[OutsiderFan]

I haven't seen or read anyone, anywhere in the college football pundit and analyst universe say Stanford will beat Notre Dame. 

Has any paid analyst picked Stanford? 

My take has been Stanford can't win this game, but whenever there is such a consensus that one team will win over another that isn't flat out horrible, that makes me pause.  I mean who thought Arizona would be so close with Stanford last week?

My guess is Stanford's players are going to have a pretty big chip on their shoulder about playing in this N.D. coronation game.  It's making me think this game is going to be closer than most people think.  I still don't believe Stanford will win, but I'm a lot less confident Stanford will lose than I was on Monday.

[OutsiderFan]

I haven't seen or read anyone, anywhere in the college football pundit and analyst universe say Stanford will beat Notre Dame. 

Has any paid analyst picked Stanford? 

My take has been Stanford can't win this game, but whenever there is such a consensus that one team will win over another that isn't flat out horrible, that makes me pause.  I mean who thought Arizona would be so close with Stanford last week?

My guess is Stanford's players are going to have a pretty big chip on their shoulder about playing in this N.D. coronation game.  It's making me think this game is going to be closer than most people think.  I still don't believe Stanford will win, but I'm a lot less confident Stanford will lose than I was on Monday.

[Hurlburt88]

I am about to get in car to drive to Indiana . . . weather will be a wild-card meaning either team can win.  All about mistakes . . . and forcing mistakes. 

FEAR THE TREE

[Hurlburt88]

I am about to get in car to drive to Indiana . . . weather will be a wild-card meaning either team can win.  All about mistakes . . . and forcing mistakes. 

FEAR THE TREE

[washingtonismoney]

I think people have largely failed to adjust to reality--in this case, all of ND's opponents are worse than projected, while I'd say the majority of stanford's opponents are better than projected.

If I were Stanford's coaches, I'd try to duplicate Michigan's defense (which kept the game quite close despite an epic 6 TO game by Denard) and Miami's offense (somewhat serious about the latter--despitr the statistics Miami wideouts dropped a couple of potential TD passes.)

20-23 points wins the game. Patterson and Young are most important on offense; I'm hoping to get fully armed and operational Shayne Skov on defense.

[washingtonismoney]

I think people have largely failed to adjust to reality--in this case, all of ND's opponents are worse than projected, while I'd say the majority of stanford's opponents are better than projected.

If I were Stanford's coaches, I'd try to duplicate Michigan's defense (which kept the game quite close despite an epic 6 TO game by Denard) and Miami's offense (somewhat serious about the latter--despitr the statistics Miami wideouts dropped a couple of potential TD passes.)

20-23 points wins the game. Patterson and Young are most important on offense; I'm hoping to get fully armed and operational Shayne Skov on defense.

[needle]

I'm pessimistic; not sure Nunes or Toilolo can come close to repeating their performance against Arizona. My best hope is continued improvement in the run game with better use of Young.

ND will probably move the ball pretty well but I expect them to stumble with some INTs and poor throws as well. Defense has to avoid giving up the big play; I'm not confident they can do so. I'm hoping they can hit Golson/Rees enough to force some really bad decisions. If the defense can put up a touchdown somehow, I think that's the sort of thing Stanford will need.

I think ND will get something like 27, 28 points offensively.

[needle]

I'm pessimistic; not sure Nunes or Toilolo can come close to repeating their performance against Arizona. My best hope is continued improvement in the run game with better use of Young.

ND will probably move the ball pretty well but I expect them to stumble with some INTs and poor throws as well. Defense has to avoid giving up the big play; I'm not confident they can do so. I'm hoping they can hit Golson/Rees enough to force some really bad decisions. If the defense can put up a touchdown somehow, I think that's the sort of thing Stanford will need.

I think ND will get something like 27, 28 points offensively.

[fullmetal]

I agree with WIM that ND's schedule is soft and that the Fighting Irish are overrated a bit, but it does worry me that they are a football team built on the same power fundamentals that Stanford is built on...those are fundamentals for success.  It'll come down to which team can execute better.

[fullmetal]

I agree with WIM that ND's schedule is soft and that the Fighting Irish are overrated a bit, but it does worry me that they are a football team built on the same power fundamentals that Stanford is built on...those are fundamentals for success.  It'll come down to which team can execute better.

[Bruce Wang]

Let it rain. Let it rain.  Bad weather favors the team with the better running game.  This Stanford team is more like a Big10 team and would dominate that conference this season.

[Bruce Wang]

Let it rain. Let it rain.  Bad weather favors the team with the better running game.  This Stanford team is more like a Big10 team and would dominate that conference this season.

[Gauss]

I haven't seen or read anyone, anywhere in the college football pundit and analyst universe say Stanford will beat Northern Indiana Parochial College. 

ND are deservedly the favorites because they have been more consistent. If you take the worst bits of Stanford's performances (say, the offense against SJST or Washighton and the defense against Arizona) against the worst bits of ND, they win handily.
However, I feel our full potential is higher than theirs. If we are able to play like the last quarter against U.S.C., we have a good chance (although the key difference is their mobile QB).

Has any paid analyst picked Stanford? 

For instance, Brad Edwards from ESPN picked us as the upset of the week
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8486512
Which means something!
His record at picking upsets this season is 5-1. He even picked Washington over Stanford when we were ranked #8. Those were the days  :(

[Gauss]

I haven't seen or read anyone, anywhere in the college football pundit and analyst universe say Stanford will beat Northern Indiana Parochial College. 

ND are deservedly the favorites because they have been more consistent. If you take the worst bits of Stanford's performances (say, the offense against SJST or Washighton and the defense against Arizona) against the worst bits of ND, they win handily.
However, I feel our full potential is higher than theirs. If we are able to play like the last quarter against U.S.C., we have a good chance (although the key difference is their mobile QB).

Has any paid analyst picked Stanford? 

For instance, Brad Edwards from ESPN picked us as the upset of the week
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8486512
Which means something!
His record at picking upsets this season is 5-1. He even picked Washington over Stanford when we were ranked #8. Those were the days  :(

[fullmetal]

Ah, it's going to be a showdown between the Team That Didn't Change QBs and the Team that DID Change QBs :)

[fullmetal]

Ah, it's going to be a showdown between the Team That Didn't Change QBs and the Team that DID Change QBs :)

[Cardinal96]

There is not a game I want to win more this season than this Saturday's game against ND.

[Cardinal96]

There is not a game I want to win more this season than this Saturday's game against ND.

[jayasena]

There is not a game I want to win more this season than this Saturday's game against ND.

Sacrilege!!

[jayasena]

There is not a game I want to win more this season than this Saturday's game against ND.

Sacrilege!!

[Hurlburt88]

I am leaning to low score . . . 2 great defenses, 2 offenses that are still "developing," plus wind and rain.  .  20 definitely wins it, but more importantly winning turnover battle wins it. 

[Hurlburt88]

I am leaning to low score . . . 2 great defenses, 2 offenses that are still "developing," plus wind and rain.  .  20 definitely wins it, but more importantly winning turnover battle wins it. 

[AlbanyCardinal]

There is not a game I want to win more this season than this Saturday's game against ND.

Really? Wow, not me. We'd still have the Rose Bowl in front of us should we lose this game. Let's assume we're losing to Oregon, which gives us two sure conference losses. We can't afford to lose another conference game, it seems to me, so if I had to choose a loss on the remaining schedule, between ND and a conference foe, it's pretty obvious to me which one it'd be.

But I'll admit I'm being way too rational about this. Still, though, if I throw out all reason, I'm still left wanting to beat the weenies more than the irish. Maybe that's just me, though.

[AlbanyCardinal]

There is not a game I want to win more this season than this Saturday's game against ND.

Really? Wow, not me. We'd still have the Rose Bowl in front of us should we lose this game. Let's assume we're losing to Oregon, which gives us two sure conference losses. We can't afford to lose another conference game, it seems to me, so if I had to choose a loss on the remaining schedule, between ND and a conference foe, it's pretty obvious to me which one it'd be.

But I'll admit I'm being way too rational about this. Still, though, if I throw out all reason, I'm still left wanting to beat the weenies more than the irish. Maybe that's just me, though.

[SamAtoms1980]

Has any paid analyst picked Stanford? 

Mark May......  >:(

[SamAtoms1980]

Has any paid analyst picked Stanford? 

Mark May......  >:(

[AlbanyCardinal]

Has any paid analyst picked Stanford? 

Brad Edwards (ESPN), here: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8486512. Same guy who picked UW to upset us a few weeks back. 5-1's pretty good on the season so far. Let's hope he gets to 6-1!

[AlbanyCardinal]

Has any paid analyst picked Stanford? 

Brad Edwards (ESPN), here: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8486512. Same guy who picked UW to upset us a few weeks back. 5-1's pretty good on the season so far. Let's hope he gets to 6-1!

[doublespiral]

There is not a game I want to win more this season than this Saturday's game against ND.

Though I love beating ND - almost as much as beating the University of Spoiled Children - if I could only pick one game that I know we would win the rest of the season, it would be the MNC on January 7th.

That's not cheating, is it?

[doublespiral]

There is not a game I want to win more this season than this Saturday's game against ND.

Though I love beating ND - almost as much as beating the University of Spoiled Children - if I could only pick one game that I know we would win the rest of the season, it would be the MNC on January 7th.

That's not cheating, is it?