Stanford angered by 2003 beating

The Cardinal thought Notre Dame ran up last year's score.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- Many Stanford players have fond memories of Tyrone Willingham. Last year's game against Notre Dame is not one of them.
The Fighting Irish beat Willingham's former team 57-7 -- the worst home loss ever for the Cardinal -- and ran a fake punt with four minutes left.
Stanford hasn't forgotten going into today's game against the Irish.
"When you run a fake punt up 50-7, yeah they're trying to run up the score," center Brian Head said. "It's just one of those things that gets under your skin."
Fourth-down situation
The score was actually 57-7 when the Irish ran the fake. It was fourth-and-17, but the Irish only gained 14 yards and failed to get the first down. It doesn't matter. It still rankles the Cardinal.
"They definitely did try to run it up," linebacker Kevin Schimmelmann said.
For his part, Willingham said he doesn't regret the fake punt, saying the punter is supposed to make that call anytime he sees an opponent coming with an all-out rush. But he understands if the Cardinal use it as motivation.
"If I were sitting on the other side and I could twist that in such a manner to use it as motivation, I would try to use it," he said.
Stanford coach Buddy Teevens, though, said he didn't plan on talking too much about last year's game.
"We got embarrassed," Teevens said. "We're not going to let that affect us this year, unless we allow it to. Emotion can be a distraction."
The Cardinal (3-1) have not let much distract them this year. Stanford threw a scare into defending national champion Southern California before losing 31-28 and beat Brigham Young 37-10 a week after the Irish lost to the Cougars 20-17.
After averaging 283 yards of total offense and 17 points a game a year ago, the Cardinal are averaging 404 yards and 34 points this season.
Matter of confidence
The Irish (3-2), meanwhile, are worried that last week's 41-16 loss to No. 9 Purdue might have created a bit of a confidence crisis. Willingham started the week by talking about the need for the leaders to step up and keep the team focused.
"Our team knows that the focus needs to be there," defensive end Justin Tuck said. "We just have to filter it down to the whole team."
While Irish players said they feel no special emotion playing the Cardinal, Willingham said he does -- and he hopes he always will.
"I will always remember great times at Stanford. That's a very special part of my life. If I don't have Stanford, there's probably a pretty good chance I'm not here at Notre Dame," he said. "You can never take that away, and I hope I never lose sight of that."
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