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.

Fiesta Bowl - Logistics

Area Map (hotels, stadium, airport)

Airport Arrivals

Sun 1/1 arrival
1pm Ekstrands
3pm Andrew, Jane and Dorsey
7pm Michele
7:45pm Waters
8pm Jen
8:30pm Dave

Mon 1/2 arrival
7:30am Aussie
9:05am Dan
9:50am Ally

Tues 1/3 departure
6am Jane and Dorsey
8:45am Jen
11:30am Michele
1pm Dave
1:20pm Dan
2:15pm Waters
2:30pm Ekstrands
3pm Andrew
6:30pm Walker
9:50pm Ally

Hotels

• Fairmont (Team) - Andrew, Jane, Dorsey, Jen, Ball-O, Ally, Stacey, Randy
  
• Kierland (Fan) - Dave, Waters, Dan, Brad
• Mariott Scottsdale - Walker and his Dad
  

Stadium

• Seats: Section 104, Row 25, seats 1-5 and Row 26, seats 1-4
• Our View (below). We'll be in charge of goal line replays...
  

I'm Going to the Fiesta Bowl!

WAHOO!! After a month of asking Jamie if I can join all my college buddies at the bowl game and getting rejected, she surprised me on Christmas with a trip to the Fiesta Bowl! I opened an envelope that had flight info, a card from Jane with tailgate tix, and Andrew has my game ticket. Wow!

Apparently Jamie and Jane had been working on this for a month or so. Jane worked with Andrew to get the game ticket (but had to keep that quiet and the public ticket count off by 1), and had a few flights reserved for 24 hours before the bowl announcements.

Super stoked to be joining the crew out there. It's not all about the football - this turns into a great little reunion of friends from college. Since all of us are married now, we need a different excuse to get together around the country -- this works for me!

Fiesta Bowl News & Hype

News and stuff leading up to Monday's game.

Andrew Luck declared that he will take the winter quarter off from school to get organized and focusedon the NFL draft. Choose an agent, work out, etc. He will retur to The Farm for the spring quarter and take his final 2 classes to graduate. Pretty awesome that he played football for 3.3 years and was able to take enough classes to graduate in 1 quarter less than 4 years.

Brandon Weeden (OSU QB) and Jordan Pratt (Stanford wide receiver) played pro baseball together in 2005. Straight from high school into thr farm system, then when it didnt work out, they entered college and started playing football. Weeden is "Grandpa", 28 yr old SR. Pratt is a 26 yr old freshmanthey call "The Professor". Original article.

The Cardinal Channel (stanfordathletics) on YouTube has a bunch of cool videos about the days leading up to the game, starting with travel and planning logistics getting the team out to Phoenix.

Luck Cost Us the Heisman

Email from Andrew (Baw, not Luck) with the story:

You may not know this, but it's because of Andrew Luck that we won't have a Heisman-winning QB this year. Stanford actually recruited Robert Griffin III, and he took his only official visit to the Farm. The fact that we already had a commitment from Andrew Luck ultimately led him to go elsewhere (he originally committed to Houston, then changed his commitment to Baylor when Art Briles, Houston's head coach at the time, got the job at Baylor).

I think Harbaugh wanted Griffin to move to wide receiver (he was initially rated as a 3-star QB, then moved up to 4-stars by his senior year).

RG III Gets Heisman

Crap! Well, as the days counted down to the announcement it was sounding more and more like RG III was going to get it, so this was no big surprise. 2nd runner-up in a row for Andrew.

Despite David Shaw's post-season push to highlight how awesome Luck is, many think he suffered from a few negatives:

• bad game in loss to Oregon, which was the game that everyone in the nation was watching
• west coast / Barkley - we traditionally only get votes from west region voters, and perhaps Barkely's late season surge stole some votes from those that would have otherwise voted for Luck
• not playing on last weekend - the players that don't play on the last weekend (usually conference championships) are out of sight, out of mind of the voters, and any players in the top 5 that shine on that final weekend typically get more votes

Final Results

1. Robert Griffin III, Baylor
2. Andrew Luck, Stanford
3. Trent Richardson, Alabama
4. Montee Ball, Wisconsin
5. Tyrann Mathieu. Louisiana State
6. Matt Barkley, Southern California
7. Case Keenum, Houston
8. Kellen Moore, Boise State
9. Russell Wilson, Wisconsin
10. LaMichael James, Oregon

BCS Bowl Selection

BCS Bowls

• Rose Bowl (Jan 2): Wisconsin v. Oregon
  
• Fiesta Bowl (Jan 2): Oklahoma St. v. Stanford
  
• Sugar Bowl (Jan 3): Michigan v. Virginia Tech
  
• Orange Bowl (Jan 4): Clemson v. West Virginia
  
• BCS National Championship (Jan 9): LSU v. Alabama
  

Here was the landscape in the days leading up to BCS bowl selection:

Automatic Bids

• ACC (Orange) = Clemson
• Big East (no specific bowl, but guaranteed a spot) = West Virginia / Cincinnati / Louisville (3 way tie. Bid goes to the highest ranked team in BCS final standings)
  
• Big 10 (Rose) = Wisconsin
• Big 12 (Fiesta) = Oklahoma St
• Pac 12 (Rose) = Oregon
  
• SEC (Sugar) = LSU

By Bowl:

• Fiesta: Oklahoma St vs. ???
  
• Sugar: ??? (LSU vacated) vs. ???
• Orange: Clemson vs. ???
• Rose: Wisconsin vs. Oregon
  

Bowl selection order: Fiesta, Sugar, Orange

Andrew Luck for Heisman

David Shaw is definitely making a media push this week for Andrew Luck to win the Heisman. He's talking about it being more than just stats, rather to include everything ELSE that Luck brings to the table, most importantly his ability to call the right play.

Killer example of a play(s) call in the huddle, then optionally audible out of those at the line of scrimmage.

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Then the description from Shaw: "There are three play calls in there," Shaw explained. "He calls that in the huddle, then decides which of those plays to get us to. If none of those plays are good against the look that he sees, he audibles and gets us to a fourth play that he calls at the line. In my nine years in the NFL, I never scouted a guy, never heard of a guy that did this much at the line of scrimmage."

Some facts that Shaw cited:

• Stanford leads the nation in fewest negative plays and credited that to Luck's ability to read the defense and call the right play and formation
• 26 touchdowns and zero interceptions, noting that Stanford leads the nation in red zone production because of Luck
• Luck is the only quarterback in college football history to go 3-0 against USC and Notre Dame in his career

Summary article.

30 min press conference

A video produced by Stanford: The Quarterback Redefined: Andrew Luck for Heisman