WEST LAFAYETTE, IN - SEPTEMBER 26: Notre Dame Fighting Irish cornerback Christian Gray (29) looks up at the scoreboard during the college football game between the Purdue Boilermakers and Notre Dame Fighting Irish on September 26, 2026, at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, IN. (Photo by Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

We don’t have to kid ourselves about Notre Dame’s upcoming game against the Stanford Cardinal. The trees are a really bad football team, and this one should get out of hand early and stay that way until the alma mater is played.

Still… there are plenty of interesting things we can see on Saturday when the Irish take the field (and that doesn’t include those magnificent green uniforms). Here are three things I want to see…

RINSE AND REPEAT

Notre Dame really got the running game going last week against North Carolina. While it was Jonaz Walton who finally got the bulk of the carries and popped off for 120 yards on 23 carries, it was the way the offensive line finally looked like it was playing as a total unit and was just moving bodies at will. Nolan James averaged 7 yards per carry and Williams averaged over 5 yards per carry… and I want more — so much more.

SECONDARY DEPTH

Leonard Moore was listed as questionable on Monday due to concussion protocol. As of Wednesday night, there’s no indication one way or another about his eventual status for Saturday. As far as I’m concerned, Moore should sit this one out on Saturday. Notre Dame has considerable depth and there are bigger games left on the schedule. I doubt the current depth chart is very accurate in terms of replacing Moore (Mark Zachery is listed in that spot) and we should probably expect Jayden Sanders or even Christian Gray to take over one side with DJ McKinney on another side. This likely ends up meaning Dallas Golden getting more snaps at the nickel, which is what he needs.

THROAT SQUEEZE

Again, let’s not fool ourselves about this game. Notre Dame is going win and win big. Here’s the thing though… make it hurt. I want Notre Dame to go in for the kill, kill it, and keep killing it long after Stanford is dead. Leave no doubt? How about leave no carcass. Certainly we don’t want to put players at risk for injury, but the Irish need to keep playing its full offensive and defensive scheme until the game ends. The backups will do just fine — let them loose and let’s put up a 60 burger on this ACC team hanging out next to the Pacific Ocean.