No. 9 Stanford knocks off No. 6 Notre Dame

Stanford continued to roll offensively, starting off 6-6 on third down while holding the ball for almost 13 minutes before Notre Dame’s first snap. The final College Football Playoff rankings will be released Sunday.

Conrad Ukropina kicked a 45-yard field goal on the game’s final play to give No. 9 Stanford a riveting 38-36 victory over No. 6 Notre Dame on Saturday at Stanford Stadium.

Stanford coach David Shaw refers to the Pac-12 Championship Game at Levi’s Stadium on Saturday as a chess match, but a game of checkers may be more like it. “Belief in the work we put in, belief in our preparation, belief in our struggles – belief that our struggles helped us to be a better team”.

Both Notre Dame and Stanford entered Saturday on the outside looking in for a playoff berth.

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott, who spoke with the media at halftime, didn’t think losses to Northwestern and OR necessarily rule out Stanford from consideration to the four-team playoff when compared to teams with one loss. And even then, there would be no guarantees. The Irish are ranked No. 6 after beating Boston College in week 13 while the Cardinal trail behind at No. 9 this week. Even with a victory, the Cardinal (10-2) will spend the next week watching the scoreboard, pulling for specific teams and stating its case – again and again – in an attempt to curry favor with the Playoff selection committee. 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. It was a convenient fit for the Irish, who saw the Cardinal as a chance to get to California every season. Then it won largely because Hogan hit Devon Cajuste with a flawlessly timed 27-yard pass over the middle to the Notre Dame 30-yard line with nine seconds left.

A few hours before IL (5-7, 2-6) took the field, the school announced interim coach Bill Cubit had agreed to a two-year contract. The Irish did this despite an unusual raft of injuries, what Kelly called “some catastrophic injuries… and we’re talking about across-the-board here”. “They’ve been doing it for us the whole game and it’s time for to us make that stop and contribute in this game”. Five or six times, he told me important things when I came off the field in this last game.

It was a fitting conclusion to a taut, entertaining game in which the offenses did as they pleased.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame’s playmakers were popping off big plays at an alarming rate: The Irish scored three times on plays of longer than 60 yards and had seven offensive plays of longer than 15 yards on Stanford’s normally-stout bend-but-don’t-break defense. After a short run by Christian McCaffrey, Ukropina came on and kicked the field goal to set off a wild celebration with fans rushing the field. McCaffrey and his 3,035 all-purpose yards have him in the Heisman Trophy conversation.

But the tactic left the Irish vulnerable through the air, and Hogan took advantage, repeatedly finding receivers Michael Rector and Cajuste against man-to-man coverage. In addition to the 27-yard catch that set up the winning field goal, he had four other catches for 98 yards. “And today was the day”.

In his final home game, fifth-year senior Hogan completed 17 of 21 passes for 269 yards and four touchdowns. His late father, Jerry, attended and played football for Notre Dame, as did several of his family members. Hogan will try to find holes in the Irish defense, but he faces arguably his toughest challenge of the year. “It’s a huge game for me; it meant a lot”.

The Spartans (11-1, 7-1) will play unbeaten Iowa for the conference title next weekend, with the victor in good position to advance to college football’s playoff. “We’ll see where we are after those two games and we’ll see where everybody else is”.