A bye week allowed Notre Dame extra time to refresh and refocus on its game against Stanford on Saturday afternoon in South Bend, Ind.
However, the No. 11 Fighting Irish (4-1) know that being rested is not as important as being prepared for their non-conference game against the Cardinal (2-3).
“There is no magic formula,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “I think every bye week is different, right? Where it occurs in your season, what injuries you have going on, your upcoming opponent. There’s a lot of different things that you have to focus on during that specific bye week.”
This time, Freeman is focused on keeping his players sharp against an opponent that knocked off the Fighting Irish in its most recent visit to Notre Dame Stadium. Stanford held on for a 16-14 win on the road against Notre Dame in 2022, and last season the Fighting Irish won 56-23 in Stanford, Calif.
Both teams feature plenty of new players from the last time the teams met in South Bend. Among them is Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard, who has passed for 750 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions and has rushed for 374 yards and seven touchdowns in his first five games with the program.
Freeman studied Leonard during the bye week, saying he thought the quarterback “did a really good job of decision-making.”
“Two weeks ago, I said we have to continue to focus on our move-to-pocket throws, which I thought he did a better job at,” Freeman said. “I have a lot of confidence in Riley. Nobody plays perfect, but I thought he did a really good job in terms of his preparation, in terms of his execution, and we’re going to continue to build on that.”
Notre Dame will seek its fourth win in a row after knocking off Purdue, Miami (Ohio) and then-No. 15 Louisville in its past three contests.
Meanwhile, Stanford is coming off back-to-back losses against then-No. 17 Clemson and Virginia Tech. The Cardinal have two wins this season after winning three games during all of 2023.
“It’s a growth process,” Stanford coach Troy Taylor said. “… We’re improving, and we’re much closer than we were last year. You talk about mental toughness, that’s what mental toughness is — being able to be the same person each day. As a leader, I’ve got to be consistent in everything I do and my mentality and my emotions and my preparation.
“Our players are so resilient. I think (each loss) hurts pretty badly for everybody for about a 24-hour period of time, and then once you get your eyes on the next opponent and start preparing, it starts to wane a little bit, and then, hopefully, you get a victory in the next week.”
Quarterback Ashton Daniels leads the Stanford offense with 633 passing yards and five touchdowns, with six interceptions, for the season. He also has a team-high 250 rushing yards.
Taylor said Daniels and the rest of the offense will face a stiff challenge against Notre Dame’s defense.
“They’re good in all areas,” Taylor said. “… They play a lot of man coverage. They’ve got a lot of confidence.”
The Cardinal defense will try to stop Leonard as a dual-threat quarterback, and they also must focus on the Fighting Irish’s one-two punch at running back: Jeremiyah Love has 373 rushing yards and five touchdowns, and Jadarian Price has 211 yards and two scores.
