Author: Christina Nguyen

“This is the guy,” said Head Coach Jim Harbaugh following Saturday night’s game.

He was talking, of course, about Toby Gerhart, who recorded an impressive 205 rushing yards and scored four touchdowns — including the game-winning touchdown — as Stanford defeated Notre Dame, 45-38, in its final game of the regular season.

Gerhart all but completed the game-winning drive solo in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. With 5:03 on the clock, second-and-four on the Stanford 24-yard line, he broke a pair of tackles before being brought down at the Stanford 47-yard line for a gain of 13 yards. At 3:04, freshman quarterback Andrew Luck connected with wide receiver Coby Fleener on a 14-yarder that brought the ball to the Notre Dame 35-yard line — but then it was all Gerhart.

At first-and-10 at the Notre Dame 35, he took the ball seven, two, then three yards to bring it to the Notre Dame 23-yard line. With 1:03 left in the game, it was all Gerhart again — this time, he found a seam up the middle for a spectacular 19-yard gain. It was then 0:59, first-and-goal on the Notre Dame 4. Sensing the inevitable touchdown, Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis parted the Fighting Irish sea and Gerhart cruised past.

“We had to score,” Gerhart said. “We had six minutes, five minutes, we wanted to end the game with the ball in our hands and when we had an opportunity like that, we did not want to be denied. It was a good drive all around. The offensive line got after them. I was dying. I couldn’t breathe, but we finished in the end zone.”

Altogether, the Stanford offense posted 496 total offensive yards, to Notre Dame’s 447. Stanford was able to establish a balanced attack, with 280 yards on the ground and 216 through the air. In contrast, Notre Dame was largely restricted to its passing game, recording 340 passing yards.

But the Fighting Irish actually led the Cardinal for the better part of the game, twice by 11 points.

The opening minutes saw Stanford linebacker Nick Macaluso force a Notre Dame fumble at their own 15-yard line, which Stanford safety Delano Howell was able to recover. The Cardinal capitalized with the first seven points. On the very next Stanford possession, however, Notre Dame safety Sergio Brown stripped running back Tyler Gaffney on a punt return and Notre Dame recovered the ball. A few plays later, the Irish pulled even at 7-7.

At the end of the first quarter, Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen engineered a 10-play, 78-yard drive that showcased the team’s offensive variety. With 3:07 left in the quarter, at second-and-6 on the Notre Dame 40-yard line, Clausen connected with wide receiver Golden Tate for a 9-yard gain. Later in the drive, Clausen handed off to running back Robert Hughes for a gain of 8 yards. Then Clausen handed off to running back Theo Riddick, who rushed for another gain of 24 yards.

At 0:40, Clausen launched a pass on first-and-10 to Hughes, 18 yards off in the end zone and Hughes managed to keep his left toes inbound long enough to earn the touchdown and give the Irish a 14-10 lead.

Later in the second quarter, at first-and-10 on the Stanford 22-yard line, Clausen found a wide-open Tate in the flat, who cruised downfield for a 78-yard touchdown. With the score, Notre Dame shot ahead, 24-13.

Stanford responded with a strong offensive drive of its own. At 4:13, first-and-10 on his own 39-yard line, Luck connected with wide receiver Ryan Whalen for a 23-yard gain. A few plays later, Luck found tight end Jim Dray on a 12-yarder, then Coby Fleener on a 23-yard bullet up the middle, to bring the ball to first-and-goal on the Notre Dame 2-yard line. Fullback Owen Marecic punched in the score.

After halftime, though, Notre Dame took to its secret weaponry. At first-and-10 on the Stanford 46-yard line, Hughes took a direct snap, reversed to Tate, who re-reversed to Clausen — at that point the Stanford defense was sufficiently confused to leave Floyd open deep downfield. Clausen pitched it to Floyd for a 46-yard touchdown reception. The Notre Dame lead was again 11, the score 31-20.

Into the fourth quarter, a touchdown tradeoff and Stanford kicker Nate Whitaker’s field goal had brought the score to 30-38. With 8:59 left in the game, Stanford faced fourth-and-4 on the Notre Dame 18-yard line. On the next play, Stanford kept its offensive unit on the field and introduced some secret weaponry of its own.  Luck handed off to Gerhart, who rushed right before stepping up and pitching a floater to Whalen in the end zone. Whalen, fighting through pass interference, dove and caught the ball. The ensuing 2-point conversion tied the game at 38 all.

“Pretty much all year we’ve been practicing that,” Harbaugh said of the play. “Sometimes it’s looked good, sometimes it hasn’t. [Coach Willie Taggart] suggested it and we went with it. It was covered well — it was a perfectly thrown ball. I think Toby was kind of just throwing it up and putting it over the defender’s head and then Ryan made an incredible play.”

The win over Notre Dame rounds out the regular season, with the Cardinal improving to 8-4 (7-3 Pac-10) and again securing top 25 rankings in both national polls: 23rd in the AP and 24th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll.

“[I’m] really proud of our guys,” Harbaugh said, reflecting on the season. “They’ve fueled this. It was their fire that fueled this. I’m proud of them. 8-4 is a heck of a season and we’ve got another game to go.”

(JONATHAN YORK/The Stanford Daily)

Big Game is here.

The Stanford-Cal rivalry commenced with the first Big Game on March 19, 1892 in San Francisco’s Haight Street Grounds. Stanford holds a slight lead in the series, 55-45-11. In recent years, however, the rivalry has been dominated by Cal: the Golden Bears have won six of the past seven Big Games, including a resounding 37-16 win last year.

This year’s Stanford team, however, is not the Stanford team of years past.

No. 14 Stanford (7-3, 6-2 Pac-10) is bowl eligible and ranked in the top 15 for the first time since 2001. Additionally, the team is coming off a trio of huge wins: against Arizona State, following a pair of momentum-halting losses against Oregon State and Arizona; against then-No. 7 Oregon, making Stanford bowl-eligible for the first time since 2001 and keeping the Cardinal in the race for a Rose Bowl appearance; and finally, against then-No. 11 USC, racking up the most points ever scored against the Trojans in a 55-21 massacre at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Stanford, however, is not ready to bask in its past achievements.

“We know who we are,” said Head Coach Jim Harbaugh at Monday’s pre-Big Game press conference. “We’re a blue collar team that’s gotta prepare, gotta study, gotta practice with great intensity . . . [O]ur guys, they have the ability to handle tough times and they have the ability to handle more rewarding times . . . We’re already back to work.”

The Cardinal will need to be on its game, as Cal has been gaining some momentum of its own. Cal (7-3, 4-3 Pac-10) was ranked No. 12 in both the AP and USA Today polls in the preseason, and after starting off the season with a series of decisive wins, jumped to No. 6 in both polls. A pair of losses to Oregon and USC in the following weeks dropped the Golden Bears out of the top 25 in both polls, but they have recovered, winning four of their past five games.

Last week, the Golden Bears defeated then-No. 18 Arizona, 24-16. Shane Vereen, playing in place of star tailback Jahvid Best, who is recovering from a serious concussion he sustained against Oregon State, posted a career-high 159 rushing yards on 30 carries and a touchdown. The Cal defense held the Wildcats to 274 yards of total offense, an average of only four yards per play and intercepted Arizona sophomore quarterback Nick Foles twice.

Overall, Cal is ranked first in the Pac-10 in rush defense, allowing only 3.1 yards per carry. Junior linebacker Mike Mohamed leads the conference in tackles.

“Right now it looks like we’re gonna have our hands full and a great challenge with this Cal team,” Harbaugh said. “They have an identity on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively, special teams, they’re very impressive to watch. It will be a big challenge for our offense.”

“I think Cal has got the best defensive front that we’ve faced all year,” he added. “Tyson Alualu is the best defensive lineman in the Pac-10, they’ve got great linebackers, [Devin] Bishop, [Mike] Mohamed, [Mychal] Kendrix — all those guys, they’ve got an identity defensively.”

The Cal defense will have a tough test when it faces Stanford’s prolific offense, which leads the Pac-10 with almost 450 total yards per game. Much of that success is due to senior tailback Toby Gerhart, who is currently third in the nation in rushing yards with 1,395 yards in 10 games. He averages 5.3 yards per carry and leads all running backs with 19 rushing touchdowns.

“I personally think that not only should he be in the [Heisman] discussion,” Harbaugh said, “but based on what he’s accomplishing and what he’s accomplished up until this point, he should win it.”

Luck is ranked 13th in the nation in passing efficiency with a rating of 151.84 and fourth in the nation in yards per attempt with 9.3. On top of that, he’s Stanford’s second-leading rusher with 288 rushing yards, 5.6 yards per carry and 2 rushing touchdowns.

“There have been some really good quarterbacks at Stanford since John Elway,” ESPN broadcaster David Norrie told the San Jose Mercury News. “But this is the first Stanford quarterback since Elway where you go, ‘Wow.’”

A win would keep the Cardinal alive in the race for the Pac-10 title and a Rose Bowl berth, not to mention bringing the Axe back to Stanford. The Cardinal knows the Golden Bears will provide a steep challenge, though.

“In a rivalry game,” Gerhart warns, “teams bring their A-game. Everything’s above and beyond records, or what’s happened in the past. For that one weekend, anything goes.”

“This week, this game, is huge.”