Notre Dame Football 2011: 4 Reasons Stanford Will Fall This Season
For 2011, Stanford has returning Mr. Universe, All-American quarterback, and all-around swell guy Andrew Luck, who shunned potentially hundreds of dollars from the NFL to bring a national championship to the Cardinal.
After pounding out a 45-38 win over the Irish in 2009, last year Stanford and Luck crushed the Irish in dominating fashion in full view of Touchdown Jesus, 37-14.
Coming off a 12-1 campaign, early predictions put Stanford neck and neck with BCS runner-up Oregon for the PAC 10 title.
Notre Dame finishes next season at Palo Alto, and by my account it looks like it’s going to be a very long Saturday…for Stanford.
Yes my brethren, in 2011 Stanford will fall, and I’ve got four great reasons why the Irish will trip them.
Reason No.1: Notre Dame Will Be All Growed Up
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The good news for the Stanford faithful is that in the fourth game of 2010, Bob Diaco’s fresh-faced defense was often helpless against Andrew Luck & Co., and worse, the Cardinal held the Irish offense to 14 points and 44 yards rushing.
The bad news for the Cardinal is that the team they toyed with that day isn’t around anymore.
If I don't miss my guess, with an additional year of development, the entire team will have a much better handle on Immanuel Kant's theories of categorical imperatives.
Make no mistake, the 2011 Irish will definitely be a team to be reasoned with.
Possibly more importantly for the football team, the entire offense will will have almost two full years in Brian Kelly’s and Bob Diaco's systems by game time, plus Notre Dame won’t be breaking in a brand new QB.
To literally add to the weight of the moment, Notre Dame’s trenches will have another year of Pappa Longo’s Bully Growing Home Video, available in both CD and Blue-Ray.
As proof this really is a different team, it was recently reported that Notre Dame’s defense was so much better by the end of 2010 that eight different defensive players were turned away from their own homes when their parents didn’t recognize them.
The 2011 Irish aren't going to be a bunch of new coaches with new kids playing new schemes. The Irish will play bigger, smarter, meaner, and faster than the kids Stanford schooled in 2010, and they aren't going to play nice.
Reason No. 2: The Andrew Luck & Co. Show Is Missing the “& Co.”
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I have so much man-love for Andrew Luck it hurts me. The guy is a stud and, though it shames me, I want him to Tweet me. I have my 20 year old daughter call him four times a week on the off chance I could make him my son.
Luck's 3,338 yards, 32 touchdowns, 8 interceptions and 70.7 % completion rate in a vertical passing game was a clinic in quarterback play. But unless the NCAA is passing a rule going to 5 on 5 offenses, his offense in 2011 is going to, in technical football jargon, “Flop a lot.”
Stanford’s 2010 offensive line gave up five sacks in 2010. It was big, experienced and nastier than Snookie doing the walk of shame. For 2011, three interior lineman (one All-American), an anvil-like fullback, a top tight end, and Luck’s top two wide receivers are gone.
Serviceable RB Stepfan Taylor returns after gaining 1,137 yards rushing with 28 catches for 266 yards. It will be hard to repeat those numbers with a restructured line and nobody else to throw to.
Senior Chris Owusu and his 25 balls for 396 yards returns as Luck’s top receiver (By comparison, Michael Floyd and I led the Irish with 79 catches for 1,025 yards, with Floyd getting the bulk of the work with 79 catches for 1,025 yards).
Should be great fun to watch Luck hike it to himself, run over and chip block the DE to buy time, then roll right to hit himself with a beautiful forty yard fade for the score.
Oh, forgot, they also lost the kicker. "Get your ass out there and kick that extra point Luck."
I said it before and I’m saying it again: Even with the cape and a big red "S" on his jersey, Stanford's offense is going to need more than just Luck.
Reason No. 3: Stanford’s Defense Won’t Stop My Mom from Scoring in 2011
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My mom is 89 years old and will sometimes take an entire half to get from the huddle to the line of scrimmage. To her credit, when she's sober she runs downhill, is a good finisher and presents a constant threat to take it two or three feet in no particular direction on any given play.
If her hip doesn't give out again, she'll be a home run threat against Stanford this year.
Remember all of those nice cuddly Cardinal defenses from years past that were so cute you just wanted to pick them up and give them a big hug?
Get ready for the warm embrace because that Stanford defense is back.
It isn’t just that the Stanford defense loses six starters, which is way more than five, it’s that they were very arguably the best most experienced six they had.
The only returning defensive lineman, senior DE Matthew Masifilo with his five career sacks and injury history, is maybe OK. Returning strong safety Delano Howell is good. Other than that, the secondary returns two other DB’s that sucked completely in 2009, and were only slightly less sucky in 2010, mostly due to the dominating defensive line and active linebacking corp in front of them.
The Irish lit up the Stanford defensive backfield for 340 yards and five touchdowns in 2009. Last season, Dayne Crist in only his fourth game as a starter threw for 304 yards and a touchdown against these guys while their veteran front seven wreaked havoc all day with three sacks and countless hits. That front seven has two linebackers and one defensive end returning.
Since when did a Stanford defense not rebuild but reload?
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Reason No. 4: The Stanford Coaches Are Greener Than My Beer on St. Paddy’s Day
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We all know the legend of Jim Harbaugh, who with but one mighty arm, brought this program up by sheer force of will with some major help from a jaw so square mechanical engineers often used it to draw with.
Well folks, Harbaugh go bye bye. After bolting to the NFL, he immediately hired away Stanford coaches Greg Roman as offensive coordinator, Vic Fangio as defensive coordinator, and Tim Drevno as his offensive line coach.
That left his remaining coach David Shaw standing in the hallway without a job. Luckily Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby was walking by and said, "Why the long face?", to which Shaw replied, "Jim hired everybody but me." So Bowlsby says, "We might have an opening in Cafeteria Sales or something." ...but there wasn't anything in Cafeteria Sales so they gave him the coaching gig, ending an extensive and diligent coaching search.
Shaw then paid it forward by promoting the other coach Harbaugh didn't want, Derek Mason, from defensive backs coach to co-defensive coordinator. In an apparent effort to hire everybody that Harbaugh didn't want, when Harbaugh kicked 49er OLB coach Jason Tarver out the door, Shaw swooped in and hired him as his co-defensive coordinator.
The 38 year old Shaw worked for Harbaugh as an offensive coordinator since 2007, but he is no Jim Harbaugh, and his jaw, while well defined, is nowhere near as square. And no, his new co-defensive coordinators do not a Harbaugh make.
Aside from not being Jim Harbaugh either, I feel another kindred bond with the Cardinal staff…College Games as Head Coach or Defensive Coordinator: Dan – 0 Stanford Staff - 0. We're tied going into 2011.
Shaw will retain his offensive coordinator role while co-defensive coordinator Mason will continue as a secondary coach. Co-defensive coordinator Tarver will also handle inside linebackers.
When you have no idea what you’re doing, I say best to multi-task.
I’m probably just spitballin’ here, but in major college football I daresay that sometimes it’s best to get coaches that have actually coached. Despite the remnants of the Harbaugh mystique, the Stanford staff is probably one of the most raw and inexperienced in the country.
Trust me, like so many of my cougar pick-up lines at Bailey’s Pub, an entire staff cutting their teeth in 2011 will not end well.
Summary
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The 2010 12-1 Stanford Cardinal was a tough, well-coached, hard-nosed football team on both sides of the ball, and they were really really mean to us.
They had unquestionably the best QB in the country, distracted only by my daughter’s incessant calling.
They had arguably the best coach and some of the best lineman in college football, on both sides of the ball. They had a rugged, active defense that bit you if you got too close. In addition, their 2010 season was blessed with almost no injuries.
The 2011 Stanford Cardinal offense has Andrew Luck, four guys that know what a college football field looks like, and seven other guys named Bill. They return a defense equally decimated by graduation, and an entire coaching staff that is watching film of Jim Harbaugh as we speak in hopes of one day learning what it is they actually do.
I’ll admit, it's already two weeks before spring practice and so far Stanford has avoided any major injuries, so they have that going for them. If the rebuilt line lets Luck go down, this team will go from above average to awful before he can grab his knee.
No matter how much Luck they have, the Cardinal will be fortunate to win eight games in 2011, and Notre Dame isn’t going to be one of them.
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