Stanford 38 Notre Dame 36 – Recap And Highlights

In what seemed like Stanford’s QB Kevin Hogan’s 10th year, he just threw 4 TD passes and guided a 30 second comeback that ended in the winning FG and crushed ND’s hope for a playoff spot. What’s even crazier is that Hogan desperately wanted to go to Notre Dame.

Actually, this was a great college football game between two evenly matched teams that both ended the season at 10-2. How ironic is it that Stanford lost to Oregon by the same score.

They say stats are for losers, but ND rolled up 533 total yards to Stanford’s 422. Normally that wins games.

It wasn’t the ND offense that lost this game but once again the defense. 30 seconds – you don’t deserve to win if you can’t hold on for just 30 seconds.

So you start with a facemask penalty that was completely stupid, followed by a wide open, over the middle pass and voila a 45 yd FG as time ran out.

A number of things happened that doomed ND’s prospects including a Kizer fumble inside the Stanford 30 at the end of the first half. Leaving the Stanford 6’4″ TE wide open most of the game showed once again ND’s inability on D not only in coverage, but also ND’s inability to get to the passer.

Desperately needed by ND are 2 Safety’s that have a clue, tackling – after all that is a big part of the game, isn’t it?

ND would have won this game if KV Russell played.

Best plays:

• Kizer bomb to Fuller.
• CJ Sanders KO return for a TD.
• Freshman Josh Adams 168 yards.

Mind boggling:

• Kizer fumble
• Rochelle facemask penalty.
• Kelly going for 2. John Madden truism that Kelly ignored – take the points, always.
• Finally, you have to score TD’s. ND had to settle for 3 FG’s.

So ND just has to wait for a second tier Bowl Game. Let’s hope for Penn State.

This season went too fast and in all reality ND did not have the D to be in the Playoffs – not by a long shot.

Here is the Brian Kelly post game press conference: