Notre Dame Football: Stanford Cardinal Q&A with Channel Tree Sports

Let’s learn about this week’s classic ACC opponent, the Stanford Cardinal!

Folks,,,

After a brief hiatus from our opponent Q&As due to that lovely bye week full of awesome upsets of non-Notre Dame Fighting Irish football teams, we’re #back this week as we prepare for our co-11th-ranked, 4-1 Irish to play host to the 2-3 Stanford Cardinal at Notre Dame Stadium.

The Cardinal are fresh off a couple blowout losses to Virginia Tech and Clemson, and the Irish completely manhandled them last November in Palo Alto as Audric Estime ran roughshod over an undermanned Stanford defense. However, we all remember the last time a struggling Stanford squad limped into South Bend: the 2022 team, in David Shaw’s final season at the helm, won an ugly one 16-14. If that gave you some nightmare flashbacks to a certain 16-14 loss just a few weeks ago, then just know you’re not alone.

So, considering we CANNOT have the Irish drop the ball like that again against an inferior opponent, we really need to arm ourselves with as much knowledge about them as possible to prepare accordingly. So, we reached out to our good friends over at Channel Tree Sports, the best and most fun site for everything Stanford sports. David Ta, their staff’s football expert, was kind enough to provide answers to a wide variety of questions — everything from the QB situation to what his favorite anthropomorphic trees are.

With that said, let’s not dilly-dally any longer — time to learn about those pesky Stanford Cardinal!

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1. We all knew it was gonna be a massive, long job to rebuild this Cardinal program – how do you feel Troy Taylor is doing with that so far after about 1.5 seasons at the helm, and do you think he’s the right guy to get Stanford competing for ACC titles in the future?

Channel Tree Sports: I truly believe Troy Taylor is doing something special but he just needs time. The Stanford program was in extremely bad shape when he arrived. So many guys had transferred out, particularly our offensive line. We didn’t have the old man strength necessary to field a capable offensive line. Last year, Taylor could put 7 guys in protection but the rushers would still get home to a quarterback that took forever to make decisions. How could you possibly gameplan around that? It is a miracle that we won 3 games nonetheless.

If you followed the program, you knew that it was going to look bad initially. Taylor brings in a mentality of relentless optimism. I have heard that the players really believe in Taylor and his message. We are on the right path.

2. What’s the latest on Ashton Daniels – is he going to be healthy enough to play Saturday? Or will it be someone else quarterbacking the Stanford offense? Whoever you think it will be, what are their biggest strengths that could cause problems for the ND defense, and what weaknesses or limitations do you think the Irish should try to exploit?

Channel Tree Sports: We received word recently that Ashton Daniels is healthy enough to play against Notre Dame. Daniels is full of heart and passion — a true leader of the team. The second year starter plays with grit and tenacity. As seen in the legendary comeback against Colorado last year, he never gives up.

However, he is a flawed quarterback who makes plenty of mind boggling mistakes. Despite a clean pocket, he often scrambles out when he does not need to. Despite being an upperclassman, he continues to repeat signal caller’s sin of staring down receivers and locking onto his first read. His accuracy and decision-making are problematic leading to unnecessary turnovers.

Rich Barnes-Imagn Images

3. Two-parter here:

How is the Stanford o-line looking this season, and do you expect them to hold up well against a good Irish front seven who keeps losing key guys to injury?

Who are the skill position names to know for Stanford? Please use a nice portion of this answer to just tell us about why Elic Ayomanor rules, but then please also use the other portion to point out some other guys who could give the Irish trouble on Saturday.

Channel Tree Sports: The offensive line looks good now. We have some steady play despite a youthful offensive line room. Troy Taylor has confirmed that these will be the starters moving forward. I’d expect some decent play particularly in the run game, but a few struggles in pass protection if the offensive line can gel this game with center Levi Rogers out.

True freshman Kahlil House has surpassed Senior Jack Leyrer at the left tackle position. He admitted nerves in the home game against Cal Poly caused him to struggle but he has improved greatly in a short amount of time making the On3 mid-season True Freshman team. However, playing in South Bend might cause him to struggle again.

The most experienced player, 5th year center Levi Rogers, is the leader of the offensive line. However, he can struggle to coordinate the line adequately at times. Though he is out for this game. We are not sure who will step up for him but there may be many more communication issues.

Right Guard Simione Pale is a mauler who can open up rushing lanes but needs to improve in pass protection.

Elic Ayomanor is the guy who the offense runs through. He’s a big, fast, and physical receiver with strong hands and ball tracking skills to out-power smaller players for the 50-50 jump ball — a prototypical David Shaw WR/TE hybrid. In addition to his effective route running, his lethal combination of speed and physicality make him hard to take down when he has the ball in his hands, allowing him to make big gains after the catch.

Despite shaky quarterback play his entire career, he has continued to produce – quietly notching a 1,000 yard receiving season last year in addition to his dominant performance against Colorado last year. However, Ayomanor can struggle to consistently create one-on-one separation at times and may rely too much on physicality to win matchups.

Micah Ford is our true freshman star RB who is beginning to emerge. He was our first 100 yard rusher in two years. A highly competitive player, he has good vision and strength to finish runs. However, like a lot of young running backs he still struggles in pass protection, but is getting better. He will be playing this week.

Collin Wright has been an excellent corner so far. He is a projected day 2 pick who shines on an otherwise troubled secondary. The Texan can make great tackles in space. Quarterbacks have been able to neutralize his impact by picking on literally every other secondary player who is not Collin Wright. We had a solid nickel player in Jay Green but he is out due to injury.

4. The Stanford defense looks like it’s struggled the last couple weeks – what’s gone wrong on that side of the ball against teams like Clemson and VaTech?

Channel Tree Sports: The defense played well against Clemson. The problem is that the turnovers caused short fields leaving the defense in a bad position. Everyone played well but the struggles at the quarterback position concealed how the game was closer than the score. It was another blowout but a promising game that had shown how far we had come.

Virginia Tech saw more quarterback woes from backup Justin Lamson. However, late in the game our team started to give up as the game got out of hand. The defense has made a lot of progress in a short amount of time. We look like we could compete with a Power 4 team. Something we could not say last year.

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Additionally, what position group(s) would you say is(are) the strength of the unit, and what position group(s) is(are) the weak link that ND could take advantage of?

Channel Tree Sports: The weakest position group is the quarterbacks while the strongest position group is the defensive line.

Ashton Daniels, as I have mentioned, continues to struggle. It does not appear that he has improved from last year. Justin Lamson is our QB2 but he is more like a short yardage back that sometimes throws as a trick play. He’s a strong physical runner full of heart but he also struggles to see the field and make progressions. Elijah Brown, our star recruit, is injured. He looked great in limited garbage time against Cal Poly. The four year Mater Dei starter actually went through his progressions and read the field. While he does not have a strong arm, he can really get the ball out to allow his guys to make plays.

To our pleasant surprise, our defensive line has truly emerged this season. We got Wisconsin’s front seven coaches and they have had a tremendous impact. The conference’s most highly ranked rushing defense ranked at No. 12 in the nation, the defensive line has made an impact forcing offensives to be one dimensional. Yale transfer Clay Patterson has helped change the line to become much more physical. He is also an excellent pass rusher who can get to the quarterback.

Rich Barnes-Imagn Images

A future NFL draft pick, David Bailey is a dominant pass rusher who has been playing out of his mind this season. We have seen flashes of dominance in previous seasons but a lack of consistency limited his impact. The coaches must have been doing something right as David Bailey has been playing lights out with an extraordinary motor. Ernest Cooper III is a fun player to watch. While young, he plays with energy and enthusiasm.

5. FAN QUESTION:

Channel Tree Sports: I’m so grateful for Notre Dame that I briefly considered converting to Catholicism (before realizing Martin Luther himself would descend from Protestant Heaven and clobber me 95 theses style until I reversed course like a good German).

We love the ACC and Notre Dame is a big reason we’re in it, hence the immense gratitude. I don’t know a single Stanford fan that has buyer’s remorse. The new Pac-12 is just the Mountain West, and if we wanted to join that we could’ve a few months ago. I was surprised to see so many pundits speculate that Calford would go back west… as if there wasn’t a pending lawsuit proving the ACC grant of rights is ironclad and not easily escaped.

Even if that weren’t an obstacle, Stanford’s non-revenue sports would suffer in the new Pac. Sure, they have some solid football programs, but would our swimming, soccer, and softball teams really have the competition they deserve? All that chatter seemed silly to me.

6. FAN QUESTION:

Channel Tree Sports: When Cal won their last Rose Bowl, the ballpoint pen hadn’t been invented yet. I’m willing to let them have this one.

PS — The ACC refs rigged it for Miami, that was absolutely targeting smh

7. FAN QUESTION:

Channel Tree Sports: Congrats on picking a mascot for your gender segregated dorm I guess? I don’t know what you want me to say. Trees kick ass. Griffins are just last names for Seth McFarlane characters. We made the right choice in 1978, which is saying a lot since lead paint was still all the rage.

On the topic, Stanford’s Band also tried to roll out a phallic Hoover Tower, a carton of french fries, and a “steaming manhole cover” as the mascot. This after the student body overwhelmingly voted for the “Robber Barons” (to honor our gilded age railroad tycoon founder) which was promptly shut down. Democracy might’ve had that last one right.

8. FAN QUESTION:

Channel Tree Sports: Almost certainly David Starr Jordan, but maybe David Shaw’s offense traveled back in time to bore her to death.

9. Last year we asked you guys to rank your top-10 trees. This year, I want you to give me your power rankings for Best Anthropomorphic Trees of All-Time – where does the Stanford Tree rank in comparison to Treebeard/the Ents in Lord of the Rings, the Whomping Willow in Harry Potter, Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy, the tree in The Giving Tree, and any other such examples you can think of from pop culture/mythology?

Channel Tree Sports: You didn’t ask for this, but if you’re interested in a related topic, I once wrote an article called A Definitive Ranking of Pac-12 Mascots by How Much I Wanna Make Out with Them for the Stanford Daily. Um. Anyways. ON TO THE TREE LIST!

1. Totoro’s Camphor Tree from My Neighbor Totoro
2. Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy but only if he died in the first movie like he should’ve
3. The Magic Tree House from The Magic Tree House
4. Pete Huyck (former Stanford Tree mascot and executive producer of the TV show Veep)
5. Tree That Owns Itself which I visited in Athens once
6. @DaStanfordTree who has some pretty solid tweets and is dope all around (but also knows its place)
7. Groot actually
8. The Great Deku Tree from Zelda
9. Whomping Willow from Harry Potter (which is generally a jerk, but it gets points back for hiding a kickass secret passageway to the Shrieking Shack)
10. Treebeard from The Lord of the Rings (not hasty enough)

10. Alright, let’s get down to it – who wins this game, what’s the final score, and how do you think it happens?

Channel Tree Sports:

31-13 Notre Dame.

I think our defense makes the game closer than expected until the very end. Riley Leonard’s inaccuracy may bail out our secondary but Stanford’s struggling offense fails to put enough points on the board to win the game.

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Alright y’all, I want to give a massive thank you to David and Channel Tree Sports for always being such willing participants in these Q&As, and encourage you all to head over to their site to check out some excellent puns and some great coverage of Stanford football (as well as other Cardinal athletic teams). You may even find a Q&A with yours truly coming soon…

I also highly recommend you give the site and David a follow on Twitter — they’re a hilarious group of writers who do a great job being the goofy, smart, informed kind of tweeters that I know our One Foot Down readers love to follow.

Otherwise, that’s it for this week — as usual, I wanna end this by saying GO IRISH, BEAT CARDINAL!!!