Stanford must beat Notre Dame to avoid embarrassing distinction

STANFORD — Stanford’s season finale Saturday against No. 17 Notre Dame will be a chance to retain the Legends Trophy and go into the offseason on a high note. It will also be one last opportunity to avoid being the only FBS team to go winless at home this season.

“We haven’t won a single game at home this year,” quarterback Ashton Daniels said. “That’s extremely frustrating for us, so we’re going to have a lot of the motivation and fire.”

The Cardinal (3-8) has lost all six games at Stanford Stadium under first-year coach Troy Taylor. Part of that is due to the schedule. Stanford has hosted No. 4 Washington, No. 6 Oregon and No. 16 Arizona, and UCLA was ranked 25th when it came to The Farm.

But Stanford also lost its home opener to Sacramento State, an FCS team that is 4-4 in the Big Sky Conference. It fell to 0-6 at home last when it lost to Cal. Oddly, the Cardinal has a winning road record (3-2).

“You want to win them all, but obviously being at home is supposed to give you an advantage,” Taylor said. “The reality is we haven’t played well enough. Part of that is our opponents, but part of that is we’re not playing well enough to win for whatever reason. We have to get better in everything we do. Certainly playing better at home is one of those things.”

Stanford last went winless at home in 2006, the year before Jim Harbaugh arrived, going 0-5 en route to 1-11 overall.

It will take a massive upset to avoid that distinction this time. The Cardinal is a 26-point underdog Saturday, though it won as a 16.5-point underdog last year at Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish (8-3) sport the seventh-best scoring defense in the country (16.0 points per game) – three spots ahead of Oregon and UCLA. It is sixth in yards allowed and third in passing yards allowed.

“It might be the best defense that we faced all year,” Taylor said. “Just very well coached, outstanding secondary players, physical, downhill linebackers. Very challenging. So we’re finishing off with a really, really good opponent. I got a chance to watch their game versus USC. That was really impressive what their defense was able to do against an incredibly talented USC offense.”

The Fighting Irish intercepted Caleb Williams three times in a 48-20 win over the Trojans. Junior safety Xavier Watts leads the nation with seven interceptions. Senior Howard Cross III leads all Power 5 defensive linemen with 63 tackles and senior linebacker JD Bertrand has 250 career tackles.

Notre Dame has lost its last two road games, at Louisville and Clemson, but it has won decisively in its previous two trips to Stanford, winning 45-14 in 2021 and 45-25 in 2019.

WHEN WILL NOTRE DAME BE BACK?

The Stanford-Notre Dame series is scheduled to end with a meeting in South Bend in 2024, but both coaches expressed hope it would continue.

“It’s an unbelievable rivalry,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “As you look at both of our institutions, the values we have in terms of student-athlete experience, the educational values that both universities provide. It’s a great rivalry that we’re going to try to continue to have as long as we can. Those decisions are made by people above me. But I’m always a proponent of making sure we can keep this rivalry as long as we can.”

Stanford and Notre Dame have played every year since 1997 (except for the COVID-shortened 2020 season) but Taylor was less optimistic that it would take place annually in the future.

“I think we will continue to play them periodically,” Taylor said. “Would I like to play them every year? I think it’d be great, but I understand there’s a lot that goes into that.”

NOTE: Elic Ayomanor is attempting to become the first Cardinal since J.J. Arcega-Whiteside in 2018 to eclipse 1,000 receiving yards in a season. Ayomanor needs 45 receiving yards, a mark he has hit in five of his last six games.

TV: Pac-12 Network, 4 p.m