I haven’t written for this site in quite a while, but none of the other writers wanted to preview this game – can you blame them? – so I volunteered to step in.  This is a silly game between an awful Stanford team without a real coach and a Notre Dame team coming off a 70-7 victory that’s being played during the traditional #Pac12AfterDark time slot.  So in that spirit, I plan on using this preview to talk about why I hate Stanford and to hate on them nonstop.

My thoughts on Stanford

Notre Dame (-31.5) at Stanford

Stanford Stadium (but 75% ND fans)
Stanford, CA
Date: Saturday, November 29, 2025
Time: 10:30PM EST (what the hell, ESPN?)
TV:  ESPN

Don’t get me wrong, I hate USC and Michigan more than I hate Stanford.  But Stanford has always had a special place in the hatin’ ass section of my heart.

I hate Stanford because they are a unserious football program and apathetic fan base that accidentally hired one of the best coaches of this generation in Jim Harbaugh because he was cheap and available, coaching at non-scholarship University of San Diego.  That began a run of success that Notre Dame fans (at the time) could only dream of – 10+ wins in 6 out of 7 years, 3 BCS/NY6 bowl wins, and being a media darling because they had fullbacks listed on their depth charts.  All the while playing in front of either a half empty stadium because no one at that school cared.

However, this has all come crashing down in the age of NIL and the transfer portal.  Stanford hasn’t won more than 4 games for six straight years, which will be seven with a loss on Saturday.  The last several offseasons have been full of stories about how Stanford is finally going to start doing the NIL thing for real this time, but we’ll see how that’s going later in this preview.

To make things even more of a mess, Stanford fired head coach Troy Taylor back on March 25th and named former NFL coach Frank Reich as interim coach.  Since then, several schools have not only fired their coach but also hired their replacement without so much as a peep on Stanford’s search.  Supposedly they plan on announcing a hire soon after Saturday’s game, so watch out for that I guess.

Stanford Defense

By far the most dangerous player on Stanford is defensive end David Bailey, who is expected to be a high pick in this spring’s – what’s that?  Texas Tech dropped a bag and now he’s terrorizing quarterbacks for the Red Raiders?

Oh.  Well then.

David Bailey leads the nation with 12.5 sacks.  He no longer plays for Stanford.

If I’m being generous, Stanford’s defense is… not awful?  FEI ranks Stanford as the 47th best defense in the country, though SP+ is far less impressed at 80th overall.  Stanford is right in the middle of the county for number of sacks, so they are somewhat disruptive, but they are down near the bottom in tackles for loss.  The Cardinal defense did record 9 TFLs in each of their last two games, and sacked Cal 5 times last week, both season highs.  So they have that going for them.  If there’s a player to watch out for, it’s linebacker Matt Rose, who leads the team in TFLs and is second in sacks.

In the secondary, Stanford has three interceptions.  As a team.  For the whole year.

Stanford Offense

Andrew Luck isn’t walking through that door.  Well, he kinda is because he’s the general manager for some reason.

Elic Ayomanor is off to the NFL, so Stanford is looking to 2024 #2 receiver Emmett Mosley V to – what’s that?  Texas dropped a bag and now Mosley is catching passes for the Longhorns?

Oh.  Well then.

Starting at quarterback is redshirt freshman Elijah Brown, who took over the starting role from transfer Ben Gulbranson* before their November 8th game against North Carolina.  Brown had an excellent game, going 27/39 for 284 yards against the Tar Heels, though he came back down to earth against Cal, completing only 10 of 20 passes for 123 yards.  He is not a run threat at all, carrying the ball twice for only three yards against Cal and carrying it 9 times for a hilarious -73 yards against North Carolina.

*If that name sounds familiar to you, that’s because Gulbranson was the quarterback for the zombie Oregon State team that played in the 2023 Sun Bowl.

At receiver, Stanford is led by CJ Williams, who has a respectable 735 yards and 6 touchdowns on the season.  Listed at only 6’1, he doesn’t fit the mold of a Devon Cajuste/JJ Arcega-Whiteside  jump ball merchant that Stanford produced for the better part of a decade.  If there is one, it’s maybe 6’5 tight end Sam Roush, though with only two touchdowns on the year he’s hardly a red zone threat.

Stanford only averages 84 rushing yards per game, though starting running back Micah Ford ran for 150 yards against Cal.

Prediction

Despite my schtick up above, I have to give Stanford some credit.  Coming into the season I assumed Stanford would easily be the worst P4 team in FBS.  There’s no talent and the coaching situation is a mess.  But while Stanford isn’t good, they aren’t the worst team in the P4.  Heck, they’re probably not the worst team in the ACC.  I thought we might see Syracuse-levels of effort from them all season but they’ve been… surprisingly competent?  They may even be peaking at the end of the season after a decent effort against North Carolina and a beat down of Cal.  So credit to Reich and coaches for keeping the ship afloat this year.

But this is still a bad Stanford team.  There just isn’t enough talent to compete with Notre Dame for four quarters.  You also have to wonder how much Stanford has left in the tank after a big rivalry win.

But you also have to wonder how much Notre Dame has in the tank after hanging 70 on the scoreboard last week.  Stanford already had a somewhat scrappy defense and the switch to Brown at quarterback might give the offense enough of a boost to make the game closer than the 31.5 point spread suggests,

My head tells me an unexpectedly game Stanford team leads to a fine-but-not-overly-impressive win that no one notices because this stupid game is at 10:30PM.

But screw that.

Notre Dame 73

Stanford 0

And I spend my Sunday annoyed that we settled for a field goal that one time.