David Shaw: 'Notre Dame fought us for it, and we fought back and finished the game'

It’s a storied rivalry, Notre Dame and Stanford, though neither team entered Saturday evening’s contest playing their best football. And after 60-minutes of hard-fought football, Stanford and head coach David Shaw emerged victorious over an FBS team for the first time in a calendar year.

After Stanford won, 16-14, a late field goal restoring the Cardinal lead after Notre Dame scored 14 unanswered points to take a one-point edge, Shaw reflected on how his team stayed in the scrap the whole way. Deserving or not, Stanford earned the win on Saturday in South Bend.

“The character of our football team. We talk a lot about what you earn, and try to stay out of what you deserve,” Shaw said. “Because I think these kids deserve to win. They’ve worked so hard. We’ve been so close. But you have to go out there and earn it. And Notre Dame fought us for it, and we fought back and finished the game.”

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The win, Stanford’s first over the Irish since November of 2017, also means the Legends Trophy will be making a long-awaited return to Palo Alto.

Shaw wants to make sure the current players at Stanford, who were mostly in high school the last time Stanford won, cherish it. And starting thinking about keeping it around.

“Absolutely, with missing 2020 and — half these guys don’t know what the Legends Trophy looks like,” Shaw said. “But not only are we going to show them what it looks like, we’re going to have some plans on keeping it.”

And while Stanford and Shaw will rightly revel in this win, the goal is to not let it be a blip, but rather the start of a winning run.

A little celebration is in line, still.

“It’s the first step,” Shaw said. “The first step is finishing a game like this. And now going back and seeing how we can play even better. But it’s a long flight home, there’s going to be some smiles on that plane ride.”