The Stanford Cardinal had national championship expectations in 2013 and while they won't factor into that this year, the team will get the chance to play for the Pac-12 conference title in the championship game against Arizona State and playing against Notre Dame on Saturday night will prepare the team for that high pressure game and the matchup starts at 7:00 pm on FOX and streaming online from Stanford Stadium.
The Irish come in a season after making it to the national championship game and now they are trying to get their ninth win of the season at 8-3 and Stanford comes into the game 7-2 in the Pac-12 and 9-2 overall and they have the chance to make it into the Rose Bowl if they can defeat the Sun Devils in the Pac-12 championship game. The team comes in having lost two games on the road in upsets against Utah and USC and the Cardinal last won against California last week and now they have the chance to end the season on a nice streak after falling to the Trojans two weeks ago in Los Angeles. The team saw Kevin Hogan pass for 329 yards last week and he is the top passer on the team and he has been solid along with Tyler Gaffney and Ty Montgomery this season and David Shaw and Brian Kelly is a nice coaching matchup in the regular season finale for both teams and Stanford comes in ranked eighth in the nation.
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Notre Dame is ranked in the top 25 in the last spot entering the game and the matchup has plenty of talent on both sides and Montgomery comes in leading the team in receiving with over 800 yards, while Gaffney has nearly 1,300 yards this season and he will be the main focus for the Irish defense. The defense for Stanford has been excellent with less than 20 points allowed per game and the offense is averaging just over 400 total per contest and the team is also averaging over 30 points per game and is ranked 45th in the nation. Stanford opened the season 5-0 before losing in the upset on the road to Utah and after winning the next three games, including the huge upset over Oregon that got them into the Pac-12 title game before losing to the Trojans and now they finish with a rivalry game with Notre Dame.
Last season Stanford lost this game in overtime in controversial fashion after a play was whistled dead and now the Cardinal come in looking to get a win heading into the Pac-12 championship game and they matchup against a team that is averaging 22 points allowed this season and nearly 30 points per game on offense. The Irish last won over BYU in a solid game on both sides of the ball and the team comes in averaging over 400 total yards per game and Tommy Rees is the top passer for the team and they come in having won five of the last six games apart from a loss on the road against Pitt. The team opened the year 3-1 and have been up and down for the first stretch before getting hot at the end and now the Irish can finish the season with an upset on the road and that could put them in nice bowl position. The Stanford Cardinal is hosting the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday night at 7 pm on FOX.
