#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.