Opponent Notes: Stanford and Georgia Get Ready for Spring Games

The perception from a distance was that Stanford had a bad year last season. That is largely based off their disappointing mid-season swoon where they were beat down by Washington and Washington State in consecutive games. The reality is that even though those losses were embarrassing, they still won 10 games. So while it might not seem like they came into this spring on a high note, things are still pretty good for them on The Farm.

Unfortunately for Stanford, but fortunately for David Shaw, they don't receive a ton of media coverage in the spring. There isn't much out there in terms of things being written about them before their spring game this weekend. I'll watch it and report back next week, but I'm not expecting to see many of their front line players.

Shaw has held out defensive lineman Harrison Phillips, tailback Bryce Love, and tight end Dalton Schultz for much of the spring like he did last year with Solomon Thomas and Christian McCaffrey. That's okay with me as I'll get to see if there are any other standouts who step forward and guys like Love, Schultz, and Phillips are already established.

There were a few nuggets of information that Fox Sports' Stewart Mandel shared about the Cardinal after his visit to watch a spring scrimmage, though. He shared them with his co-host Bruce Feldman on their podcast, The Audible.

He specifically mentioned the lack of clarity behind Keller Chryst at quarterback. He is out for the spring recovering from a late season knee injury, but is expected to be back for pre-season camp. Stanford plays Notre Dame so late in the year so I would expect Chryst to be completely fine by the time they face off, but Mandel suggested that the weapons for him on the outside are not going to be great again aside from Trent Irwin and that freshmen will have to contribute to give them more of a big play element. That could mean that former Notre Dame commit Paulson Adebo and former Notre Dame target Osiris St. Brown may end up with big roles this season.

It's not shocking that Mandel said the defense looked strong once again. They have one of the top returning cornerbacks in the country in Quenton Meeks. The three game stretch of them facing the two teams from Washington and then Notre Dame says it all about his value to their defense.

He missed most of the Washington game and all of the Washington State game as their defense was shredded for over 40 points in both. He was back for the Notre Dame game and they shut down the Irish offense in the second half of that game including a pick six by him.

I'm looking forward to see how their defensive front looks because I didn't think they had much quality behind Phillips and Thomas last season. The game is going to be broadcast by the Pac-12 Network this Saturday, but might be only available to stream due to a conflict with the USC spring game at the same time.

(For more on USC, check out Mike's Q&A with WeAreSC's Gary Paskiewitz here)

Georgia looking to get creative utilizing loaded backfield

For most Notre Dame fans, the most anticipated game of this season is the week two game against Georgia. Not only is it a rare opportunity for the Irish to host an SEC team, it also should provide a litmus test for the season to see how good they can be. Georgia isn't coming off a great year, but they are returning a ton of talent that should present plenty of challenges, especially on defense.

It sounds like the Bulldogs coaching staff is trying to get their best eleven on the field as much as possible on offense and that means they aren't going to waste the talents of their loaded backfield by keeping them on the sideline. That means they could have two time thousand yard rusher Nick Chubb in the backfield and the equally dangerous Sony Michel lined up in the slot. They have been working Michel and fellow running back Brian Herrien there as well this spring.

In addition to those three, they also have former Notre Dame target Elijah Holyfield and 5 star D'Andre Swift will be on campus this summer.

The biggest problem they are trying to solve is on the offensive line where they struggled last season and are still trying to find the right combination of players. Every Irish fan knows that Notre Dame was trying to find the right combination on the line last spring as well and it didn't turn out so well. We'll see how it turns out or Georgia and whether they can figure it out by week two.

In not great news for the Irish, it sounds like former 5 star recruit Terry Godwin is ready for a big year. Head coach Kirby Smart has praised the growth of Godwin this spring. He was one of my favorite recruits to watch in the 2015 recruiting class. Another former 5 star recruit, Mecole Hardman, is now working on offense after playing defense last season.

So Georgia could have a 5 star quarterback in Jacob Eason throwing to a couple of 5 stars at receiver while handing off to a loaded backfield that includes three former 5 star prospects. On paper, the Bulldogs are going to be the most talented team Notre Dame faces all season.