Notre Dame-Stanford: 10 To 1 Countdown
10 Notre Dame receivers caught a pass in junior quarterback Ian Book’s first start this season last week at Wake Forest, a 56-27 win — with nine different targets found in the first half alone. It marked the first time since the 2016 Army game, when 11 caught a pass, that the Irish had at least 10 catch a pass in a game.
9 Wins in a row Notre Dame will be playing for at home when it hosts the Cardinal tonight. The current eight-game winning streak in Notre Dame Stadium is the second longest in the nine-year Brian Kelly era. The 2011-13 Irish won 10 in a row, a streak that could be eclipsed this year. That would then make it the longest since the 19 from 1987-90.
8 Carries for a career high 98 yards rushing Notre Dame sophomore running back Jafar Armstrong had last week at Wake Forest. He will be out versus the Cardinal because of a knee infection, confirmed to Blueandgold.com by two Notre Dame sources, but senior Dexter Williams is expected to return to the lineup this Saturday night after sitting out the first four games for undisclosed reasons. Williams has never had more than eight carries in a game, but his 39 attempts last season averaged 9.2 yards.
7 Teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) — including Notre Dame — who are undefeated after week four that has exclusively played FBS competition. Furthermore, the Irish, Alabama and Ohio State are the only three to defeat three from the Power Five conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC).
6 Stanford is attempting to become the sixth team in the Football Bowl Subdivision to win back-to-back road games against teams ranked by the Associated Press after dramatically rallying from a 24-7 deficit last weekend at Oregon for a 38-31 overtime win. One of those six teams to achieve it was Stanford in 2012 when it toppled No. 1 Oregon (enabling the Irish to move to No. 1 for the first time in 19 years) and No. 15 UCLA in consecutive weeks..
5 Straight games Notre Dame has lost to a Top-10 ranked team since its 30-13 victory at No. 8 Oklahoma in October 2012. Those five defeats were to No. 2 Alabama (42-14) in the BCS Championship that season, at No. 8 Stanford (27-20) in 2013, at No. 2 Florida State (31-27) in 2014, versus No. 7 Ohio State (44-28) in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl, and at No. 7 Miami (41-8) last November.
4 Rivalry games for Notre Dame with a trophy — Purdue (Shillelagh Trophy), Michigan State (Megaphone), Boston College (Frank Leahy Memorial Bowl) and USC (Jeweled Shillelagh) — the Irish currently have in their possession among the five it plays. The lone missing piece is the Legends Trophy versus Stanford, which brings us to ….
3 Consecutive wins by Stanford in this series. The Cardinal is attempting to become the sixth different school in history to have a 4-0 record against a Notre Dame graduating class. USC and Michigan State have achieved the feat multiple times, and the others were Northwestern (1959-62) with Ara Parseghian as the head coach, Air Force (1982-85) and Boston College (2001-04.).
2 Top-10 ranked teams playing at Notre Dame Stadium for the first time since No. 1 USC defeated the No. 9 Fighting Irish 34-31 on Oct. 15, 2005 in an epic battle. Notre Dame has actually not won a Top 10 vs. Top 10 matchup on its home field since Nov. 13, 1993, when the No. 2 Irish toppled No. 1 Florida State 31-24 to temporarily move to the top spot.
1 Notre Dame is attempting to achieve its first ever 5-0 record (in six tries) prior to the month of October. The ESPN Football Power Index analytics gives the Irish a 46-percent chance to make the four-team College Football Playoff with a victory over the Cardinal.
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