Head coach Brian Kelly decided to take a gamble last week in changing quarterbacks even though his Irish football team was undefeated. Kelly inserted junior Ian Book as the starter. The result was a 56-27 victory over a Wake Forest team primed to pull an upset.

Book sparked the Irish offense, which was listless and struggled under Brandon Wimbush during the first three games, despite a opening win over high-powered Michigan.

Book led a Irish team that found a running game while the new QB was almost perfect in the short passing game. The up tempo play of the offense not only surprised the Deacon Demons, it also surprised many ND followers.

ND had less plays than Wake Forest, 92-76, but the Irish appeared to be in better condition for the hot weather with a game time temperature at 83 degrees and high humidity.

Book finished the day completing 25 of 34 passing for 325 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for three touchdowns. That is a start that will be hard to beat.

With the game out of reach late, Kelly used freshman Phil Jurkovec, the highly-touted western Pennsylvania signal caller, for a few plays. Under the new NCAA rules for redshirting, Jurkovec can play in four games without losing a year of eligibility.

After a slow start, Book began to heat up on Notre Dame’s fourth series of the game when he completed all four of his passes for 47 yards. Running back Jafar Armstrong finished it off with a 30-yard TD run through the heart of the Wake Forest defense. With the Irish leading 28-13 at halftime, Book led the offense on four consecutive touchdown drives to start the second half.

Adding to the successful day was another steady performance of the Irish defense, which shows signs of improving each week. ND’s defense sacked Wake Forest three times and recorded 10 tackles in the backfield. Safety Alohi Gilman finished with a team-high nine tackles. Drue Tanquill finished with eight tackles, two of them for a loss and one a sack. Because of the heat, the Irish rotated a lot of players on defense and special teams. A total of 26 different players recorded tackles for the Irish.

A total of 566 yards of offense, including 98 of the team’s rushing yards from Armstrong, showed how efficient the offense was under Book.

More on the game later.

Tonight, the Irish face No. 7 ranked Stanford in a clash of unbeaten teams. Stanford also enters at 4-0 with wins over San Diego State, 31-10; USC, 17-3; UC Davis, 30-10; and last week Oregon, 38-31 in overtime. Oregon had Stanford down by 17 points only to see the Cardinals rally late and tie it and then win in the overtime period.

The Cardinals are led by quarterback K.J. Costello, who has completed 73 of 114 passes for 1,056 yards and 10 TDs, with just 3 interceptions. His QB rating is very good at 165.53. The top rusher is Bryce Love who has 279 yards on 59 carries and two scores backed by Trevor Spights with 161 yards on 24 carries. The top receivers are JJ Arcego-Whiteside with 408 yards on 17 catches and seven TDs and Kaden Smith 258 yards on 18 receptions.

ND leads the series, 18-13-0, but Stanford has dominated the Irish lately winning the last three contests between the two schools. Stanford won last year, 38-20. The last ND win was in 2014, 17-14. Stanford is 4-1 against ND since 2013.

The game will be televised nationally by NBC-TV with a 7:40 p.m. scheduled kickoff.

IRISH NOTES ... Of course the big news for the Irish offense is the return tonight of running back Dexter Williams, who sat out the first four games due to a university imposed suspension. Williams’ return comes as the Irish have been improving their rushing attack the last two weeks. They are now 60th in the nation. Williams averaged about nine yards per carry last year. He gives ND another weapon on offense ... Interesting note on the Oregon-Stanford game. Had Oregon taken a knee three times — instead of handing it to running back C.J. Verdell — it would have either run the clock out or left Stanford with just a few seconds remaining. But Vardell fumbled and Stanford recovered and then marched in for the tying touchdown ... Some more game stats. Avery Davis ran for 43 yards on nine carries and Tony Jones Jr. 39 on seven. Alize Mack caught six passes for 61 yards and Chase Claypool caught four passes for 51 yards. Defensively, Jalen Elliot had eight tackles with Daelin Hayes had seven ... Book average 13 yards per completion which is the best per completion average since Jimmy Clausen averaged 13.44 yards against Michigan in 2009 ... Kicker Jonathan Doerer is another weapon for the Irish. His kickoffs did not allow Wake Forest to start farther than its own 25 yard line on any of his 9 kickoffs ... The 56 points scored was the most for an Irish team on the road since a 57-7 win over Stanford in 2003 ... Thirteen freshmen made the ND travel roster for the Wake Forest game ... Tonight marks the 35th game ever played at Notre Dame Stadium between top-10 foes. Notre Dame owns a 22-11-1 (.662) mark in home matchups of two teams ranked in the top 10 since 1936 ... Nationally, Notre Dame, Alabama and Ohio State are the only FBS undefeated teams to have won at least three games against Power Five competition (ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12) after four weeks ... Notre Dame has not had an empty seat for a home game since 1973. The 265-game sellout streak is the second-longest in NCAA history ... Stanford starters, safety Ben Edwards, wide receiver Connor Wedington and offensive guard Foster Sarell, are all out for tonight’s game with injuries ... There is no controversy concerning who will start tonight for the Irish at QB. Ian Book has taken all the snaps this week in practice as the starter with Brandon Wimbush as backup ... In my preseason picks I have the Irish entering tonight at 3-1 with a predicted opening loss to Michigan. I also predicted an Irish loss tonight. ND is a 5 point favorite. I’m still up in the air on this one. I don’t know if Book’s performance last week was a fluke or for real. I do know Stanford has a much better defense, especially the passing game, that Wake Forest, which will challenge the young ND quarterback. So I’ll stay with my original pick, needing more proof that Book is the answer to the offense.