Why Notre Dame will use last year’s loss as motivation to beat Stanford
When Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman addresses his team this week, they’re going to remember what happened last year when the Irish welcomed Stanford into South Bend.
On Oct. 15, 2022, a Cardinal team that was 1-4 with a win over Colgate entered Notre Dame Stadium and left with a 16-14 win. The Irish had their chances to take the lead late, but they squandered their best opportunity when then-sophomore running back Audric Estimé fumbled in Stanford territory.
Freeman plans on bringing that game up multiple times this week.
“Many of the guys that were here last year understand how disappointing that loss was to them,” Freeman said. “There won’t be a lack of motivation this week to go compete for that trophy and this great rivalry that dates back for many years.”
It wasn’t just that Notre Dame lost to Stanford. It was when and how it happened. After a 1-2 start that came dangerously close to 0-3, the Irish convincingly beat North Carolina on the road and a ranked BYU team at a neutral site (Las Vegas). Everything was looking up for Freeman and company, who looked like they completely righted the ship after almost everything went wrong in Weeks 1-3.
To have all that evaporate in one evening against a team that would finish 3-9 was a punch in the gut.
Freeman knows he and his returning starters will walk to the edge of the tunnel at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, Calif., feeling as furious as they were 13 months ago. But he wants to make sure the freshmen and transfers feel that way, too.
“The motivation to understand how important this game is will matter,” Freeman said. “And so I want to make sure they understand it, especially for those guys that weren’t here. It’s important.”
That feeling about the only thing Notre Dame will take from last year’s Stanford game. It can comfortably ignore everything else. The Cardinal looks completely different from 2022, both in personnel and scheme.
First-year Stanford head coach Troy Taylor oversaw a mass overhaul of his roster that resulted in a sizable youth movement. The Cardinal use an offensive system that relies on not one but two sophomore quarterbacks, Ashton Daniels and Justin Lamson. Stanford will use both a ton in the run game, and Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden is putting work into figuring it out.
“It’s funny, I walked into Coach Golden’s office on Sunday and it was like a mad scientist, stuff all over the board,” Freeman said. “I hadn’t even started looking at Stanford yet. They’re gonna have a lot for you to prepare for.”
Freeman also said the Irish have to be careful not to over-prepare their defense, because then they’d wind up not playing as fast. Notre Dame still has a significant talent advantage over Stanford, which enters Week 13 at 3-8.
Based on what some of the key young players have done in Palo Alto this season, though, it might not be long before Taylor has Stanford playing like the consistently ranked Cardinal teams of the 2010s. When that happens, even with Stanford’s impending move to the Atlantic Coast Conference and the college football landscape rapidly changing, Freeman wants the battle for the Legends Trophy to continue well into the future.
“As you look at both of our institutions, the values we have in terms of student-athlete experience, the educational values that both universities provide, I think it’s a great rivalry that we’re going to continue to have as long as we can,” Freeman said. “As you guys know, those decisions are made by people above me, but I’m always a proponent of making sure we keep this rivalry as long as we can.”
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