After a bye week, the Notre Dame football team welcomed the Stanford Cardinal to Notre Dame Stadium this Saturday. As expected, there was a little bit of rust for the Irish, and they had a slow start to their 49-7 victory. Notre Dame’s first drive stalled when Stanford’s David Bailey sacked senior quarterback Riley Leonard. The Cardinal offense then marched down the field behind Ashton Daniels to take an early 7-point lead. That drive was capped off by a Justin Lamson rushing touchdown.
Despite the rough start, the Irish settled in during their second offensive drive. Leonard aired it out and spread the wealth with key passes to graduate wide receiver Kris Mitchell and sophomore wideout Jaden Greathouse. Leonard would ultimately finish the drive with his legs, as he recorded Notre Dame’s first points of the day with a walk-in, 6-yard run. Looking to respond at the start of the second quarter, Stanford went for it twice on fourth down. While the Cardinal converted their first attempt, Stanford’s second attempt was thwarted by a graduate defensive tackle Howard Cross III sack.
After the turnover, the Irish took advantage of the field position. Leonard scrambled for 18 yards on third down and then connected with junior wide receiver Jayden Thomas in the end zone to give the Irish a 21-7 lead. Notre Dame would keep playing well, adding another touchdown right before the half via Kris Mitchell.
In the second half, the Irish continued to dominate and ran away with the football game. During Stanford’s first drive of the half, junior defensive tackle Joshua Burnham made a fantastic play where he tipped a pitch attempt, caught the ball, and returned it 15 yards.
“It just so happened I was at the right place at the right time,” Burnham said, who had previously been out with an ankle injury. “[I] threw my hand out and was able to tip it.”
The turnover seemed to have sparked the Irish team as they started pouring it on. Junior running back Jadarian Price and sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love both found the end zone in back-to-back drives, followed by a rollout touchdown pass from Leonard to junior tight end Eli Raridon. Even senior offensive lineman Pat Coogan was involved in the action. After a tipped pass, the ball fell right into the lineman’s hands. He fielded the ball and proceeded to run for a first down.
After the game, Coogan said that it was the “first time I’ve ever touched [a live] football” in a college game.
The Irish defense also continued to play well throughout the second half. Graduate defensive tackle Rylie Mills notched an 11-yard sack and freshman linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa blew up a screen with a big hit. Freshman defensive end Bryce Young also shined bright with two tackles.
Just before the start of the fourth quarter, the game was delayed due to lightning in the vicinity of Notre Dame Stadium. The delay lasted an hour, and play resumed at 7:12 p.m. Following the delay, Notre Dame pulled Riley Leonard, along with most of the starters. Junior quarterback Steve Angeli took over the Irish offense and led it down the field to start the fourth quarter. The drive resulted in a 19-yard rushing touchdown from freshman running back Aneyas Williams, the first of his career. This put the Irish up 49-7, which was also the final score.
After a rocky start, which Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said was “terrible … on all three phases,” the Irish never looked back.
“From the second series on, man, they played lights-out,“ Freeman noted.
Both the offense and the defense had players rising to the occasion, and there were major contributions coming from players all across the Irish roster. Notre Dame’s 49-7 win over rival Stanford was truly a team win. The win puts Notre Dame at 5-1 heading into a matchup with Georgia Tech next Saturday in Atlanta.
