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Stanford has one of the top run defenses in the country.

Notre Dame is really a run-first, conservative offense, and they use their QB quite a bit in the running game.

It is going to be interesting to see if Stanford's run defense is legit, or if it is more a reflection of the schedule.

As a side note, keep an eye on how well the Stanford QB does against ND. He is expected to play this week after missing a few games. Running threat, which we know gives our defense fits at times.

ND leads 28-7 3rd Q

I think we have at least a partial answer to the question of Stanford's run defense. They gave up 229 yards on 39 carries. Not good.

Stanford had right at 200 yards of offense. Also not good.

Stanford was good @ Syracuse coming off their bye week but haven't been very competitive in their other ACC games against Clemson and Virginia Tech and today was really ugly for them. Have to wonder if the back and forth across the country week after week could be a factor

Charleston Pony wrote:Stanford was good @ Syracuse coming off their bye week but haven't been very competitive in their other ACC games against Clemson and Virginia Tech and today was really ugly for them. Have to wonder if the back and forth across the country week after week could be a factor

I hear the long travel times can make a difference for teams on the west coast. Stanford used to fly as long as 2 hours (up to Seattle, down to Tucson, over to SLC) for a conference game. Now they have to fly about 5 hours to go anywhere for a conference game (except for Cal which is a bus ride and SMU which is a 3-hour flight). Does adding 3 hours to a chartered flight 4 times a year really make a difference? Having said that, they probably should schedule more west coast non-conf games.

VT, ND and Clemson are all really good (if not great) teams. I think that's a bigger reason why they have struggled. Also, they haven't had a winning record since 2018.

highlander wrote:

Charleston Pony wrote:Stanford was good @ Syracuse coming off their bye week but haven't been very competitive in their other ACC games against Clemson and Virginia Tech and today was really ugly for them. Have to wonder if the back and forth across the country week after week could be a factor

I hear the long travel times can make a difference for teams on the west coast. Stanford used to fly as long as 2 hours (up to Seattle, down to Tucson, over to SLC) for a conference game. Now they have to fly about 5 hours to go anywhere for a conference game (except for Cal which is a bus ride and SMU which is a 3-hour flight). Does adding 3 hours to a chartered flight 4 times a year really make a difference? Having said that, they probably should schedule more west coast non-conf games.

VT, ND and Clemson are all really good (if not great) teams. I think that's a bigger reason why they have struggled. Also, they haven't had a winning record since 2018.

I agree the caliber of the opponent is the primary factor, but as someone who did a lot of coast to coast travel, the 3 time zone differential can have an effect. As PAC members, their trips were in the same time zone or only one zone removed. I would typically stay a full week on my trips and about the time I had adjusted to change, it was time to return and do it all over again. Of course I wasn't 20 years old when I was making those trips. I just hope Stanford is beaten down for our guys next week because I hate playing teams that have been embarrassed the week before.