Notre Dame hosts Stanford after Cardinal’s historic loss

What Happened

Seven days after Stanford suffered the second-worst loss in program history, 5-0 Notre Dame will host the 2-3 Cardinal on Saturday, Oct. 10, at 3:30 p.m. ET with a 15-game winning streak and its margin for error before ranked tests on the line. The teams took sharply different paths into the matchup. Notre Dame beat North Carolina 37-26 on Oct. 3 for its first 5-0 start under Marcus Freeman. Stanford lost 57-3 at Wake Forest, a result that left the Cardinal trying to recover before the 40th meeting of a series that began in 1925. The clearest strength for that push has been the connection between quarterback C.J. Carr and receiver Jordan Faison. Carr has 16 total touchdowns and one interception in 2026. Faison followed the North Carolina win with eight catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns, and the duo has completed 75.5% of its passes together. Faison arrived at Notre Dame as a highly regarded lacrosse recruit after playing quarterback in a Wing-T offense. His football role has since grown into a central one, and his latest performance gives Carr a proven target as the Irish move toward BYU and Miami. Stanford has its own reason to view the matchup as more than a recovery stop. The Cardinal's last win over a top-10 opponent came in 2017, when it upset Notre Dame. Notre Dame has won the last three meetings, while Stanford enters under first-year coach Tavita Pritchard after a 2-3 start and a loss that exposed how much ground the program must cover. The game sets a simple test for both teams: Notre Dame can carry its unbeaten start and unbeaten streak into the ranked portion of its schedule, while Stanford can change the conversation with the kind of result that last revived this rivalry. Carr and Faison have given the Irish the most reliable answer to that pressure so far.

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