Jaylon Smith and Elijah Shumate kept pressure on Cardinal QB Kevin Hogan last year.

#4 Irish Aim to Improve to 11-1 on Saturday

Nov. 24, 2015

Game Notes Get Acrobat Reader | Game Week Central

TIME, DATE AND PLACE
* 7:40 p.m. ET; Saturday, Nov. 28, 2015
* Stanford Stadium (50,424); Stanford, California

TELEVISION
* FOX national telecast with Gus Johnson (play-by-play), Joel Klatt (analysis), Molly McGrath (sideline).
* The Irish will be looking for their first win on FOX. The network broadcast Notre Dame’s loss to LSU in the 2007 Sugar Bowl along with road losses at Stanford in 2013 and USC in 2014.

RADIO
* IMG College Sports is the exclusive national rights-holder for Irish football radio broadcasts. Notre Dame games will be broadcast to 117 affiliates by Don Criqui (play-by-play) and Allen Pinkett (analysis). This broadcast can be heard live on SiriusXM Satellite Radio (channel 129).
* The broadcast will be preceded by a one hour pre-game show hosted by Tony Castricone with Criqui, Pinkett and interviews conducted by Jack Nolan. It will be followed by a national post-game show hosted by Castricone, Criqui and Pinkett.
* All games can be heard in South Bend on WSBT 96.1 FM & 960 AM, and Sunny 101.5 FM.

TICKETS
* Stanford is expecting a sellout on Saturday night.
* Notre Dame has played in front of sellout crowds in 285 of its previous 334 games (.853) overall. Notre Dame has played before 656 sellouts in 935 total games (.702) since 1930. The Irish have sold out 297 of their last 298 home games dating back to 1964, including each of the last 249 in a row since 1973.
* Every Notre Dame game this season has attracted a sellout crowd, including a Temple record 69,280 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Oct. 31 and a Heinz Field-era Pitt record 68,400 on Nov. 7.

SERIES INFO
* Notre Dame is 19-10 all-time against Stanford. The home team has won each of the last four meetings, all of which have come with both teams ranked in the AP top 25.

THE COACHES
* Notre Dame: Brian Kelly, 55-21 at Notre Dame (6th year), 226-78-2 overall (25th year), 2-3 vs. SU
* Stanford: David Shaw, 51-14 at Stanford (5th year), 51-14 overall (5th year), 2-2 vs. ND

WHAT TO WATCH FOR
* Stanford is the sixth team Notre Dame has faced in its last eight games which has won at least seven games this season. The Irish are 4-1 against the first five seven-win teams it has faced in 2015.

COUNTDOWN TO KICKOF
11 Notre Dame has scored 11 TDs this year of at least 50 yards. It is believed to be a school record, eclipsing the 10 TDs of at least 50 yards compiled by the 1988 consensus national championship team.
10 Notre Dame has won 10 games on the season. Joining its 12-1 campaign in 2012, the Irish are seeking to win at least 11 games for the second time in a four-year span for just the second time in school history. Notre Dame only previously accomplished this feat in 1988-89, going 12-0 and 12-1, respectively, those years.
9 Notre Dame has had nine 100-yard rushing games in 2015. That sum ties for the most by Notre Dame since having 11 100-yard rushing games in 1983.
8 LB Jaylon Smith has eight tackles for loss this year among his 98 total tackles. He is two stops shy of joining Manti Te’o as the only Irish players to have consecutive 100-tackle seasons in the Brian Kelly era.
7 WR Will Fuller is seventh in the nation with his 12 receiving TDs in 2015. He ranks second in Irish lore with 28 career TD catches and is the fourth player in Notre Dame history with consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons.
6 Notre Dame has a 6-3 record against Pac-12 competition since 2012. The Irish are 1-0 this year with a 41-31 win over a USC team which would claim the Pac-12 South divisional title with a win on Saturday against UCLA.
5 Notre Dame currently holds all five of its traveling trophies. The Legends Trophy is on the line this week. During this season, the Irish regained the Jeweled Shillelagh from USC and kept the Leahy Bowl by beating Boston College last week at Fenway Park.
4 Brian Kelly is the fourth Irish skipper to have multiple 10-win seasons at the school, joining Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz.
3 Freshman RB Josh Adams has three 100-yard rushing efforts on the season, matching the school’s freshman record.
2 Only twice in school history has an Irish quarterback ran for more TDs in a single season than DeShone Kizer’s eight – Tony Rice (nine in 1988) and Rick Mirer (nine in 1991).
1 The Irish claimed the first of their 11 consensus national championships in their first meeting against Stanford – a 27-10 win in the 1925 Rose Bowl.
0 No team ranked in the AP top 10 has a higher graduation success rate for football than Notre Dame’s 93. The Irish have led the nation for all-sports GSR nine years in a row.