Notre Dame at Stanford
Senior QB Jack Coan was very impressive in Notre Dame’s dominant 45-14 victory over Stanford in Palo Alto this past Saturday. Connecting on well over 70% of his passes for 345 yards, 2 TD’s and 1 interception he also picked up another score on the ground in addition to the combined 130 yards rushing and three more TD’s by Sophomore RB Kyren Williams and Freshman QB Tyler Buckner from a wildcat formation. Junior WR Kevin Austin Jr. and Sophomore TE Michael Mayer combined for 230 of those receiving yards by Coan while Jr. WR Braden Lenzy and Tight End George Takacs cashed in the TD’s.
Notre Dame led from start-to-finish and the lead was never in jeopardy as it took till early in the third quarter with the Fighting Irish leading 24-0 for Stanford to put any points on the board, finally scoring two plays after an interception in the red zone to make the score 24-7. But four plays later on a 61 yard pass completion and three short runs Notre Dame got those seven points back, now 31-7. Both teams would score TD’s at the beginning of the 4th Qtr making it 38-14 and the Fighting Irish again after a Stanford fumble to give us the final score of 45-14.
Once again the lack of size and inability of the Stanford offensive line, compared to a few years ago, was painfully obvious–even noted by the television commentator and analyst during the broadcast—as their ground game amounted to a mere 55 yards on 22 rushing attempts, just 2.5 yards per carry while Notre Dame averaged just about twice that. One of the bright notes for Stanford was their Sophomore QB Tanner McKee who was a very efficient 20-of-25 for 172 yards, 1 TD, and no interceptions. But without a rushing game to compliment that and two fumbles, both leading to scores, Stanford had no chance. The Cardinal end their season in the basement of the PAC-12 North, exactly where they were in 2019—the last year in which the PAC-12 played a full schedule.
BYU at USC
USC gave BYU all they could deal with and probably more than they were expecting as the Cougars let a 21-13 half-time lead slip away and found themselves trailing USC 31-28 with just over 8 minutes left in the final period. BYU scored TD’s on three of their five possessions in the first half while holding USC to three punts a field goal and a QB Jaxson Dart rushing TD. After the break things changed up even though the Cougars started the 3rd Qtr off right with a TD on their first possesion making it 28-13. But then it was two punts and an interception for BYU while USC scored two TD’s, a two point conversion, and a field goal to go up 31-28. It looked as though the Trojans were going to win this one as BYU threw up an interception on their next possession with just eight minutes left in the 4th Qtr. But the Cougar defense stiffened and they held USC to a three-and-out aided by a Trojan Offensive Holding Penalty and then came down the field to score what turned out to be the deciding TD and a 35-31 final score. USC had one more chance as they started their subsequent possession at their own 30 yard line with almost four minutes left to play. They got it all the way down to a first and 10 at the BYU 19 yard line with just over a minute left on the clock. But between an incomplete pass and a run for no gain the Trojans found themselves 4th and 6 at the BYU 15 yard line in a game they were trailing by four points. Dart completed his pass on the 4th down attempt but it was a yard short and BYU took over with just 36 seconds left—end of game.
BYU ended up with a really good season going 10-2 overall and a 4-1 record on the road including 6-1 against Power 5 Conferences and currently sit at No. 14 on the November 28th Coaches Poll. In 2011 BYU left the Mountain West Conference and became an Independent but in September of this year they accepted an invitation into the Big-12 and will start competing in 2023. You’ll probably get a chance to see the Cougars one more time in this year’s Independence Bowl. As far as the Trojans go, their season is over and you can expect lots of changes—some really exciting As a matter of fact, as announced earlier on Sunday USC has hired Lincoln Riley away from his job at Oklahoma and as NBCSports put it; “in a stunning and rare move of one traditional college football powerhouse swiping another’s highly accomplished head coach.” Riley is considered one of the great young coaching minds in college football and is 55-10 in five seasons at Oklahoma with four Big-12 titles and three college football playoff appearances.