Notre Dame

They are THE story in college football this year and Notre Dame look set to enter the BCS ranking in the top four if they defeat Stanford today at South Bend.

That is never a sure thing, especially in the Andrew Luck-era, but Luck, thankfully, has graduated and coach Jim Harbaugh is gone as well.

That means the Irish could finally feast on a Stanford team that has been a disappointment this year but who are always dangerous.

But with the No. 2 defence coming into this game in the nation Notre Dame confidence will be sky high, especially against a Stanford offense that has sputtered.

Notre Dame has allowed only 7.8 points a game and I think they can hold Stanford to 9 points overall especially if Manti T’Eo has a big game.

On the other side of the ball Stanford has the No. 49 rated offense --  a far cry from the days of Luck and Harbaugh who seemed to specialize in defeating Notre Dame..

Then there is the Notre Dame offense which came alive last week against Miami and showed a whole new dimension with Everett Golson suddenly living up to the hype.

He went from zero to Joe Montana seemingly overnight and Brian Kelly will have him primed against a Stanford defence that has failed to impress.

So my final score is Notre Dame 35, Stanford 6.