STANFORD, Calif. (AP) – Rarely did a day go by last season that Stanford’s players didn’t speak Tyrone Willingham’s name.

As in: Would the team be better if Coach had stayed? Surely, he would have known just how to deal with the Cardinal’s problems.

Willingham and his former players have moved on by now, but their past ties will be an undercurrent Saturday when Stanford faces the coach’s current team, Notre Dame.

“The attention and commitment to this coaching staff has been 180 degrees different. You don’t hear the comments, ‘If Tyrone was here ….’ It seemed like every day or every other day,” Stanford receiver Luke Powell said. “Going 2-9, you’re looking for any answers to why it was happening. That was an easy one, because Notre Dame was doing well.”

This weekend’s matchup features two 4-6 teams that have seen their share of struggles this season. The Fighting Irish aren’t nearly as good as they were last season, Willingham’s first, and three of their losses were by at least 30 points.

New Stanford coach Buddy Teevens, a former head coach at Maine, sensed his players’ divided loyalties last season – it was hard not to. But he understood that many had been recruited and coached by Willingham before he left for South Bend.

So Teevens forced himself to block out his players when he had to. There was so much more to be concerned about for the former Florida assistant.

“I changed a lot of things,” Teevens said. “It was overwhelming for a lot of guys. I’ve been through enough transitions, five or six of them. When you lack success in the former regime, it’s a lot easier. Older groups have a harder time changing so drastically.”

Eventually, the Cardinal bought into Teevens’ ways. They forgot Willingham, the man who spent seven seasons on Stanford’s sideline.

as head coach and another three as an assistant.

“I’m sure it was tough on” Teevens, Powell said. “I felt bad for him he had to hear those things. In essence, we didn’t really give him a chance to be successful because we were divided as a team.”

Playing against Willingham at Notre Dame last season, Stanford lost 31-7. Willingham delivered an emotional speech to his new players at halftime.

His feelings might be even stronger on his first return to Stanford Stadium.

“I’ve said all along that it’s impossible to divorce yourself from the emotions of going back to a place that you spent 10 years at, so I won’t even try to do that,” Willingham said.

“It will be emotional. It will be emotional probably before the game and after the game, not during the game. During the game, all my focus will be on everything we can do at Notre Dame to win that football game.”

That’s how Teevens is approaching it, too.

“We really just address the fact that we’re playing Notre Dame,” Teevens said. “That’s the bottom line.”

It might not be that simple. Teevens wasn’t recruited by Willingham only to later see him leave.

Cardinal linebacker Brian Gaffney clearly remembers the day word came out that Willingham was headed to Notre Dame. Gaffney’s brother rushed in to wake him up. They watched the news on TV, and Gaffney called many teammates, who also were in a state of shock.

“Some of the upperclassmen in 2002 were bitter, I think, about the fact that Coach Willingham had left,” Gaffney said. “And I don’t think we got the quality of leadership we could have gotten.”

Willingham still considers many Stanford players his kids. And he said some have called him at Notre Dame to chat.

“It is kind of mixed emotions,” Willingham said. “I’ll be on the other sideline.”