Notre Dame Football: 4 reasons the Irish will beat Stanford in Week 5
By Dana Becker
2. Unhealthy Bryce Love hurts Cardinal
With the way Stanford’s K.J. Costello is playing this year, add in a healthy Bryce Love and you might not find a better pass-run team in the country.
Costello has shown incredible improvements this season, completing 64 percent of his passes for 1,056 yards with 10 touchdowns and just three interceptions. Twice he’s gone over 300 yards, including a 327-yard performance vs. Oregon last week in a come-from-behind overtime victory.
The problem, though, is Love hasn’t been healthy.
Love, who was the runner-up for the Heisman last season, ran for just 89 yards a week ago after skipping the UC-Davis game entirely. He did have 136 hard-earned yards vs. USC, but was held to 29 in the season opener vs. San Diego State.
Stanford has a very weird schedule coming up, as they host Utah next Friday before being off until a Thursday, October 18 date at Arizona State. If Love can get through this week without further injuring himself, and the Utah game, he’ll have some time to rest up.
Notre Dame, though, will definitely be using the gang-tackling mentality against Love on Saturday in hopes of slowing him down. Teams are running for 145 yards per game vs. the Irish defense, including just 3.5 yards per carry.