Saturday Spotlight: Notre Dame playing coy with its starting QB vs. Stanford

6:30 p.m. (Ch. 11)

Last year, Stanford made an in-season quarterback change, going to K.J. Costello late in the season to boost an offense that was relying too much on the running game and help the Cardinal surge to a Pac-12 title game appearance.

This season, Notre Dame has made a similar move. Fighting Irish coach Brian Kelly did not wait as long as Cardinal coach David Shaw to make the switch, and he also is still playing it coy about how committed he is to last week's starter, Ian Book.

"We've prepared both quarterbacks, and they are both ready to play," Kelly said.

And Shaw says the Cardinal will be ready for either Book or Brandon Wimbush on Saturday night, when Stanford visits Notre Dame in the first top-10 matchup between the schools in 33 meetings.

Costello took over as Stanford's No. 1 quarterback last November, and his best performance down the stretch was against Notre Dame, throwing four touchdown passes and no interceptions in the regular-season finale victory.

Last week at Oregon, Costello, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound junior, was 19-for-26 for 327 yards and three touchdowns in a wild Stanford comeback overtime victory.

Costello has completed 73 of 114 passes for 1,056 yards and 10 touchdowns against three interceptions. "He has made a lot of growth since last year," Shaw said. "I believe there is a really high ceiling he'd like to reach and we'd really love him to reach."

Kelly started Book, a junior, last week after senior Brandon Wimbush was No. 1 for the Irish in the first three games of the season. Book threw for 325 yards and accounted for five touchdowns against Wake Forest. Wimbush, who started 12 games last season, did not play.

Kelly loved the way Book distributed the football last Saturday with 15 backs and receivers getting at least one touch. But Thursday, Kelly wasn't ready to say Book would start over Wimbush.

11 a.m. (Ch. 5)

A surprise battle for the top of the ACC's Atlantic Division, with Syracuse 4-0 for only the fifth time since the end of World War II. Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence gets his first chance to shine as a starter, after his four-touchdown performance against Georgia Tech last week prompted the freshman QB to be elevated and senior Kelly Bryant to announce he is tranferring.

Texas Tech lost its opener to Ole Miss but has scored 181 points in the three games since, including a 41-17 victory at Oklahoma State last week. The Red Raiders haven't won consecutive games over top-15 teams in 10 years. The Mountaineers followed an unexpected off week from Hurricane Florence by opening Big 12 play with a 35-6 victory over Kansas State.

3:30 p.m. (Ch. 9)

Michigan is rolling, having outscored its past three opponents by a combined score of 150-33. Northwestern has dropped back-to-back home games, blowing an 18-point lead in a 39-34 loss to Akron two weeks ago, and Wildcats leading rusher Jeremy Larkin announced Monday he was retiring from football after being diagnosed with cervical stenosis.

7:30 p.m. (Ch. 9)

Washington, coming off a 27-20 home victory over Arizona State, gets an unexpected Top 25 matchup to add to its résumé. The Cougars won at Wisconsin two weeks ago and now have a chance to damage the College Football Playoff hopes for another team from a power conference. BYU averages 156.5 yards per game rushing and could give the Huskies defense problems.

The Ducks look to bounce back from their late-game collapse against Stanford, when Oregon led 24-7 at halftime but fumbled in the final minute to give the Cardinal a chance to force OT. The Golden Bears, coming off a bye week, are in the AP poll for the first time since 2015 but have lost eight of the past nine meetings with Oregon.