Notre Dame Football: Does Brian Kelly Need Stanford Upset to Salvage 2nd Season?

Notre Dame’s chances to upset Stanford on Thanksgiving weekend look considerably better now that the Cardinal have been exposed by Oregon.

Stanford’s hype as a national title contender proved to be unwarranted, as Andrew Luck and the rest of the Palo Alto boys got stomped on by LaMichael James and the Ducks last Saturday.

We initially started to see the cracks in Stanford during the USC game, and those cracks finally became crevices against Oregon.

Now at 7-3, Notre Dame has righted the ship. If the Irish can actually win their last two regular season games against Boston College and Stanford and then win their bowl game (likely the Champs Sports Bowl), they will have actually attained their goal of reaching a double-digit win season.

Although, this is not exactly the road map that fans envisioned for the Irish this season.

When Notre Dame started off the year ranked in the Top 20, the Irish faithful had the feeling that this could be the year that their team finally starts to live up their prestigious brand name.

Then came the loss at home to South Florida.

And then came the meltdown at Michigan the following week.

And then, on cue, came the avalanche of criticism directed at head coach Brian Kelly.

Kelly has the lost the respect of more than a few Notre Dame fans this season, but luckily for him, just like last year, he’s got the chance to earn it back with a strong finish down the stretch.

Three more games, three more chances for a victory—Kelly can smell 10 wins.

To get there, he must first figure out a way to slow down Andrew Luck and the Stanford offense. If he can do that, he has a great shot to earn the most important win of the 2011 season for the Irish.

An upset of Stanford would certainly help salvage a ho-hum campaign, and it would serve as a great momentum booster for the 2012 season.