Stanford vs Notre Dame: Time, TV, Preview & Prediction for primetime

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Let’s make one thing clear: At 1-4 and having lost 11 straight games against FBS opponents by an average of more than 18 points per defeat, this is not as bad as the Stanford Cardinal has been. In 2003, Notre Dame beat Stanford 57-7.

That came in Tyrone Willingham’s first visit to his former employer, not that Willingham had reason to run up the score. The Irish were simply that much better than the Cardinal, relying on Julius Jones’ 218 yards on 23 rushes, a 9.5 yards per carry average.

Just shy of 20 years later, Stanford may have regressed back to those struggles, its weaknesses matching Notre Dame’s strengths, which are once again such a ground game. Between sophomore running backs Audric Estimé and Logan Diggs and junior Chris Tyree, the Irish have averaged 5.34 yards per carry the last three weeks en route to 212 rushing yards per game.

No single one of them may match Jones’ output at The Farm back in 2003, but the “three-headed monster” of Notre Dame’s backfield, to use Marcus Freeman’s phrasing, could equal that production today and spur the Irish to a blowout of the Cardinal.

TIME: 7:30 ET, long after the rain stops in South Bend. Temperatures will even out long before kickoff, sitting at about 48 degrees with clear skies.

TV: NBC will broadcast Notre Dame’s chase of its fourth straight win against Stanford, which would be the longest Irish streak since winning seven in a row between 2002 and 2008. Peacock will also carry the game live if preferring to stream it.

The focused matchup on a rival reminded Freeman of the prominent rivalry of his collegiate career, carefully dancing around the M-word (Michigan) this week when discussing The Game as an Ohio State alum, self-censorship that may bond