Stanford Football: Way-too-early game-by-game predictions for 2018

Notre Dame is a tricky team to judge. The Fighting Irish are coming off a 10-3 season just one year after they won only four games and Brian Kelly has fought his way off the hot seat for the time being. His team brings back a ton of talent in 2018, but it loses Josh Adams and Equanimeous St. Brown.

On top of that, the Irish don’t exactly know who their starting quarterback is going to be. Will it be Ian Book or returning starter Brandon Wimbush? Heck, even freshman Phil Jurkovec’s name will be on the table. That could cause problems for the offense, but will it be enough to lead to a loss at home against Stanford which is also starting a new quarterback? I’m going to guess no.

Although KJ Costello will be having a solid season to this point, he’s going to struggle against the Irish. He will fail to reach the 200-yard mark for the first time on the year and his tight ends won’t be able to bail him out of all the pressure he’s going to get from the Notre Dame defense.

The Irish and Cardinal will keep this one close as Stanford will hold a 24-23 lead with under a couple minutes to go, but Book will come in and lead a game-winning drive to give the Irish a big win.

Final Score: Stanford 24, Notre Dame 30 (3-2)