Rakes Report #182: Though I was was worn and weary, I thought I'd bury him and lay his soul to rest (The Stanford Review)
~optional musical accompaniment~
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1) The last time Notre Dame had a chance to clinch an 11-1 season and make a compelling case for the playoff at Stanford, they could not hold a lead in the final minute and fell in heartbreaking fashion. Two years later, the chance to salvage a choppy November and clinch a New Year’s Six bowl again crumbled in Palo Alto with a full-blown fourth quarter meltdown. That dropped Brian Kelly’s record against the Cardinal to 2-6, the biggest black mark on his Notre Dame resume to that point. Things have changed, however, as Saturday night saw the Irish comfortably dispatch Stanford to win their third straight in the series, all three by double digits. Stanford, who had established themselves as a Pac-12 power and perennial thorn in Irish side, will finish at 3-9 despite winning games against Oregon and USC. While it seems like David Shaw will definitely retain his job and comically large paycheck, it was a real treat to get to end this Notre Dame season by packing down the dirt on top of the Stanford grave.
Back to the team that matters: For the fourth time in as many November chances, the Irish did not allow a first half touchdown and led by double digits at the break. The competition to close the season was not the most difficult but Notre Dame did what you are supposed to do against weaker competition, smashing them against the rocks. Because of their efforts (seven straight wins to close all the season, all covering the spread) the Irish have put themselves in a position to make the playoff and at the very least go to one of the sport’s marquee bowl games. Not bad for whatever you want to call a season that came after so much roster turnover — a transition, a rebuild, a reload — and featured so many promising young talents emerging along the way.
2) Let’s start with the defense, which finally allowed a touchdown after 14 quarters but that’s about the only bad news. Stanford didn’t have 50 yards going into the half and was below 100 going into the fourth quarter, just a complete and total suffocation. Stanford’s first five drives of the game resulted in a trio of three-and-outs, a fumble after two plays and a four-play march before a punt. They could get nothing going, all of this success from Marcus Freeman’s crew coming despite Kyle Hamilton’s absence.
Starting quarterback Tanner McKee was 6 for 9 for 9 yards at halftime, a stat line that seems fake. Much of that credit can go to the corners, who were excellent at snuffing out all manner of attempts at attacking the edge. Cam Hart finished with two tackles for loss and Clarence Lewis continued to crank the playmaking dial up a bit, forcing a late fumble. Both Ademilola Brothers notched a sack in what might be their final regular season game playing together, which is really fun. Bo Bauer chose violence and missed over half the game after doing so, but J.D. Bertrand, Jack Kiser and Drew White were quite capable manning the second level. Xavier Watts had one blown coverage but his transition to the defensive backfield continues to progress nicely.
3) It would have been nice to see the run game roll up and down the field after Stanford was gouged by the Golden Bears on the ground last weekend, but the Cardinal sold out to stop the run and the Irish couldn’t get much going there until late. Instead, they took advantage of an unbalanced opponent to the tune of “Kevin Austin and Michael Mayer both go over 100 yards” and “Jack Coan completes 74 percent of his passes at ten yards per attempt.” Coan had one ugly pick and missed a read on an early third down, but he’s been steady as a rock since entering in the fourth quarter in Blacksburg. You see the obvious upside in the running game as soon as Tyler Buchner steps onto the field, but Coan has totally fulfilled the “Please get the ball to the weapons in space while minimizing mistakes” assignment.
Much to celebrate: George Takacs finally got his touchdown, to the joy of his teammates. With the late score, Kyren Williams became just the fifth player in Notre Dame history to rush for 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons, joining the legend Darius Walker as well as Autry Denson, Allen Pinkett and Vagas Ferguson. Mayer broke Tyler Eifert’s single-season catch record for a tight end and had a block so violent the referees assumed it had to have been illegal. Chris Tyree continues to look healthier while Braden Lenzy was again a factor in both the pass and run game. Freshman Mitchell Evans came through with a late third down conversion. Stanford was not a good defense, but the Irish did what they needed to, again going over seven yards per play.
4) Game Management Corner: Loved going for it on fourth and four from the Cardinal 42 late in the first quarter when it was only 7-0 and the game was still technically in doubt. I’m not sure if it was audible on television but the Stanford Stadium PA had the audacity to play “Crazy Train” on the 3rd and 19 that preceded it, motivating Kyren to pick up 15 yards and put the conversion into play. I did not love Kelly again being conservative at the end of the half but much like with Virginia the score was quite a bit to nil so we will chalk it up to mercy. If he were to mishandle the situation in a competitive game that would be an issue, but you can view it as excessive confidence in his team’s second half abilities.
5) As always, extremely weird going to a game at Stanford. You can just roll into town, park on the street and walk into a bar and find seating a few hours before kickoff. In the stadium itself we were sitting in the corner next to the leprechauns and cheerleaders amidst a bunch of very happy player families and the fun alumni pep band so there was energy for a while, but the atmosphere was pretty clinical after the break for the most part. As the son of the marching band director, Stanford’s version remains an affront to God in my eyes but you do get the bonus of the horrific field conditions serving as a time machine to Novembers past for anyone still upset about Notre Dame switching to turf. The weather was nice — would have been idyllic for a 12:30 PT kickoff — and the Irish won by 31 so overall a pleasant trip.
6) Winning Is Hard/Schadenfreude Round-Up: A fun one to close out the regular season. Alabama should have lost to Auburn about a half dozen times as a three-touchdown favorite but the Tigers couldn’t close the deal. Ohio State got smacked around by Michigan in a repeat of their effort against Oregon, unable to get off the field on defense unless it was after watching a Wolverine enter the end zone. This loss caused an absolute meltdown among Buckeye fans, which is always fun, even though it comes with corresponding happiness in Ann Arbor. Here is hoping a defeat in their opener next year continues the Ohio State spiral.
Texas A&M lost at LSU as a favorite and somehow finished 8-4 in a season in which one of those eight came against the Crimson Tide. Wisconsin was a favorite in Minneapolis but fell to the Gophers, sending Iowa to the Big Ten Championship because Nebraska, God bless them, could not hold a 21-6 lead, finishing the season at 3-9. Mississippi State got handled at home in the Egg Bowl in a game in which they were a slight favorite while Washington had their own field stormed by Cougar fans after being blown out in the Apple Cup. Boston College had 19 passing yards in a blowout loss to Wake Forest.
In the pièce de résistance of Mack Brown’s magical season, North Carolina led NC State by nine with two minutes to go and lost to finish 6-6. Baylor barely eked past Texas Tech at home. UTSA’s undefeated season came to an abrupt end with a blowout loss to North Texas. Virginia lost another Commonwealth Cup to a Hokies team that had fired its coach. Northwestern was blown out by Illinois and the Wildcats finish 3-9. Indiana — ranked in the preseason Top 25!! — was torched by Purdue and finished 2-10. Georgia only beat Georgia Tech 45-0.
And finally, Oklahoma blew a 33-24 fourth quarter lead in Bedlam, ending their six-game win streak in the series and costing themselves a spot in both the league title game and potentially the playoff. To add insult to injury, the following day they lost their head coach, as Lincoln Riley was hired by USC in a move we will be talking about plenty in the coming months. If the rumors and innuendo are true, Oklahoma’s decision to jump to the SEC played a role, which is neat little Rod Serling-level twist and lesson on hubris.
7) I cannot believe the regular season is already over. It always goes so fast but this year seemed to speed by more so than usual, the 2021 Notre Dame team finally finding their proper footing just as the calendar dwindled to a single page. Maybe they will make the playoff and maybe they won’t, but the Irish took a bunch of punches early, wobbled around but mostly kept their feet before this closing kick of dominance. Not much in the way of signature wins due to the schedule disappointing, but this was about survival. Iowa would be playing for a shot at the playoffs if not for losses to Iowa and Purdue, Michigan State would be even higher if they hadn’t lost to the Boilers, Wake Forest would be playing for playoff consideration if they hadn’t lost to the warrior Sam Howell and Oregon would be in line for a shot if they hadn’t lost to Stanford. There is plenty of fuss and feelings and offseason victories in this sport but when it comes down to it the goal is to the win as many games as you can and the Irish were, again, really good at that.
I’m curious whether this season marks a sea change or minor aberration in the sport. After winning long strings of conference titles, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Clemson are not even appearing in their league championship games, and the Sooners just lost their coach to a historic power that’s been dormant. There are coaching changes all over the place among teams that fancy themselves playoff contenders, and plenty more that could open in the next 12 months. But amidst all that chaos sits Notre Dame, ready, waiting, accumulating talent and hopefully prepping to take that next step. They’ll need more juice at the skill positions, of course, and will need to make another great defensive coordinator hire whenever the right gig comes open for Freeman (please make it to a second season please please please), but the program we love is the picture of steady competence with plenty of upside.
There were so many times this campaign could have gone off the rails, and it didn’t, and now it’s all but over, a smashing success at 11-1. Bittersweet, as always, but a helluva way to go out by breaking the Cardinal into smithereens and getting to kick our feet up to see if championship Saturday goes our way. There are still a difficult final few steps of the mountain to climb, to be sure, but don’t let your focus on the peak we all want to reach so badly stop you from appreciating this view.
Thank you so much for reading along this season. Coming into August I wasn’t sure if I would have much to say about this program or this sport but this year was such a wild, unexpected ride I hope you enjoyed following along with this newsletter as much as I enjoyed watching the Irish play and writing it.
Couple of administrative things: Christmas Giving next week, and a plug now for the Cyber Monday sale at Teepublic. All the holiday designs will be available Dec. 1, with proceeds going to the Center for the Homeless in South Bend. Also if you check your podcast feeds Jess and I had a fun time discussing the game and season and postseason paths.
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