Stanford football endured a bitter defeat at the hands of Wake Forest, losing 57-3 to fall to 2-3 (1-3 ACC) on the season. This week, the Cardinal face their toughest test yet: a road matchup against No. 3 Notre Dame. The Fightin' Irish are a national title contender and will force Stanford to really dig deep in order to keep this game competitive. 

Head coach Tavita Pritchard had his weekly media availability on Tuesday ahead of this week's game against Notre Dame. Here are the most interesting points from what he said.

The results have been mixed this season, and while the players are the ones that ultimately have to go out there and execute, the coaching staff still plays a big role in the team's fortunes.

Pritchard is making sure that at every turn, the staff is holding itself accountable while emphasizing that the players need to continue to buy in and do what they're supposed to do.

"When I bring up execution, that is at least equal parts player and coach, and us making sure that their execution is such that they have an understanding of what we're doing, they have been training to what we're doing so that we can count on them to then go do that and execute in the game," Pritchard said. "Anytime I call on execution, it is absolutely calling on all parts and responsibilities of that.

"When I look at an evaluation of the staff, of our schemes and our techniques, it really is an evaluation of that: are we putting our guys in the best positions to succeed? Are we asking them to do things not only that they can do, but things that they have done before and that they're doing consistently in practice? And that's on us to find those answers and find the best answers for our team, coupled with the things that fit within our identity and within our values of how we want to play and the play style that we want to play with."

Each game gets harder and harder, and if the Cardinal want to get something out of this season and be proud of what they've accomplished, every part of the program needs to lock in and hold itself accountable to contribute to the cause. 

The scores in each of Stanford's losses have brought up questions about effort and whether or not the program is playing to the best of its ability. While that sort of thing can only be pinpointed objectively, focus is the root of it.

Stanford has appeared to lose focus in the latter parts of some of its matchups this season, meaning that staying focused all the way through will be key against a ranked team like Notre Dame.

"Asking for focus this week," Pritchard said. "One thing I felt we lost in that game [against Wake Forest] was our ability to focus on what was right in front of us. I felt like for whatever reason, we lost focus of our responsibilities or our technique, or certain things and again, that comes back to the holistic process: staff, players and what we're asking them to do.

"And so taking a hard look at the focus on for the staff, on what our players are doing, what we're doing in practice, what we're asking them to do, and then for the players of showing up with extreme focus, with a focus to get better at their respective role and responsibility throughout the week, and so that's what I'm asking for this week from them."

Notre Dame is a national title contender and a top-five team in all of college football. Stanford will go in as heavy underdogs with minimal expectations. But if the program wants to show that it has grown, a competitive game this week is a must. In order to do that, it needs to focus up for all four quarters.

Stanford's run game was the one area that was expected to shine from the very beginning. But the Cardinal have struggled to run the ball through the first five games, most recently managing just 49 yards on the ground against Wake Forest.

Notre Dame is a much different beast, and the offense cannot be one-dimensional. But how can it fix something that has been holding it back for a majority of the year?

"Of course the offensive line is the first place you think because it's such a big part of that blocking unit in the run game," Pritchard said. "I have great faith and trust in coach Hef [OC Terry Heffernan] and coach Keli'i [o-line coach Keli'i Kekuewa] as they design the run game. And we have to continue to find where to hang our hat there as we continue to forge our identity in all three phases, but certainly on the offensive side of the ball.

"What's our bread and butter? What run or run schemes are we going to keep coming back to, and getting a rhythm, an efficiency, a consistency on what those things are. And clearly, we haven't found that yet. We've got to keep looking, and we have to make sure we're evaluating that process at every step. So we will continue to do that. Like I said, our resolve is high, and we are committed to doing that because that's the only path, and that's the one that we're on. We're excited to do it."

Micah Ford is the lead ball carrier, but the running back room also has Sedrick Irvin, Chris Davis Jr. and Champ Hampton — all players who have shown flashes of talent. If the struggles continue, do not be surprised if changes are made to get one of these backs going.