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Notre Dame Football: Brian Kelly’s final regular season press conference before Stanford

With a win on Saturday at bumbling Stanford, Notre Dame will clinch their fifth 10-win season (including vacated seasons) under Brian Kelly.

NCAA Football: Boston College at Notre Dame
Brian Kelly is a nice and tidy 69-36 (officially) during his tenure at Notre Dame after a 40-7 rout of Boston College this past Saturday afternoon.
Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

With a victory on Saturday afternoon against the Stanford Cardinal — which would be their first on “The Farm” since the end of 2007 — the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will clinch their third consecutive 10-win season and the fifth under Brian Kelly.

It’s been a hell of a bounce-back from the nightmareish 2016 season that ended with four wins in 12 contests, as the Irish are trying to win their 32nd game in the last 38 contests, dating back to the start of the 2017 campaign.

On Monday, Kelly stepped to the podium for the final time for a pre-regular season game press conference about the upcoming clash with the rival Cardinal, an update on lost offensive lineman Tommy Kraemer, and ... his favorite Thanksgiving side dish.

Without any further adieu, and to end the suspense of Kelly’s favorite side dish for the upcoming weeks, here’s some of the bigger talking subjects from Kelly on Monday, starting with some Stanford bullet points.

Stanford has won four of the last six meetings in this rivalry (and seven of the last 10)

It’s hard to call the 101st-ranked offense in America dangerous, but what’s interesting is that Stanford has frequently used two quarterbacks (due to a plague of injuries), which puts Notre Dame at the slightest of disadvantages not knowing who Saturday’s starter is.

Still, that problem has a solution and it’s a simple one:

Chase Claypool’s rise to stardom wasn’t an easy one, but it’s been a welcoming site for Irish fans

Claypool has gotten his chance at Notre Dame and he’s ran with it until he can’t anymore.

Up to this point in the season, Claypool has 56 catches for 828 yards and 10 touchdowns. Not bad for a dude that’s played with three dislocated fingers at one point or another this season.

Brian Kelly’s favorite side dish is ...

All of the exhilaration and excitement surrounding one simple question: what is Brian Kelly’s favorite side dish at Thanksgiving? The answer miiiiiight surprise you.

Kelly took ... squash.

Yeah, squash.

Allllright then.

Yeah.

(God, he’s so damn weird.)

A new addition to the defensive line depth chart

It’s been a struggle for the Irish up front in the trenches on defense to maintain their strong depth and production after losing Julian Okwara for the season in the win over Duke a few weeks ago.

Reinforcements have arrived on the depth chart in the form of Isaiah Foskey, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound freshman defense end from ... Concord, California.

Always ‘crootin

There’s a reason why USC and Stanford are two of the bigger games on the Notre Dame schedule every year.

California is a hot bed for superstar prospects across all sports and it brings various recruiting battles between the Irish, SC, Stanford and others every season, so getting a win in one of these games goes a long way even after the season concluded.

Oh, another injury update this week

If you’d like to watch Kelly’s press conference in full, you can tune in below here: