I have no bets to recommend at this time for Saturday’s Stanford-ND game, and probably won’t even bet it myself, even though as a Stanford alum and avid Stanford FB fan, I’ll obviously be rooting hard for Stanford to win the game. Below is the latest injury up-date on Stanford star RB Bryce Love, and my early take on this game, including how Love should be used, assuming he plays.
Love is officially listed as Probable for Saturday’s huge game against Notre Dame in Palo Alto, despite having AGAIN injured his ankle in Saturday nite’s closer than expected over traditional rival Cal (Love’s initial ankle injury having been sustained on Oct 14 against Oregon and causing him to miss Stanford’s next game, a much closer than expected last minute win at Oregon State). But even if Love plays, Sat vs ND, he should be used selectively (don’t use him as the main “horse,” BUT get him the ball in “open space” MUCH more than in the Cal and Wash games) and as a decoy (since he will get so much “attention” from the defense whenever he is in there). And Scarlett (Love’s back-up) looked pretty good (61 yr on 4.4 ypc) against Cal on Sat, so he can be used as the main “horse” for the running game. And not only should Shaw employ the “fake Love right, QB run left” at least 3 times per game, AND at least once on a critical 3rd or 4th down short yardage situation, but for God’s sake, do it with Costello at QB rather than putting in slow moving “stiff’ Ryan Burns when the play is used, as Shaw has done the only two times he even called that play in the L2 games (not only compromising the likelihood of success for the play, but also making the “fake” much more predictable).
As far as Stanford’s chances against ND, that’s a really tough call IMO (and at present, a strong PASS as far as my NOT betting the game), because (i) ND could not possibly be as bad on the road as they looked two weeks ago at Miami, (ii) BOTH teams will be playing for very high stakes in this game, (iii) with a line of 2.5, the point spread will not likely even come into play in this game, and (iv) given the potential mis-match of ND’s strong running game (275 yrpg on 6.4 ypc) against Stanford’s suspect run defense (allows 170 yrpg on 4.8 ypc), one that is clearly NOT up to usual Stanford standards, and after the way the last two RBs that Stanford faced just FEASTED on Stanford’s sub-par run defense (Cal’s Laird ran for 153 yards on 20 carries for 7.7 ypc, and the week before, Wash RB Miles Gaskin ran for 120 yards on 18 carries for 6.7 ypc), I expect ND star RB Josh Adams (who has averaged 121 yrpg on 7.8 ypc TY AND, unlike Love, is “healthy” for the game) to have yet another big day and to not only cause MAJOR problems for Stanford’s defense but also allow ND’s offense to control the game clock better than Stanford’s. Again, while I’ll obviously be rooting hard for Stanford to win the game, I’m not likely going to be “investing” on them TW either (glad that I passed on them at -14 vs Cal last Sat).
One more significant factor possibly impacting the Stanford-ND game on Saturday (at 8 eastern on ABC) is the fact that with Wash playing Wash State on Friday, Stanford’s players and coaches will know the night before whether or not they are the Pac-12 North champions and thus are playing the following Friday nite in the Pac-12 Championship Game against USC. And IMO, that helps Stanford regardless of what happens in the Wash-Wash State game, mainly because Stanford’s players won’t be distracted by “scoreboard watching” during the game but also because if Wash wins and Stanford is the Pac-12 North champion, that will help “fuel the fire” for the team and the crowd, while if Wash State pulls the upset and wins the Pac 12 North, it will be somewhat of a “downer’ for the Stanford team, but they’ll have a day to get over that, and it will make their game against ND all the more important, because the result of the game will go a long way in determining if Stanford will at least get invited to a “decent” middle rung bowl, like LY’s Sun Bowl, or if they have to settle for some “chicken shit bowl,” like the Foster Farms Chicken Bowl after the disappointing 2014 season. OMG, did I say “shit?” I hope Harvey is not offended.
Great Owl