The Anti-Preview: #16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish VS Stanford Cardinal

Welcome to your final Notre Dame Fighting Irish Anti-Preview of the regular season. It’s been a long season — especially with the double-bye schedule that college football had to follow this year. At 9-2, the Irish are just one win away from locking up its third double-digit win season in a row. That’s nothing to scoff at, but the way the season has worked out, it certainly doesn’t feel all that good either.

Of course we can trace that not so great feeling back to October 26, and Notre Dame’s decision to not get off the bus in Ann Arbor. While the Irish have completely turned things around and seem to be a much different team, no one outside of the Notre Dame bubble is buying it. All the Irish can do is beat the dog shit out of the team in front of them, and refuse to give any more ammunition to those that doubt how good they really are.

And so...

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Stanford Cardinal

It’s been a tough year for the nerds out west. After a decade of really good football in Palo Alto, there has been a collapse of sorts. The Cardinal have been decimated by injuries this year, and this is a team that wasn’t very deep to begin with.

At 4-7, the Irish can force the Cardinal to end with a 4-8 season which has a sweet sense of irony. We’ve talked a lot this week about “Stanford as a rival,” but no matter where you stand on that debate, there is little doubt that the Irish need to get this Palo Alto thing off of their back.

This isn’t a very good Stanford team, and certainly not one that we have come to know and hate. Their defense is really bad, and the one really good player that they have CB Paulson Adebo, won’t be playing on Saturday. They can’t run the ball either, and that just seems ridiculous given what they’ve done over the last decade.

What should you be drinking?

It would be easy enough this week to just say, “GIN” however and whatever you like — and I think that’s more or less what I’m doing here. I do offer this suggestion though... watch the video if you want a few ideas. Gin is a spirit that has that can give you a bit of a “Christmas Tree sensation,” so it makes total sense this week.

Gin

What should you be eating?

Thanksgiving will be a few days behind us come Saturday, so it’s probably time to eat something other than leftovers. One of the better options out there involves BURNING A TREE. So, yeah... this will do the trick.

Cedar-Planked Salmon

What should you be wearing?

It’s been a long season, so slip into a cozy friend for your 4 PM game.

STATS ON STATS ON STATS

3 Reasons to hate Stanford

1. David Shaw is as smug as he is a good coach. I hate that combo.
2. They have employed Tyrone Willingham and Jim Harbaugh.
3. 1990 and Tommy Vardell.

At the end of the day...

I think I was a little to worried about the weather when I first gave a prediction of a 13-0 win for Notre Dame. While i still think that the field conditions will be terrible, it won’t be like Clemson 2015, N.C. State 2016, or Michigan 2019 with a driving rain. There still should be a wind factor, so we have to keep that in mind. Since I’m changing my prediction a bit, I might as well go big. I think Ian Book has a fantastic game through the air and on the ground, and the Irish defense absolutely manhandle Stanford for 4 quarters. Irish win, 38-10.

Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images