As Notre Dame looks to add to it's 4-0 record, fans are excited yet curious about just how good the Irish are. Sure they have looked dominant for the most part, it has been against four really weak teams. Now here comes another traditional rival in Stanford into South Bend. When you think of Stanford, you think of a tough physical team that loves to run the ball. So on paper, this looks like a great game like the OT thriller two years ago.
But the reality is that the jury is still out on both teams. Stanford looks to have a very impressive defense as they have two shut outs in four games. Over all, the defense has surrendered only two touchdowns in four games. But those shut outs were against UC Davis and Army. That is clearly inferior competition.
Offensively, they have new starters on the line which has hurt their once great running attack. The leading runner is Barry Sanders with just 153 yards and a good chunk of that came in those two easy games. I think Notre Dame fans can relate to this on.
Kevin Hogan is now a Junior. He has less yardage and less touchdowns than Everett Golson. His best receiver is Ty Montgomery who has 26 catches for 276 yards and three touchdowns.
Stanford is 3-1 but I am not sure how impressive that is considering their one loss was to USC at home and they struggled to beat Washington who nearly lost to Hawaii. Although we can hope for a good game, we will really only know that one team is out and will not know how good the winning team is. A loss will all but kill Stanford's playing chances. Notre Dame will have to win all games it seems to get in.
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