5 things we learned in College Football Week 7

Notre Dame football still has issues

Just when it seemed like Notre Dame football and first-year head coach Marcus Freeman had things figured out, the Irish went and lost at home to Stanford, which has one win coming in.

The Cardinal’s first win over an FBS team was the 16-14 win over the Irish on Saturday. Before that, Stanford had gone 0-4 against FBS teams and had just one loss where the margin was fewer than 13 points (a 28-27 loss to Oregon State).

It seemed like the Irish had righted the ship with wins at North Carolina and over BYU in Las Vegas but the Irish just weren’t ready to go. They fell behind Stanford 13-0.

I don’t know a lot, but you can’t go an entire half without scoring and expect to win many games. Stanford ran the ball 42 times and while they didn’t get many yards, it allowed Stanford to run the clock and Tanner McKee to throw for 288 yards against a Notre Dame defense that was supposed to be exceptional this season.

Stanford has been anything but exceptional and the losses at home to Marshall, which has also lost three in a row to FBS teams since beating Notre Dame football, are hard to ignore.

And it’s reasonable to ask if the Irish will make a bowl? It also might be time to ask if Marcus Freeman is in over his head because it sure looks like it after six games.