Stanford edges Notre Dame to keep slim Pac-12 playoff hopes alive

Playing for their postseason, Notre Dame will have to stop Christian McCaffrey, Stanford’s starting running back who is second in the nation in rushing behind only Leonard Fournette. I don’t know if he should win. It’s a culmination of the game and the reality is, we’re two plays away from being undefeated and being the No. 1 team in the country. Just having the opportunity to go down and finish the game with the ball in our hands, it was one of those games where it seemed like whoever had the ball last was going to win.

It’s not an unreasonable assertion. Unless something absolutely insane happens inside the College Football Playoff committee world, thanks to Stanford’s thriller over Notre Dame, No. 3 – all rankings based on the November 24 CFP rankings – Oklahoma is in after ending its regular season with a dominant win over Oklahoma State to become the Big 12’s One True Champion.

Notre Dame appeared headed for a “wait-and-see” scenario in terms of the College Football Playoff.

A play here, a play there. Notre Dame had just scored a touchdown, kicked an extra point. More Information For more on college football, follow Tom Davis on Twitter at Tom101010.

For both Notre Dame and Stanford, tonight’s game down on The Farm was one that each needed to keep any playoff hopes that they entertained alive. “The legacy that he’s left here is right up there with all the greats”.

Schmidt, struggling to hold back his emotions, then waxed a little poetic. “I think we’ve closed the gap”.

Road wins should be considered more impressive and home losses more damaging. The truth of the matter is that Notre Dame suffered an enormous amount of injuries this year and the backups played well.

DeShone Kizer had given the Fighting Irish (10-2) a one-point lead with a two-yard run with 30 seconds left. Beating Clemson (12-0, No. 1 CFP) would be about as big as it gets, but North Carolina has a long way to jump. “The 127th team at the University of Notre Dame is something special”.

“He’s unbelievable. He came out there like he was a fifth-year guy”, Kizer said of Adams.

However, it’ll be hard for Stanford fans to feel too optimistic about their chances.

Cardinals senior quarterback Kevin Hogan leads Stanford’s offense and has led his team to a 9-2 record this season. Even if Notre Dame pulls out a win on the west coast, they will most likely still need some help if they are to make the final four. This go-round, he turned in one of his best. But in the final drive of the game, a face mask penalty and a 27-yard reception by Devon Cajuste put the Cardinal in position for Ukropina’s game-winning kick.

Based on this fact, we’ll now learn just how much the committee values conference championship games. “And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh”.

Two plays later, senior kicker Conrad Ukropina lined up for a 45-yard field goal. “But when I caught it, I had no idea where I was”.

“I regret everything I said”, Elliott insisted before being asked a question in a postgame news conference.

“I actually like when they call timeouts”, he said. The Cardinal was able to find room to throw over the middle of the field and up the seams. I didn’t see Hogan throw the ball. Notre Dame converted on third-and-10 and fourth-and-1 during the drive. From Stanford, there was a bit of “what should be”. They were, you could easily argue, the better team on the field in all 12 games and cost themselves 2 games through, hopefully, correctable mistakes. “It’s awesome to just kind of put it all together”.

Academic as this result might prove to be. Stanford’s next game is the Pac 12 Championship Game on December 5th against the USC Trojans. But coach David Shaw wouldn’t play along.

We don’t worry about the other teams in the conference, we don’t worry about what people say about us nationally. What the national chatter is, that’s not up to me. But for those who watched the game, it produced only one reaction: “Wow”.