US LBM Coaches Poll No. 3 Notre Dame is set to take on Stanford this weekend.
The undefeated Fighting Irish (5-0) will face 1st-year Cardinal head coach Tavita Pritchard, who has led Stanford to a 2-3 record so far.
Pritchard’s college career as a coach and a player has been mainly with Stanford. He played for the Cardinal from 2006 to 2009, and was Stanford’s starting quarterback between 2007 and 2009.
In his coaching career, Pritchard was at Stanford from 2011 to 2017 as a defensive assistant, a running backs coach, a QB/receiver coach and as the Cardinal’s offensive coordinator that primarily focused on QBs.
Pritchard moved on to become the QB coach for the Washington Commanders. He guided QB Jayden Daniels to be the recipient of the NFL Offensive
Rookie of the Year award in 2024.
After one more season with the Commanders in 2025, Pritchard returned to Stanford as the head football coach. While Pritchard has never faced Notre Dame in his coaching career, he has history against the Irish as a player.
Pritchard went 0-2 against Notre Dame in his playing career, losing 21-14 and 28-21, respectively, in 2007 and 2008. Pritchard was a combined 28-of-42 on completions for 284 yards, two touchdowns and five interceptions in those games.
The Irish are 24-14 all-time against the Cardinal. Notre Dame has won three in a row versus Stanford, including a 49-20 result in November of last season.
The Cardinal are coming off a 57-3 loss to Wake Forest last weekend, while the Irish are fresh off a 37-26 victory over North Carolina.
Notre Dame and Stanford will square off on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
First ACC W for Tavita Pritchard 👏@StanfordFball pic.twitter.com/8Ese26emQj
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) September 27, 2026
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.
Follow Kevin on X: @KevLSmittie
This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Notre Dame to face Stanford head coach Tavita Pritchard for 1st time
