Sunday morning (err, evening) thoughts - Notre Dame - Printable Version
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Sunday morning (err, evening) thoughts - Notre Dame - msqueri - 11-30-2025
1. That was an anti-climactic and weird way to end the season. At least now we can look forward. This game was a complete no-contest and pointless except in the awkward sense of Notre Dame feeling forced to take it seriously due to College Football Playoff style points considerations (at least we frustrated them and made them work in the second half). For our season it changed nothing. We are a lower level team but battled enough this season to have a non-laughable argument we are starting the healing process. Sagarin #74 makes official that this team was on par with the 2019 Sagarin #73 team as the best full season Stanford team during our long seven year bowl drought. Our scoreboard outcomes heading into conference championship and bowl/playoff season were befitting #82, #97, #50, #142, #161, #99, #29, #116, #104, #96, #13, and #96. Big Game was a real outlier and the Sagarin ranking may slightly overstate our quality, but compared to Taylor teams that struggled to crack top 100, this felt like a modest but noticeable improvement.
2. Here is where we credit and thank Frank Reich. This team exceeded expectations. Not by a lot. Not by anything that means a lick in recruiting. Not by anything that changes our fundamental status as one of the lowliest power programs trying to scratch and claw to a better lot in life. Not by anything that moves the needle on assessments of whether the Andrew Luck GM era is going to get this thing done. But we are better than we’ve been and we had no reason to assume that as a given when Reich was hired. Reich was a stabilizing force. He inherited a bad team and had to make the most of it with somebody else’s coaching staff and whatever tatters of culture remained after Shaw and Taylor. He left us better than he found us. I think that’s all anybody could have asked and I’m grateful for the contribution. If this is his last coaching I hope he’s proud of it.
3. So anti-climactic to end our season against one of the best teams in America when we are, umm, not that. And that’s all the more the case when we just announced a new head coach who is literally starting the day after this pointless game. I am pretty sure all I or anybody else here cares about is who will be on Pritchard’s staff and which key players return. Alas, I’m a completionist, so one more time into the breach: this was a no-contest for which statistical analysis is pretty pointless. They stomped us and had their way. We only scored three non-garbage time points, only 0.375 per non-garbage drive, making the #12 points per drive defense look almost twice as stingy as the #1 legendary Ohio State defense. We gave up 6.0 points per non-garbage drive (only avoiding a touchdown once), making the #8 points per drive offense look more than two points per drive better than the #1 offense. In other words, Notre Dame just did whatever they wanted and experienced no resistance on either side of the ball (actually, all three phases considering the fake punt touchdown).
4. This is one of the games in which stats are least edifying. Statistically, we were middle of the road compared to Notre Dame opponents in just about everything. But that’s the quirky result of an abject no contest decided by halftime and a subsequent half of football that muddied the statistical waters when the game was out of reach but Notre Dame wanted style points but they wanted to not risk star players but they did want to risk their hobbled star player for Voldemort glory but….just a nonsense game and especially nonsense second half. As it ended up, statistically the offense’s performance looked pretty good as we actually had the second most yards per play Notre Dame has given up in the last two months and thoroughly median on the season. As we know, however, these were empty calories consumed almost entirely in garbage time. A whopping 232 of our 312 yards came in garbage time. This told us nothing about our competitiveness, though it did produce career highlights for guys like Charlie Mirer and Marcus Brown. Just as we were the sixth most proficient yards per play offense against Notre Dame, we were also the sixth most stingy yards per play defense. But just as with the offense, the Domers had their way with us when it mattered and the statistically decent overall number really meant nothing for our competitiveness. While all of the component stats were middling, it would be misleading to draw encouragement from that as it was clearly a no contest and then garbage time, not real competition.
RE: Sunday morning (err, evening) thoughts - Notre Dame - msqueri - 11-30-2025
5. Finally we can turn the page on a miserable QB year. Brown remained his incredibly consistent bad self until the bitter end, with his fifth performance better than the depths Gulbranson plumbed but none of them reaching Gulbranson’s heights, all below a 50 Total QBR. This was the second week in a row Brown had a career day by Total QBR, so if one is really trying to find a case for improvement and future prospects you can point to that, however “career day” for him was 79th of 133 QBs nationally in Total QBR this week. On his redshirt freshman season in total, if he had had enough action to qualify for the national leaderboard, he would have been the 114th best QB nationally this year. For frame of reference with other dark ages quarterbacks, 2025 Gulbranson is 127th, 2024 Daniels was 85th, 2023 Daniels was 84th, 2022 McKee was 79th, 2021 McKee was 47th, 2020 Mills was 21st, and 2019 Mills was 16th. It should be clear to all that Stanford needs to find a new QB1 via the transfer portal.
6. Last week I talked about the subplot of guys still making bids for our offensive and defensive MVPs. As it happened, yesterday wasn’t very interesting for that either. We somehow had our star running back break his hand in the last practice snap of the season (so much for Ford having the most rushing yards since 2019….2024 Daniels holds on to that distinction). Our star receiver was not a zero yesterday but he definitely wasn’t a hero. The chain mover turned out to be Williams and Brown’s more unsung Mater Dei teammate Marcus Brown. [Moving the chains (first down) leaderboard: Marcus Brown (3), Blackburn (2), Roush (2), Williams (also drew a pass interference), Farrell, Tabb, Hampton, High, Libman, Irvin, Mirer] On defense, nobody did anything to change the picture that Rose was our top dog. Instead of MVP jockeying, the subplot that emerged and gave those of us who stuck with the team to the end a nice treat was the heartwarming success of QBWhat?!? Charlie Mirer. Mirer never got into a game in four years and then got in for the last six plays of our season, against his dad’s alma mater, and…..balled! Talk about making the most of your shot, delivering not one but three of our top highlights of the game, giving us a jolt with his legs and his arms. It was something to lift the esprit de corps after a slog of a game (and in some ways season).
7. As usual Rose was the beating heart of the defense. Fitting for him to close the year again making more plays than anybody. But the one defensive player who did the most to change the scoreboard (or would have if the punt block unit held up its end of the bargain) may have been somebody who we redshirted this year. Kaminski, playing in only his fourth game to preserve the redshirt, had successive QB hurries that forced a punt (or so we thought). While the 84 yard touchdown pass on a fake punt meant that ended up being yet another Domer touchdown, Kaminski’s sequence should be acknowledged. Then in garbage time he was all over the field in run defense. I am pumped about him and think sooner rather than later he will emerge as one of our better defenders. Our edge guys have been a disappointment (Cooper had a few plays yesterday but has mostly been bad, like Aybar, and Tafiti has at least been mediocre but not much more). I am excited to get Kaminski in the mix. Another guy who looks like we have something for the future is Nicholson, who added to a heck of a season with another really nice game, this time with a pass breakup and a stop to force a punt. He’s one of the guys we can build around. [With all such guys there’s of course first things first of fending off poachers] Not relevant for future roster construction but deserving of a shout out is Hunter Barth, who played with his hair on fire on both defense and special teams in the last game of his career. Mattingly, Staples, and Patterson had a few contributions across meaningful action and garbage time, with Mattingly especially standing out. Garland had enough good plays in garbage time that it may be confidence-building for a redshirting guy, and Briehler was another guy in that category who showed up in the box score. Great to see Umeh out there. I think the defense has some pieces, I’m just on pins and needles waiting to see if we can keep a few of the veteran difference makers (Rose, Green, Wright, Galvan).
8. Being humiliated on an 80+ yard fake punt was a fitting end to this abortion of a special teams season. The specialists were fine - but not great - and the units were disgraceful this season. Let us never speak of whatever these special teams were again. I will say that in this one I didn’t mind the attempts to kick it off an up man and force an easy turnover; even though it didn’t work that well so think it’s well worth it in a game we were so thoroughly outgunned. High did his normal thing of taking back returns and getting tackled before where a fair catch would have put us (giving back nine yards on two returns). Dubre, Edwards, Barth, Neely, and Holt had coverage tackles. Flintoft was ok with net punts of 36 to the 39 (bad), 41 to the 15 (solid), 52 to the 23 (great), and 39 to the 36 (mediocre after allowing a good return). Kenney made both field goals, 39 and 44 yarders, which was a relief and good way to end the year after a shaky late season.
9. Game balls: Charlie Mirer, Gabe Kaminski, Emmet Kenney, Thomas Merkle
10. The Tavita Pritchard era begins. God help us all. Seriously, this could work but is a deflating way to go into an offseason after hearing about all the alignment of university commitment to compete at a high level in football. We will now have a very interesting two months ahead. Let’s see whether the retention, recruitment, poaching, coaching hire, and vibes cultivation Luck and Pritchard can muster makes us feel better or worse than we do now. We are coming off an improved but still bad season punctuated by a hiring that doubles down on a very Stanford and Stanford Man-focused theory of how we can differentiate ourselves in this era. It’s not sexy and it certainly doesn’t rely on generals who have shown they know how to turn a program around. But we will be very aligned and should be able to recruit. Let’s see what these guys can do. Go Card!
SkiBum80 - SkiBum80 - 11-30-2025
Very appreciate the informative write up
And the shout out to Coach Reich very well warranted. Even tho he mainly may have been doing a favor to ALuck he did a great job considering what he was handed. And led us to an improved season (granted small improvement) but when by all precursors it very easily could have gone worse.
I’m impressed by all our players who laid everything on the line and played hard til the final whistle. Charlie Mirer exemplified this. I’m going in the game? Then I’m giving it everything I got.
Congrats to team 2025
RE: Sunday morning (err, evening) thoughts - Notre Dame - JohnR34231 - 12-01-2025
Yeah, we have a couple of post-Thanksgiving things to be thankful for, specifically a (slightly) improved record and a Big Game victory.
Can't get overly excited about the Pritchard hire, but at least he is a Stanford man who knows Luck and presumably will work well with him. Also, I'm sure he didn't cost us an arm and a leg which I guess is good.
Thanks for your writeups this year, Matt. Have enjoyed them.
RE: Sunday morning (err, evening) thoughts - Notre Dame - midnight21 - 12-01-2025
Thank you, Matt! We are all immense beneficiaries of your analyses. Here's to a brighter future for the Card!