Rose Bowl Prep

Of course there's lots going on in the news with all the prep and anticipation of Stanford going to the Rose Bowl.  Here are a bunch of snippets and thoughts...

Tweet from Zach Ertz
Man what an incredible run! Coach Harbaugh told us what this place had in store for us and three BCS games later he was 100% right #GoCard

Stanford doesn't travel well.  Article about our Inverted Fan Base.

Stanford Defense
Stanford currently ranks No. 1 in the NCAA in rushing defense (71.33 yards/game), sacks (4.42/game) and tackles for loss (9.25/game). Stanford also owns the 11th-best scoring defense (16.92 points/game) and eighth-best third-down defensive efficiency (29.53 percent).



Some stats that will matter at the Rose Bowl

• 3 - # of bowl eligible teams (out of 3) in our non-conference schedule this season.  All other bowl bound teams this year had at least one game against a whimpy opponent.
• 11 - average margin of victory this season, down from 21.3 last year.  We have escaped a bunch of close games this year (San Jose State, Arizona, Wash St, Oregon State, Oregon, UCLA)
• 1442 - record breaking yards by Stephan Taylor, becoming the all time leading rusher for Stanford
• 30 - # of points scored by the DEFENSE this year

Last Time we Won at the Rose Bowl (tweet from David Lombardi, ESPN analyst)
Another note of interest: Stanford has not won Rose Bowl as the Cardinal. They won in their final game as Indians: 13-12 over Michigan, 1972

YouTube video: Pac-12 Champions, True Stanford Men

Football team heads south, starting with a trip to Disneyland, with Wisconsin, for media day.

Tweet from David Lombardi
@ShayneSkov11 check Google's traffic report on your fwy. "Animals on road." That referring to the front 7?




Lowrys Beef Bowl
Freshman Josh Garnett wins, after eating 7 plates of prime rib. Said he could have kept going, but they ran out of time.

Senior tight end Zach Ertz remarked on Joshua Garnett's performance at the Beef Bowl at Lawry's Prime Rib in Beverly Hills on Wednesday. Garnett ate a team-high seven 24-ounce hunks of prime rib. The next-highest was believed to be four.

"He wasn't even phased at the end," Ertz said. "He said he could have eaten at least three more pieces. He said it could have easily been 10, but he ran out of time."

Stephan Taylor - Stanford MVP

The team voted Stephan Taylor their MVP, and posted this highlight video.

http://vimeo.com/54719606

#16 UCLA 24 - #8 Stanford 27. PAC-12 Champions!

Wahoo!  We're going to the ROSE BOWL!

A cool quote in the post-game writeups:  Kevin Hogan took Stanford where Andrew Luck never could.

This one was much closer than last week when we handled the Bruins easily.  UCLA played so much better, stopped our offense, and generally caused a bunch of trouble.  Makes you wonder if they sort of laid down last weekend to get to play us this weekend instead of Oregon?

Jordan Williamson kicked a 36 yard FG to break the tie in the 4th quarter with 6 minutes left.  UCLA had a chance to tie with a 51 yard FG with a few seconds left, but failed.

Funny - Cheri was texting me earlier in the game when they were ahead, saying "I hear San Antonio is nice this time of year".  They had a bunch of people at their place watching the game now that they're all huge Bruin fans (Zack is a freshman in the band this year).  The general consensus was that whoever lost this game will go to the Alamo Bowl.  Turns out maybe THEY'RE going to Texas, not me!  :)

Crappy crowd - embarrassing that we can't sell out for the PAC 12 championship game. It was raining, so that kept some away, but come on!  Official attendance said 31,622 but it looked to be far less than that.

#8 Stanford 35 - #17 UCLA 17

We play UCLA (at their place) to end the regular season. They have already clinched the South division, if we beat them, we play again for the PAC-12 Championship the very next weekend (at our place).  This sets up an interesting dilemma for the Bruins.  If they beat us, they play Oregon.  If they lose to us, they play us again.  Who would you rather play?

We took care of business.  UCLA scored on their first drive, but it was never really close after that.  Another fun time tailgating with the Lutz's - Hasegawa boys were there, and the Fortunes stopped by.  Cheri and Dann, Mom & Dad (all big time fans now that Zack is a Freshman Bruin in the band), and Sue and Norm were there - we went to their tailgate on the golf course for a bit.

OK - so next week, it's back up to The Farm.  Winner goes to the Rose Bowl!

HUGE UPSET!! #13 Stanford 17 - #2 Oregon 14

We haven't beaten Oregon in 3 years, since before the Luck era.  Heading into the game (at Oregon), they're undefeated, #2 in the country, and we're 20.5 point underdogs.  We all know that we have a kick ass defense (#1 in the country in many categories), but pretty much everyone thinks we will hang with them for the first half or so, then fail to keep up.

Result?  We BEAT them!  EPIC game - overtime.  They miss a field goal, we make ours (finally! way to go  Williamson, who has struggled since blowing last year's Fiesta Bowl), and spoil their bid for an undefeated season and a national championship game.

The boys and I went to watch Carly and Jolie Rasmussen play CIF volleyball (they lost), and so we had missed the first half of this game.  It was recording at home, but Hasegawa invited us over to watch the 2nd half with them.  I was going NUTS at Dave's house watching the OT win.

The tying TD from Hogan to Ertz - controversial with review overturning the incomplete call on the field.  This site has the video and a still picture.  Here is the picture in case they are gone someday.

Here's a killer shot-by-shot flow of the catch.



Some fun facts and post game notes:

College Gameday has been at the Stanford/Oregon game the past 3 years (twice at their place, and of course last year at The Farm).

I am SO fired up about the national recognition Stanford is getting, I tweeted:
Dear Gameday, PLEASE tell me you'll be at Stanford/UCLA game this week, but have a feeling you'll be across town at Notre Dame/USC.

This season we beat #2 USC, #7) Notre Dame (but the refs and NBC didn't think so), and now #2 Oregon.

Post-game quotes and pics

Bo McNally declares the play of the game (Carrington catching their QB to prevent a TD, and then we stop them, to turn it over on downs, 0 points)
https://twitter.com/BoMcNally/status/270052387106988033

Show me your "O-no" face.  Fans crying after the loss.
https://twitter.com/RuleofTree/status/270023259590893568

Great quote from "Blogging with the enemy" series where they interview the opposing team blogger.
ATQ:
For Stanford to win, they need to put together sustained drives, score touchdowns on all of those sustained drives, and hope Oregon shoots itself in the foot on offense. There's always a chance of that happening, but this is the best Oregon team I've ever seen, and they're playing in Autzen Stadium.



Next up: @UCLA, with big implications.
UCLA clinched the Pac12 south this weekend after taking down USC.
The Pac12 north is still up for grabs, between Stanford (7-1), Oregon (7-1), and Oregon State (6-2).  The Oregons play each other this weekend in the Civil War.
We control our own destiny, if we beat UCLA, at worst we tie Oregon and hold the tie breaker against them (head to head victory).  If we lose, then if Oregon beats Oregon State, Oregon hosts UCLA for the Pac12 championship.  Needless to say, we're hoping for a win, then a rematch the following weekend up on The Farm.  If you're UCLA, if you win, you play Oregon, if you lose, you play Stanford ... which one would you rather play?

#11 Oregon St 23 - #14 Stanford 27

Hall of Fame weekend.  Stanford pulls out a victory.  This is the first of 3 big tests to end the regular season (Oregon and UCLA up next).

First game with Hogan starting - he's looking pretty good.  A little panicky in the pocket, and wish he'd get rid of it a little sooner.

Crazy 40+ yard catch and run by Taylor when we were down by 9 at the end of the 3rd quarter.  We were down 3 with 5 mins to go in the 4th, and Hogan drove us down the field to score (pass to Ertz).

Hall of Fame Weekend

EPIC weekend!

This was the weekend of the Hall of Fame ceremony.  The whole family, along with Mom and Dad, Cheri & Dann, and Kral, Rand, and Dean went up to The Farm to see the induction.  Parker Blackman and Craig Forsyth were there from the team, along with Jane and Andrew.  Started the weekend with a trip down memory lane - a breakfast at Hobees (all 5 of us, Mom and Dad, and Cheri).  I of course had "the usual": Hi-Hat ommie with coffee cake, and a Strawberry/Banana energy blend.  Connor followed my lead with the same thing.  Cruised around campus with the same group, bookstore, then back to hotel to start gearing up for the ceremony that night (Friday).  5 of us to shower and get in nice clothes (ties for all us boys) is time consuming!

I was pretty nervous going into the Ceremony.  Had the speech pretty well down, but kept making minor changes, so definitely not memorized. Upon arrival, I did a video shoot for the Buck Cardinal club - just some questions about what it means to be inducted, memories from school, etc.  Then on to happy hour where we started seeing other inductees (met Misty Hyman, swim, and Ellen Estes, water polo).  Pretty soon we're into the ballroom and the ceremony.  Dinner and then the speeches.

I was 3rd, and went directly after Ron George.  His speech was great - no notes or anything, just up there talking.  Seems like he's done this before.  :)  My intro video called me a nerd, and mentioned computers and stuff, so I played off that to break the ice at the beginning. I felt pretty good once I got the crowd laughing about the sweats over the shoes story from Freshman year.  Whew - done.  Now just relax and enjoy it.  Pretty late night - went until after 10, and kids were whooped.  They did great.

SAT - football game day.  Hall of Fame tailgate party, ran into a lot of the same people from the night before, but got to chat with some of the other inductees.  The Scholz clan showed up - they're using our extra tickets.  Don Shaw, John Alstrom, Craig's family, etc.

The football game was awesome.  Pretty busy keeping everything coordinated - had 2 sky box tickets, so took turns taking kids up there.  See pics on Flickr.  Killer view from up there.  Avery, then Connor, then Jamie and Ben.

Halftime deal - I was able to weasel the kids down there with me.  There was another inductee with his smaller kids, and the staff seemed OK with that, so then just a few seconds before we left from in front of the stands, I waved our kids down. Super special to share that moment on the field with them.  They loved being out there, and Jamie got a killer picture of us on the big screen scoreboard!

We WON!  Pretty tight game, but pulled it out (see next post) - next up - OREGON.  HUGE game.

Toured campus after the game with Kral, Rand, Dean and our family.  They really enjoyed the walk around, as they hadn't seen the campus before (Dean played vb there twice, but only to the gym and back).  Pizza at the hotel for dinner just to hang with the dudes and chat.

Next morning (Sunday), our family and Mom & Dad went to Alcatraz.  Super fun - Ben LOVED it.  Back down to SJ airport that night for a flight home.

#20 Stanford 21 - Cal 3

BIG GAME!   We retain the AXE! 

Went to the game (in Berkeley) with Jane, Annette, and her buddy Lisa.  We took BART over there, crusied around Berkeley, stopped at Henry's bar (where Jane intro'd me to Stanford peeps as "he's in the hall of fame").

We scored first, and never looked back.  Cal threatened to score when they got to the 2 yard line, but then we intercepted and marched it all the way back down the field.  Williamson, our kicker, continues to struggle - missing 2 FG attempts.  Good thing Cal was not good - we just rolled right through them.

Taylor had 189 yards rushing, and passed Gerhart to now be 2nd on the all time rushing list for Stanford, only behind Darrin Nelson.  Nunes looked better, but again, there wasn't much D to worry about.

Pretty much a ho-hum game, not a lot to cheer about, just kind of taking care of business.  We left a little early, so I didn't see for sure, but didn't look like the Axe even had to be taken over towards the Cal committee.  Maybe when it's a blowout, we just keep it on our side?

Annette got the tickets, so we were worried to wear Carindal gear.  Turned out fine, as we were down at the end near the Stanford section, so there was plenty of our peeps down there.

#17 Stanford 13 - #7 Notre Dame 20

Welcome to the Notre Dame Broadcasting Network (NBC).  Killer to have our game on NBC for the nation to watch, but horrible ending.  We battle in a rain soaked, defensive game to a 10-10 tie, heading into overtime.  Notre Dame scores a touchdown on their possession, and then we do too ... or so we thought.

On 4th down and 1 we give it to Taylor who initially hits the pile, but then bounces back a bit, spins, and lunges forward.  The refs run in from the side, and do NOT signal touchdown.  The Notre Dame players and fans are celebrating...  But wait, it's under review.  We wait around for over 5 minutes for a decision, during which time, the replays are clearly showing that Stephan Taylor got the ball over the plane of the goal line before an elbow or knee touched the ground.  Surely they'll reverse it, we'll kick the extra point, and continue OT.  NOT!  Ref comes back - play stands as called.  Horrible.

The next day, there's all kinds of fallout that it should have been called a touchdown.

Notre Dame moves to 6-0, their first undefeated start in a LONG time, and they're actually starting to be included in the BCS national championship conversation.

Summary article.

Mike Pereia's (old NFL head of officials) take on the call.

Arizona 48 - #18 Stanford 54 (OT)

Back on home turf for this one, and we played a bit better, but shouldn't have struggled this much against Arizona.  Nunes led two key drives in the 4th quarter to get us into OT, and then it was pretty easy.  Chase Thomas intercepted an Arizona pass in their OT possession, and we scored easily with a run up the middle on the 2nd play of our series.

Highlights:   Toilolo with 141 yards receiving and a TD.

#8 Stanford 13 - Washington 17

Ugh, laid an egg on this one.  Our first road game of the season, and we did NOT play well.  Nunes was inaccurate, and the few times he did get the ball to the receivers, the would often drop the ball.  All around ugly game.  This will certainly drop us in the polls.

Watched this one from a sports bar in Chicago with a co-worker.  We were ahead 6-3 at halftime, when we headed back to the hotel, but it wasn't pretty.  UW came back in the 4th with a score that we could not counter.

Thurs Night - ESPN vs. Washington

First road game of the season.  We will see what Josh Nunes can do in front of a hostile crowd.  It's a THURSDAY night game, and on ESPN, with the whole world watching.

Didn't realize we have the #1 rushing defense in the nation.  The game against USC helped a LOT with that.

Up to #9

Jumped into single digits today in the AP rankings, and ahead of USC.  #9 baby!

#2 USC 14 - #21 Stanford 21

Some pre-game hype:

• Stanford has won the last 3, and last 4 out of 5. 
• USC QB Barkley has never beat Stanford.  Came back as a SR this year instead of going pro to (a) beat Stanford, and (b) win a national championship.
• Great week of shenanigans at PacRim with Miss Smith (USC alum).   http://www.flickr.com/photos/volleynerd/sets/72157631541794513/
• Woods and Lee were pretty confident in pre-game warmups.  Simulated chopping down the tree on the FG post.  Would love to give them a call this morning-after.  http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/2012/9/16/3340922/usc-vs-stanford-final-score-recap-2012

AWESOME!  #21 Stanford takes down #2 USC ... again!
"Revenge of the Nerds IV" is what many are calling it.

I watched the first half live (prime time game on FOX), then had to go to our first night of the fall curling league.  Got home after post-match beers at 1am, and was going NUTS jumping up and down at 130am watching the second half, trying not to wake anybody up.

Andrew Luck as Seen by The Onion

Andrew Luck, as seen by @TheOnion. Very funny, while also saying: "We tried to find something wrong. We got nothing.