did so last year when at the time they were ranked. But we have not beaten them in Palo Alto under Brian Kelly. We've had some frustrating close losses, but no wins. Now this year, Stanford is having it's worst season in a long time, you'd have to go back to the Buddy Teevens or Walt Harris years or the 1s 2 years that Harbaugh was there to find a season as bad as they are having this year. I doubt if Shaw, who most consider a top notch coach, has forgotten how to coach and build a team. So it has to be injuries and maybe a few players who haven't panned out as expected. So bottom line is the Irish are going to be the favorite, and if we show up ready to play we should win. It'd be nice to have a win like we did against Navy and BC, but as bad a year as Stanford is having in the win/loss column they have some good wins, including wins over Washington, Oregon State, Northwestern and Arizona. Now none of those teams are currently ranked so but they are wins. So I don't expect to blow these guys out, it would be nice though! They have currently on a 3 game losing streak and even beating Notre Dame won't get them to a bowl so it's their last game for 2019. I"ve read that Shaw has changed his offensive philosophy from a run first physical offense and gone more to the Spread. Maybe that's why along with injuries why they have struggled so much this year. A win here puts us at 10-2, it won't get us into a New Years 6 bowl...unless some crazy things happen to the teams in front of us. Under the old bowl system, we'd be in a New Years Six bowl most likely, but those were the days when bowl committees roamed the country wining and dining the teams they were interested in and TV ratings and matchups prevailed. Today it's all pretty much predetermined by the contracts bowls have made with the conferences. I will say that while I respect and admire the job that Shaw has done at Stanford, under the toughest recruiting restrictions in all of college football...I don't really like him! I like when the Irish beat them like we did last year.
So much so that even if this team finishes 11-2, there are a lot of ND fans who think the season sucked and there are hot discussions on why they hope Kelly will leave for FSU, NFL, USC, etc.
Adding to what George said, henceforth, the first question in my mind when looking forward to a game, no matter the opponent, is and will be, can Kelly have this team ready to play, unlike the 2019 Michigan game?
That's a fair question Sid, one that will dog Kelly until he has his team ready to play against a significant opponent. Ara and Lou were at their best in big games, and as a result there were plenty of big game wins in their time on the sideline, they didn't win them all of course, but enough that you had confidence that they were going to win. FWIW one of the most disappointing losses was an early 90's loss that Lou had at home against a Bill Walsh coached Stanford team. Right now the feeling is that Kelly doesn't know how to prepare a team to win a big game.
Kelly said in his Press Conf today that true freshman Isiah Foskey is going to get play vs Stanford. They saved that last game so he could play against Stanford. He's played in 3 games this year so playing against Stanford eliminates him from playing in the bowl game unless they want to burn his RS.
First of all we need to get this monkey off our back of not being able to beat them in their stadium. It’s just unbelievable some of the wins they pulled off over us there. It’s definitely not for crowd noise, size or intensity because they never have any of those. Secondly we need to beat them for recruiting sake. They have stolen too many of our recruits over the last few years when their chioce came down to ND or Stanford. A lot of those were really good players too. Thirdly because of that stupid excuse of a band they have. Why that University continues to let that go on is beyond me. Maybe it takes brains to get into that school but I guess just because you’re intelligent it doesn’t stop you from behaving like an absolute idiot. Fourth is because we need to get to 10 wins again. We may have **** the bed in Ann Arbour but we are still a top program year in and out. Fifth is because it may get us a better bowl game. Sixth is because I enjoy beating them and I don’t like Shaw. if I come up with any more I’ll edit my post but that’s a good start.
Not to get all "Dave" on you, but we have been flat out cheated at Stanford in the past. Not every year, but a few times, we've had some criminal calls go against us... or at least not in our favor. Hell, one of the highlight reel catches that ESPN still shows to this date is the Golden Tate at Stanford catch that was called incomplete... but I digress. These dudes are shitty. We should beat them in a walk. I agree with Sid, I think it all comes down to Kelly having the boys ready to answer the bell. The only way or time I worry about this game is if it is close.. because as we've seen in the past, they will steal it from us.
The only Rose Bowl victory for the Irish was vs the Stanford Indians in 1925. But there is a lot of history between these 2 programs. A poster named olson on NDNation put this together. 1963 The prospects seem splendid that for the remainder of the season (Notre Dame) will not be pushed around by anybody." The above is a quote from a 'Sports Illustrated' article on Notre Dame published before the 2-2 Irish of 1963 met Stanford at Stanford.....that article linked below. In hindsight it is hard to believe that for all the many & almost predictable 'Notre Dame is back' type articles over the years; that one was written during the dark days that were the 1963 ND football season.... But, at the time, the 2-2 Irish under 'Interim' Head Coach Hugh Devore were rolling...well sorta... ND was traveling to California to play Stanford with a 2 game winning streak-having upset defending National Champ Southern Cal 17-14 & beaten UCLA 27-12...both games at ND. Yes, the Irish had lost the first 2 games of the season -but "bravely" as SI put it. In the opener, the ND defense was excellent, but Big Ten Champ Wisconsin scored the winning td with 1:07 left in the game....ND had played the game without their projected starting QB Frank Budka-still recovering from a broken leg in the '62 finale vs Southern Cal...Dennis Szot started at QB & was replaced during the contest by John Huarte...both 'equally unimpressive' per the ND Scholastic. Final Wisconsin 14 ND 9 -------------- Then in game two, the Irish lost a heart-breaker to Purdue 7-6.....once again the Irish defense, led by DE Jim Snowden, DT Dick Arrington, Rover Bill Pfeiffer & DB Tom McDonald was excellent...Budka was still out, so Sandy Bonvechio started at QB-replaced by John Huarte when Sandy was injured in the 2nd Q.....ND scored first, on a 2nd Q John Huarte to Jim Kelly 15 yd td pass-but Huarte hurt his ankle on the play & was unable to kick the XP- albeit still on the field. So Huarte decided to attempt a pass for two...Huarte's attempt sailed over the head of HB Tom McDonald....ND 6 Purdue 0 It stayed that way until the 4th Q, when Purdue finally scored (on a 4th & goal from the 7) & kicked the XP..7-6.... But the Irish tried to fight back.... the most heralded ND recruit since Bronco Nagurski Jr in '55- HB Ronnie Bliey from Brooklyn-now a junior, led the Irish downfield...Bliey gained 15,11, 13 & then 5 yds on carries to get the ball to the Purdue 10....but an Irish FG try was blocked...still the Irish came back one last time as the game was winding down....ND had the ball on the Purdue 44 with 17 seconds left...Huarte hit 'flankerback' Jack Snow for 11...then completed another pass for 9 more...4 seconds left, Huarte launched a pass toward Snow at the Purdue 5, but a Boilermaker DB batted the ball away as time expired. Final Purdue 7 ND 6 Both the ND Scholastic & ND Voice- school newspaper (before the days of the Observer) chose to celebrate the great play of Bliey in the headlines to their game stories: ND Scholastic: " Bliey brightens 7-6 loss'... Voice: "Bye Bye Bliey" ----------------------------------------------- Next came the upset over defending Champ Southern Cal. The Irish got QB Frank Budka back for this game...Budka led the Irish to victory -helped along by a 62 yd 'pick 6' int from ND DB Tom McDonald...Budka ran for 84 yds himself...USC Coach McKay admitted Trojans weren't prepared for a running QB. Soph. Ken Ivan (the former Ohio HS Linemen of the Year & the most heralded recruit in the class after Bliey) replaced the injured Huarte as kicker and made the game winning kick for the stunning upset. Final ND 17 Southern Cal 14 -------------------------------------- UCLA was next. Irish QB Budka threw for 2 tds and ran for another....Coach Devore used 44 players-a lot in those limited substitution rules days of College Football(which ended after this season). Budka, Szot, Huarte and Soph Bill Zloch all played QB in the game. Sadly, it this game, it bacame apparent why Bliey wasn't going to star for the Irish...Single Platoon/limited substitution rules required Bliey to also play defense in addition to his HB duties...on one play UCLA QB Zeno hit his Te with a short pass to the 40-where he was met by DB Bliey...20 yards later, Bliey was still holding one, when 2 ND defenders caught up with the play and knocked the UCLA TE over-Bliey credited with an assist on the tackle...one of 3 tackles Bliey was credited with on the season....it seemed that the heralded Bliey was twice as likely to give up a td on defense as score one himself on offense... Ronnie didn't play much the rest of the way & flunked out of school after the season. Final. ND 27 UCLA 12 --------------------------------------- The Irish were now 2-2 & as mentioned above, Sports Illustrated published the linked article. The upcoming Stanford game would be the 3rd time that Notre Dame had played Indians...the first time ever at Stanford. The first meeting between the two schools had been the famous 1925 Rose Bowl...where the famed Four Horsemen of Knute Rockne beat Stanford 27-10 to win the 1924 National Championship. The Four Horsemen were invited to the game at Stanford in '63 -all attended and were introduced to the crowd in a pregame ceremony. There also was a game in 1942- a Stanford team (coached by former ND AA Marchmont Schwartz) traveled to South Bend to play the Irish. ND won easily 27-0 behind the passing of QB Angelo Bertelli -who completed 6 of his first 7 passes and at one point 9 straight...ND 27 Stanford 0.....the Irish were using the new fangled 'T' formation that Leahy had installed just that 1942 season. In a much later interview, a Stanford player from that afternoon in '42 remembered the contest much different than what actually happened...he claimed that Stanford Coach Marchy Schwartz had to be restrained on the sidelines from confronting ND coach Leahy for the 'aggressive' play of his Irish lads....AND that later Stanford canceled the scheduled return match in California in protest... FAKE NEWS I know for a fact that Schwartz was not restrained from going after Leahy....because...Leahy wasn't there...he was at the Mayo Clinic with health issues and missed the game! And as to the cancellation of the return contest in California.... that game was eliminated by he travel restrictions imposed during WWII..the same reason that 3 straight Southern Cal games were cancelled during those war years. --------------------------------------- By 1963, Chuck Taylor was the AD at Stanford. He had played for Schwartz at Stanford in that '42 game and later was an assistant for Kuharich on the 1950 U of San Francisco team....then as head coach at Stanford in '52 Taylor had hired an assistant named Joe Ruetz. Ruetz, a former ND player, was a classmate of Kuharich-and both were from South Bend- Kuharich from Riley HS and Ruetz from Central.. both were members of the 1934 ND Frosh squad-coached by Hugh Devore! By '63, Ruetz was a fund raiser for Stanford and later replaced Taylor as AD...both were involved in helping to set up the contest between ND & Stanford..though a the time both had thought there mutual old pal Kuharich would be the Irish coach (but Joe had resigned a 7 months before the game). The game. With the nice pregame ceremony with the Four Horsemen out of the way... ND QB Budka had a good first half...scoring once himself & throwing a td pass to End Dave Pivec....ND led 14-10 at halftime.... in fact, as hard as it maybe to believe, ND trailed at halftime only once the entire season!! But this first half lead vs Stanford was the high-water mark for the ND football team of 1963. Stanford scored twice in the second half...while ND crossed midfield twice in the second half-both times receiving 15 yd penalties that marched them back to their side of the field...ND only had 4 first downs in that 2nd half. Final Stanford 24 Notre Dame 14
The 1963 season was my sophomore year. Terry, your commentary brought back memories of things long forgotten. For example, the Purdue game was the peak of Ronny Bliey's college career. The nickname "Bye-Bye" arose because whenever he got the hand-off, he ran east-west as if he was running for the sidelines and out of the stadium. He could not run north-south. Hence under Ara, who came in 1964, he almost never saw the field. Another memory is that the Iowa game was cancelled after Kennedy's assassination. Iowa was strong that year and would have beaten us, thus causing our final record to be 2-8 vs. 2-7. Hugh Devore was the interim head coach, well-liked but sadly not very good. Ara arrived in 1964 and made several key position switches involving players from that 2-7 team. We came within a controversial holding call at USC of going undefeated and winning the national championship. ND was back among the elite teams in college football.
In our business we still have the photo of Carlo Calabrese holding the Stanford helmet over his head that he just tore off the Stanford TE’s head. Unfortunately the head stayed attached.
Oh yes, we have been screwed in this game more than once and THIS Irish fan hasn't forgotten any of them. That's why I really don't care about how "depleted" they are or how many injuries they have. We're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it anymore! Get your tree or cardinal or whatever kind of ass you have out on the field and get ready to get it kicked by an Irish cleat. In the words of Bruce Buffer, UFC ring announcer....iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's TIME!!!!!!