The #9 Stanford Cardinal have been written off for dead at multiple points of the 2015 season. That means very little now, as their College Football Playoff hopes are alive following a massive home 38-36 win over the #6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday night.
An improbable Kevin Hogan 27-yard strike to WR Devon Cajuste got the Cardinal (10-2) in field goal range down 36-35 with less than ten seconds left. Hogan's highlight reel pass ultimately set kicker Conrad Ukropina up for a 45-yard field goal attempt. Ukropina nailed the pressure kick, securing the jaw-dropping win and knocking Notre Dame (10-2) out of the College Football Playoff chase.
Kevin Hogan made his final regular season game with the Cardinal count, going 17 of 21 for 269 yards and four touchdowns. In the shadow of Andrew Luck, Hogan has had an up-and-down career that's seen him both revered and reviled by the Stanford fan base. However, backed up RB Christian McCaffrey's 222 all-purpose yards and WR Devon Cajuste's 125-yard, 1-TD night, Hogan heads into next week's Pac-12 title game against USC on the highest of highs.
Hogan's heroics will go down as the story of this game, but Notre Dame QB DeShone Kizer's 362 combined yards (234 passing, 128 rushing) and two touchdowns was almost enough to end Stanford's title hopes for good. Kizer capped off a clock-eating 15-play, 88-yard drive with a two-yard TD run, putting Notre Dame up 36-35 with just over a minute left. Filling in for the injured Malik Zaire, Kizer has been a revelation for an Irish team that'll fall just short of their College Football Playoff dreams.
Freshman RB Josh Adams also gets a major nod for rushing for 168 yards and a touchdown on a stout Stanford front seven, filling in admirably for injured starter CJ Prosise.
Stanford's two losses keeps them as a fringe CFP contender, but they've at least got a chance to make the field if either #1 Clemson or #2 Alabama falls in their respective conference title games next week.
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