SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame wants to slug it out with Stanford.

The seventh-ranked Fighting Irish (5-0) were pushed around by the Cardinal (4-1) the past two seasons, and Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly is challenging his players to go toe-to-toe with No. 17 Stanford on Saturday.

"The theme all week has been, we're going to be in for a physical, hard-nosed, four quarters, of just one of those good old-fashioned backyard brawls. It's going to be that kind of game," Kelly said. "We got our guys thinking about that on Monday and kept building through the week. That's really been the theme this week for our football team."