Author: Jack Salisbury

Green, Fields not enough in loss

Stanford put up a fight, but Arizona was too athletic and the Cardinal was too far from home Thursday night, falling to the Wildcats by the s

Sophomore guard Jeremy Green was one of the two bright spots for the Cardinal, along with senior forward Landry Fields, in Stanford’s 76-68 loss to Arizona. Green and Fields combined for 56 of Stanford’s 68 points. (DYLAN PLOFKER/Staff Photographer)

core of 76-68 at the McKale Center in Tucson.

The loss continued Stanford’s road woes — the team has yet to win a game on the road this season. Head coach Johnny Dawkins and the Cardinal are 0-6 away from Maples Pavilion, not including a 57-52 win over Virginia on a neutral site at the Cancun Challenge.

The Cardinal (10-10, 4-4 Pac-10) was soundly beaten despite the fact that it outshot the Wildcats (11-9, 5-3) by a large margin, shooting 47 percent from the floor compared to Arizona’s mark of 32 percent.

Arizona was able to dominate nearly every other statistical category en route to victory, though — the Wildcats scored 20 second-chance points compared to the Cardinal’s two, turned the ball over 10 times compared to Stanford’s 18 turnovers and went to the line 18 more times than Stanford did.

“Some of those were just guys being in the right place at the right time but they really did a good job of spacing to put them in that position to get those boards,” Dawkins told the Associated Press in reference to the Wildcats’ offensive rebounding.

Arizona’s ability to crash the boards may have been the difference in the game — even though the final rebounding totals were 38 for the Wildcats and 34 for the Cardinal, Arizona grabbed 19 offensive rebounds compared to just seven for Stanford.

Dawkins’ squad was — not surprisingly — led by the duo of senior forward Landry Fields and sophomore guard Jeremy Green. Fields and Green scored a combined 56 points — good for more than 80 percent of the Cardinal’s scoring on the night. Fields filled the box score with 31 points and 11 rebounds on 11-of-18 shooting, while Green finished the night with 25 points on 9-of-20 shooting. Green’s backcourt mate, sophomore Jarrett Mann, had a solid game at point guard with eight assists and eight rebounds.

Despite the efforts of Fields and Green to keep the game close, Stanford never posed a serious threat to the Wildcats’ lead in the second half. Arizona went into the locker room with a four-point lead at halftime and the Cardinal would never get closer than that.

The Wildcats were led by freshman forward Derrick Williams, who tore up the Cardinal down low with his quickness. Williams finished the night with 23 points and eight rebounds. Arizona guards Kyle Fogg, Nic Wise and Lamont Jones all had their way with the Stanford defense too, using their speed to consistently penetrate the Cardinal’s man-to-man. Dawkins adjusted, employing a zone for much of the second half, but Arizona never had trouble maintaining its lead.

Best known for his play on the football field, senior Tavita Pritchard suited up for Thursday’s game, though he never saw action on the court. The school announced Wednesday that the 6-foot-4 Pritchard would join the team in response to the losses of sophomore forward Andrew Zimmermann and freshman guard Gabriel Harris due to stress fractures. Stanford only had five scholarship players available for the game.

In a surprising turn of events, Dawkins was also charged for a technical foul in the middle of second half with his team down just four points. Dawkins was protesting a call made the previous possession and elicited the technical after stepping a few feet onto the floor with an Arizona player in relative proximity.

“Coach was just trying to inspire us,” Fields said. “I think we just have to respond better when that happens.”

Stanford will continue its search for its first road win of the year on Saturday when it takes on Arizona State at Wells Fargo Arena at 1 p.m.

Stanford played a nearly perfect second half Saturday afternoon at Washington State, but it wasn’t enough to make up for its slow start in the first in a 77-73 loss to the Cougars.

Vivian Wong/The Stanford Daily

Washington State (13-5, 3-3 Pac-10), led by Klay Thompson’s 27 points, jumped out to a 46-26 lead going into the locker room and held on with 7-of-8 free-throw shooting from Reggie Moore in the game’s final minute. The Cardinal (8-9, 2-3 Pac-10) got within two points twice in the last minute, but Moore responded with two made free throws each time, never giving Stanford a shot to tie the game.

The loss moved Stanford to 0-6 on the road this season.

“On the road, you have to play defense and you’ve got to take care of the ball,” said senior Landry Fields to the San Jose Mercury News. “Each game that we’ve lost, we showed a lack of defense and a lack of taking care of the ball.”

“I think it’s [a lack of] togetherness as well as communication,” said sophomore Jeremy Green. “We show it at home. We show sparks of it on the road.”

Fields and Green carried the offensive load once again for the Cardinal, with Green scoring 24 points on 9-of-22 shooting. Fields had 18 points and 10 rebounds but on only 6-of-17 shooting, while sophomore center Jack Trotter and senior point guard Drew Shiller had 12 and 10 points, respectively. Trotter also finished with eight rebounds.

The box score essentially tells the story. The two teams were very close in most of the significant categories, except for one: field-goal percentage. The Cardinal’s atrocious first half shooting the ball (26 percent) proved to be the difference, while the Cougars were steady throughout the game with 51 percent shooting.

Still, Stanford’s second half comeback was backed by 6-of-12 shooting from three-point range, while the Cougars were 0-for-7 in the same category for the second half.

The Cardinal systematically lowered the deficit throughout the half, cutting down Washington State’s lead to single digits with less than ten minutes to go. The Cougars also played complacently with their lead<\p>–<\p>trying to hold on to it instead of increasing it<\p>–<\p>which may have helped the Cardinal back into the game. Stanford was pretty much on pace for a road comeback of epic proportions, but it simply was not meant to be in the end.

“I give my kids credit,” said Head Coach Johnny Dawkins. “They fought. They tried to make a great comeback<\p>.<\p>.<\p>.<\p>We didn’t have enough time and [Washington State] executed at the end.”

Stanford will now return to the friendly confines of Maples Pavilion, where it is 7-2 this season. This week’s games will be very important for the Cardinal, which is only a game and a half back from first place in the Pac-10 standings, but happens to be tied for last place in the conference. There is currently a complete logjam in the conference, which is experiencing one of its worst years in decades<\p>–<\p>the top record is 4-2 (held by Arizona State) while the worst is 2-3 (held by each Oregon State, Oregon, UCLA and Stanford).

In any case, this week’s games will be huge for a Cardinal team that always seems to save its best for home. The matchups against the Beavers and Ducks are both very winnable games and a weekend sweep would put Stanford above .500 in both overall and league play.

Jeremy Green came into Saturday’s contest against UCLA with a sore ankle, a bruised finger bone and a pulled back muscle. The sophomore guard then proceeded to play one of the best games of his career.

Green scored 30 points in 37 minutes for the Cardinal (8-7, 2-1 Pacific-10 Conference), who earned a solid 70-59 win over the Bruins (7-9, 2-2 Pac-10) at Maples Pavilion Saturday afternoon.

Sophomore guard Jeremy Green went 11-18 from the field, including 5-8 from long range to earn his career-high 30 points. But the Card’s bench didn’t score a single point to help in the win. (JIN ZHU/The Stanford Daily)

“It’s all good,” Green said in regard to his injuries. “I’m all good.”

Green was definitely “good” — the sophomore guard went 11-of-18 from the floor and seemed to make big shot after big shot when the Bruins were trying to get back into the game. He banked in a running three-pointer as time expired at the end of the first half to give the Cardinal a 34-33 lead going into the locker room.

“That was just a huge performance by a great player,” said sophomore center Jack Trotter. “He’s really come into his own.”

Senior forward Landry Fields overcame a slow start to finish with 16 points and seven rebounds. He didn’t have the best shooting night of his career, but he found a way to get his points, both inside and out.

“I was as proud of any kid as I’ve ever been,” said Coach Johnny Dawkins of Fields. “He takes everyone’s best shot every night. He’s never once backed off a challenge. He got off to a slow start tonight, and the toughest thing for any good player to do is to be able to turn it around in that same game. For him to turn it around in the second half says a lot about who he is.”

Overall, it was a solid performance by the Cardinal, who led nearly the whole game and pulled away from the Bruins in the final minutes.

“I thought we played well,” Dawkins said after the game. “I thought our guys worked hard, followed the game plan and were prepared.”
Dawkins also had plenty of praise for Green.

“I give the young man a lot of credit,” he said. “He’s played through a lot of injuries. He contributes, he’s competitive and I’m starting to think he [plays well] so he doesn’t have to practice for me,” Dawkins joked.

“He’s got a big heart — he’s a big competitor,” he added.

The unheralded Cardinal big men — Trotter and fellow sophomore Andrew Zimmerman — also played well, finishing around the basket and making a number of hustle plays. Trotter, a walk-on, finished with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting.

“I thought our big men were terrific,” Dawkins said. “They grew even more tonight.”

Trotter emphasized the businesslike role he and Zimmerman have assumed for the Cardinal this season. “We’re going to defend, rebound and set screens,” he said. “We’re just setting screens and making good, strong fundamental plays.”

Sophomore point guard Jarrett Mann did what he needed to do as point guard, only scoring six points but dishing out an impressive eight assists. Though the Cardinal did not receive a single point from its bench, the contributions from the starters were more than enough to top the Bruins on Saturday.

UCLA shot 54.6 percent from the field while Stanford only shot 47.2 percent, but the game was won on turnovers and free throws — the Cardinal shot 13 more free throws and turned the ball over 10 fewer times. The Bruins may have shot the ball better, but the Cardinal’s execution on offense — namely, its ability to take care of the ball — was the difference in the game, whether UCLA threw a zone or man-to-man defense at it.

“This just happened to be a good game against a good team, and [we got] a great win,” Green said.

Stanford earned a much-welcome sweep of the Southern California schools with the victory, and it stands, for the moment, in the upper half of the conference before traveling to face the Washington schools this week.

Jeremy Green came into Saturday’s contest against UCLA with a sore ankle, a bruised finger bone and a pulled back muscle. The sophomore guard then proceeded to play one of the best games of his career.

Green scored 30 points in 37 minutes for the Cardinal, who earned a solid 70-59 win over the Bruins at Maples Pavilion Saturday afternoon.

“It’s all good,” Green said in regards to his injuries. “I’m all good.”

Green was definitely good—the sophomore guard went 11-of-18 from the floor and seemed to make big shot after big shot when the Bruins were trying to get back into the game. He banked in a running three-pointer as time expired at the end of the first half to give the Cardinal a 34-33 lead going into the locker room.

“That was just a huge performance by a great player,” sophomore center Jack Trotter said. He’s really come into his own.”

Senior forward Landry Fields overcame a slow start to finish with 16 points and 7 rebounds. He didn’t have the best shooting night of his career, but he found a way to get his points, both inside and out.

“I was as proud of any kid as I’ve ever been,” Coach Johnny Dawkins said of Fields. “He takes everyone’s best shot every night. He’s never once backed off a challenge. He got off to a slow start tonight, and the toughest thing for any good player to do is to be able to turn it around in that same game. For him to turn it around in the second half says a lot about who he is.”

Overall, it was a solid performance by the Cardinal, who led for nearly the whole game and pulled way from the Bruins in the final minutes.

“I thought we played well,” Dawkins said after the game. “I thought our guys worked hard, followed the game plan and were prepared.”

Dawkins also had plenty of praise for Green.

“I give the young man a lot of credit,” he said. “He’s played through a lot of injuries. He contributes, he’s competitive, and I’m starting to think he [plays well] so he doesn’t have to practice for me,” Dawkins joked.

“He’s got a big heart, he’s a big competitor.”

The unheralded Cardinal big men—Trotter and fellow sophomore Andrew Zimmerman—also gave solid performances, finishing around the basket and making a number of hustle plays. Trotter, a walk-on, finished with ten points on 4-of-7 shooting.

“I thought our big men were terrific,” Dawkins said. “They grew even more tonight.”

UCLA shot 54.6 percent from the field while Stanford only shot 47.2 percent, but the game was won by turnovers and free throws: the Cardinal shot 13 more free throws and turned the ball over ten less times.

Card faces fellow rebuilder UCLA

If Wednesday night’s games were any indication of what is to come, Saturday afternoon’s contest between UCLA and Stanford could be a game for the ages.

Senior captain Landry Fields holds off a defender in Stanford’s thrilling 54-53 win over USC. The Cardinal looks to continue its success in Pac-10 play against UCLA. (DYLAN PLOFKER/The Stanford Daily)

Stanford squeezed by a deflated USC team on Wednesday, winning 54-53 after sophomore point guard Jarrett Mann sank one of two free throws with just 10.6 seconds left on the clock.

“It was very important,” head coach Johnny Dawkins said after the victory. “It was a tough loss for us at Cal. It’s nice to win it on the final possession. We’ve had some tough ones.”

UCLA won by one point also, but in an even more thrilling manner: senior Michael Roll sank a mid-range jumper with just 1.9 seconds remaining on the clock after the ball was fortuitously deflected by a Cal defender, right into the guard’s hands. Roll’s shot gave the Bruins a 76-75 victory over the Golden Bears, the preseason favorite to win the conference.

“I just turned and shot it,” Roll said to the Los Angeles Times after the game. “And it went in.”

Both the Bruins (7-8, 2-1 Pac-10) and Cardinal (7-7, 1-1 Pac-10) appear to be having down years, especially UCLA. After three Final Four appearances in the last five years, head coach Ben Howland’s team is likely going to miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004. But both teams clearly have some solid basketball left in them, and Saturday’s game will be an important one for two teams fighting to stay in the upper half of the conference this season.

The outcome of the game will probably be determined by how the guards match up. Like Stanford, UCLA’s post game is not its strength — the team was dealt a significant blow to an already meager front line when then-leading rebounder Drew Gordon decided to leave the program. Gritty Bruins freshman Reeves Nelson has stepped in and done yeoman’s work in his absence since then, though, reaching double digits in points and being a force on the boards in his last seven games.

As said before though, the match-up between each team’s guards will likely decide the game. Mann will have the task of facing Bruins point guard Malcolm Lee, who leads the team with 14.1 points and 3.9 assists per game. Sophomore Jeremy Green, the Cardinal’s strongest perimeter threat, will have the task of guarding Roll. Green is more athletic and a bit stronger than the veteran Roll, so he may have the advantage in that match-up.

Both teams have been inconsistent this season, though the Bruins have shown a bit more life in recent weeks. UCLA has won four of its last five games, although that stretch of games is sandwiched by a dispiriting 77-63 loss last weekend to Arizona.

Although UCLA seems to have come together a bit more in the recent weeks, the Bruins and Cardinal seem to be two teams that have a lot in common. Both have consistently stayed near the top of the Pac-10 for the last two decades, and both seem to be in rebuilding years of sorts. Even further, Stanford and UCLA experienced similar off-the-court problems, though the Bruins’ Nikola Dragovic’s legal issues stemming from a fight at a concert are much more substantial than the dropped allegations against Green.

Games against what some call “swing opponents” are often the most important, as they can go a long way in determining a team’s standing at the end of the year. Aside from being a battle of two programs trying to reclaim their past success, Saturday’s game may make the difference between a third seed or sixth seed during the all-important Pac-10 Tournament come March.

It’s UCLA and Stanford. And while the stakes are a bit lower than usual, Saturday’s game is not one to miss. Tipoff is at 3 p.m. at Maples Pavilion.

Basketball must bounce back from painful loss to Cal

Stanford (6-7, 0-1 Pac-10) faces a team Wednesday that won’t make the NCAA Tournament, the NIT or even the Pac-10 Tournament this season. Yet USC (10-4, 2-0 Pac-10) is probably one of the best teams in the Pac-10 and presents a great challenge when it comes to Maples Pavilion tonight.

Senior Landry Fields has been carrying the Cardinal on his back throughout the season, averaging 23.2 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. Fields will be looking to lead Stanford to its first Pac-10 win of the season tonight. (CHRIS SEEWALD/The Stanford Daily)

The shocking news of its postseason nullification came Sunday for the Trojans, when the school announced it was sanctioning the program by forfeiting victories and money, reducing scholarships and forbidding postseason play this season. The sanctions arose from a scandal surrounding former USC star O.J. Mayo, who allegedly received more than $200,000 in benefits from L.A. promoter Rodney Guillory.

Tonight’s game at Maples Pavilion will be the first time USC has taken the court since the punishment was announced. The Trojans were on a roll before Sunday, winning eight games (including a 22-point victory over then-No. 8 Tennessee). The 7 p.m. Pac-10 home opener for the Cardinal will be an important game for both teams, as Stanford will try to get on track after a 26-point loss at Cal to start conference play, while the Trojans will try to play through the pain of having their budding postseason hopes shot down prematurely.

The Trojans were clearly rattled by the massive punishment, which had little or nothing to do with any of the current players or the current head coach Kevin O’Neill. How they are able to recuperate after taking such a blow will go a long way in determining the outcome of Wednesday’s game.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve had to do,” O’Neill said to the Los Angeles Times. “You’re talking to a guy who’s been fired four or five times — and you’re not really a coach in this business until you’ve been fired — but telling our team that yesterday was much harder than ever getting fired.

“I hope I don’t ever have to do that again, because when you break young people’s dreams and hearts, that’s hard to do,” he added.

That said, Stanford has plenty of issues of its own to still work out, though most of those have taken place on the court. The Cardinal had a rough winter break, going 1-4 over that period. The team gave up an average of 89 points in its last three games, with its only win over the break coming against James Madison at home by the score of 80-76. In its Pac-10 opener, Stanford was trounced by the rival Golden Bears, 92-66.

If anything, the Cardinal could take its cue from the Trojans when it comes to defense. USC has the best team defense by far in the Pac-10, as its opponents average only 54.5 points a game. The Trojans allowed just 50 points to Arizona while locking Arizona State down to a measly 37, so Stanford will have its hands full when it comes to putting the ball in the basket.

Another main issue Stanford will have to work out is finding production from players other than senior forward Landry Fields and sophomore guard Jeremy Green. Fields and Green have both been stellar so far this season — Fields will probably be named First-Team All Pac-10 the way his season has been going, as he is averaging 23.2 points and 9.1 rebounds a game. Green, who was suspended briefly for an offseason incident before rejoining the team for its game against Oral Roberts, has been averaging 16.7 points and 4 rebounds a game.

Both get a large percentage of their points from their jump shot, so if either of the two has an off night shooting the ball it could get ugly for the Cardinal. In any case, though, Stanford still has something to play for this season. Players on the USC basketball team, guilty of no wrongdoing, are not blessed with the privilege of saying that for themselves.

Toby Gerhart may have been the figurehead of the 2009 Stanford football team, but the most important piece to the Cardinal puzzle this season just might have been filled by his backfield counterpart, redshirt freshman quarterback Andrew Luck.

Just a quick look at the numbers suggests this. Gerhart had a spectacular season in 2008, breaking Stanford’s single-season rushing record with 1,136 yards and 15 touchdowns. Yet the Cardinal still went 5-7 and was never truly a force on the offensive side of the ball.

Gerhart’s numbers jumped dramatically this season, nearly doubling to an astronomical 1,871 yards and 27 touchdowns. But throughout all of it, Gerhart was essentially the same player doing what he’s always done. Running back is a position where success is largely based on size and speed, not experience. Even further, it’s a position where success is predicated on what is going on with the rest of the football team. If a team falls behind consistently, it will be forced to play catch-up and won’t run the ball much. If the offensive line experiences trouble, then the running back probably won’t be making an appearance at the Downtown Athletic Club in Manhattan come early December. And so on and so forth.

The difference in Gerhart’s numbers this season is explained by the fact that his team was simply better this season. It possessed the ball longer (leading to more carry attempts) and was in position to score more often (leading to more touchdowns).

Luck’s play at quarterback had a lot to do with that and this was evidenced by his absence in the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve. Senior quarterback Tavita Pritchard, who will be forever enshrined in Stanford football lore after leading the Cardinal to a 24-23 victory over No. 2 USC two years ago, just couldn’t match up against the Sooner defense. Although Gerhart tallied 135 yards and two touchdowns, it was an uphill battle for him all game, as the Sooners were able to put nine defenders in the box without having to pay for it.

“I thought our football team played as well as it possibly could,” said Coach Jim Harbaugh after the game.

With Luck out of the lineup, Stanford’s best wasn’t good enough.

After a stellar season, Stanford football had no such Luck against Oklahoma in the Sun Bowl. The Card offense struggled without its young quarterback, who was sidelined with a broken finger. (MASARU OKA/Staff Photographer)

In any case, the point of this article isn’t to harp on Pritchard for his performance or to downplay the numbers of Gerhart, who easily had the best season for a running back in Stanford football history — and probably should have won the Heisman Trophy. The point is to highlight the significance of Luck, a player who will be the team’s starting quarterback for what should be at least another two years.

Many Cardinal fans may be inclined to think Coach Harbaugh’s program has reached its apex, with Gerhart likely forgoing a possible fifth year of eligibility to take his shot at the NFL. But that just isn’t the case as long as Luck is at the helm. Gerhart’s numbers will be nearly impossible to replace, but freshman running backs Stepfan Taylor and Tyler Gaffney will relish the opportunity for more playing time in his absence and fill the vacancy to the best of their abilities. Taylor has already shown himself to be a shifty back with adequate power and speed.

That said, the Stanford program is in Luck’s hands, even though the humble quarterback would deny such a designation without second thought.

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

Harbaugh, known for his hyperbolic statements and his lofty ambitions, even called Luck “the country’s best quarterback.” The rising redshirt sophomore might not be that at this particular moment in time, but he has a great chance to put his naturally memorable name in the same conversation as the likes of Elway and Plunkett.

It’s safe to say that most college football fans didn’t expect to see Stanford and Oklahoma face each other in a bowl game this season. The Sooners (7-5, 5-3 Big-12) started the season ranked No. 3, led by 2008-09 Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford at quarterback. Stanford (8-4, 6-3 Pac-10), on the other hand, started the season unranked and picked to finish in the bottom half of the Pac-10 Conference.

Their seasons may have had different trajectories, but both teams find themselves in the same spot New Year’s Eve when they face off at the Brut Sun Bowl in El Paso, Tx.

“We’re ready to go,” Coach Harbaugh told GoStanford.com. “There’s only one thing left to do and that’s play the game. We are looking forward to this challenge.”

Both teams may be without their starting quarterbacks, which will likely affect the Cardinal more than the Sooners, seeing as the Sooners lost Bradford for the season after he sprained his right shoulder in the opening weekend against BYU. Freshman Landry Jones has done a serviceable job stepping in for Bradford since his injury with nearly 3000 yards, 23 touchdowns and just 13 interceptions to show for, but it’s clear that the Sooners are just not the same team without their star.

Stanford may have more to worry about in regards to its quarterback situation, however. Redshirt freshman quarterback Andrew Luck, a huge key to the Cardinal’s success this season, is still recovering from surgery on his right index finger, which he broke in a 45-38 win over Notre Dame on Nov. 28. The Cardinal coaching staff named  senior quarterback Tavita Pritchard as the tentative starter for Thursday’s game weeks ago, but Stanford just might get lucky, as Coach Harbaugh said during Wednesday’s press conference that the freshman still had a viable chance of seeing the field against the Sooners. Either way, it will be a game-time decision.

At this point, though, Pritchard is still the likely starter. Bringing home a win against Oklahoma would be a great bookend to the senior’s career, as his first career start resulted in the stunning and historic 24-23 win over then-No. 2 USC in 2007. That said, Pritchard seems to be less confident in the pocket than his freshman counterpart, whose passing skills have made defenses pay when they tried to hone in on senior running back and Heisman runner-up Toby Gerhart.

Oklahoma comes into Thursday’s game as a ten-point favorite, largely due to the uncertainty of the Cardinal’s quarterback situation. That number still seems a bit hefty when you compare the two team’s records and whom they have beat this season, but with the nation’s perception of the Pac-10 going down by the second (No. 20 Arizona was taken to the woodshed Wednesday to the tune of 33-0 by another Big-12 team, No. 22 Nebraska), the difference may not seem as outrageous.

In any case, if the past is any indication, Coach Harbaugh will have his team ready to play in the program’s first bowl game since 2001. Whether it’s Pritchard or Luck leading the Cardinal, Stanford should be ready to solidify its place in the Sun.

Toby Gerhart just might deserve the Heisman Trophy and for the first time this season, the Cardinal faithful aren’t the only people who think so.

“With the stamina, toughness and competitiveness he’s shown, I think he’s been the most outstanding player,” said ESPN analyst Todd McShay after slating Gerhart as his No. 1 pick.

His partner Brock Huard, a former quarterback at the University of Washington, essentially agreed.

“I think this a two-horse race,” Huard said. “And Toby Gerhart better be well up there. He defined and turned around Stanford all by himself this season.”

When you consider the season he’s had, Gerhart’s 205-yard and four-touchdown (three rushing, one passing) performance against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish this Saturday wasn’t all that extraordinary. The future Stanford legend has been racking up these kinds of games all season, especially down the stretch.

Likewise, Saturday’s win fell short of the Cardinal’s best performance this season: the three-headed spear of quarterback Jimmy Clausen and receivers Golden Tate and Michael Floyd embarrassed the Stanford secondary at times and the Irish held a 10-point lead well into the second half.

But even without top-notch performances from either Gerhart or his team, Saturday’s win over Notre Dame was ever-important for one simple reason: it was on national television. After all, a win is only as good as the viewers perceive it to be.

Gerhart has been a dark horse candidate most of this season, falling behind Alabama tailback Mark Ingram and golden boy quarterbacks Tim Tebow of Florida and Colt McCoy of Texas on most analysts’ lists. Saturday’s game served to reverse that trend, as the nation finally got to see what the bruising back is all about.

“He’s made that statement the entire year,” said Stanford’s Head Coach Jim Harbaugh. “He was incredible to watch. He said it all by the way he’s played. He’s been about it and not talked about it. He just kept going at it week after week.”

Perception is king in the world of college football, a sport which crowns its national champion largely based on who people  think the best team is. Saturday’s game was the best possible regular-season ending for the image of a Cardinal team that has become a media darling of sorts in recent weeks.

For one, as said before, it was on national television. Even on top of that, unusual attention focused on Saturday’s contest as many around the country expected the game to be the last for Fighting Irish Coach Charlie Weis. Last and most simply, it was a good game. The Cardinal’s 45-38 win was a back-and-forth shootout with plenty of offensive talent on both sides of the ball and it didn’t hurt that Gerhart threw a touchdown on fourth-and-four to tie that game with just minutes remaining.

That said, just because a few analysts have Gerhart at the top of their lists does not necessarily mean he will win the award. McCoy and Tebow are two of the best college quarterbacks of this generation, let alone this year, and the media has had its eye on them for four years now. They will both have national audiences for their games this weekend and their teams are playing for stakes Stanford hasn’t touched in decades. Gerhart winning the Heisman would probably still be a surprise at this point.

Whether he wins the award or not, Cardinal fans and players alike can rest assured that both Gerhart and this team are getting the credit they deserve for the season they have had. Saturday’s win over the Irish, more than anything else, was a showcase for a program that has “bowed to no man” since Coach Harbaugh arrived on campus three years ago. And it doesn’t look like it will be doing so anytime soon.

Thirteen yards and two minutes away from Big Game immortality, Stanford looked poised to beat the Golden Bears in a thrilling 35-34 victory at a filled-to-capacity Stanford Stadium. But Cal linebacker Mike Mohamed had other plans.

The Bears junior stepped in front of an Andrew Luck pass on second down with just a minute and a half remaining, sending the Cal fan section into a fury and leaving the majority of the 50,000 fans in attendance shellshocked. Mohamed’s play allowed the Bears to return home with the Axe as they defeated the Cardinal in thrilling fashion, 34-28.

“It wasn’t a good enough throw,” said a disappointed Luck after the game. “I wish I had that one back. I could have done a lot of different things.”

“We’ve heard a lot of talk about, ‘Oh, they’re going to go to the Rose Bowl,’  Mohamed told media after the game. “We felt like they were overlooking us a little bit. For us to come out and to prove all these guys wrong, it feels good.”

The tough loss overshadowed another stalwart performance from senior running back Toby Gerhart, who rushed for 136 yards and four touchdowns. His 29-yard reception to get the Cardinal down to the 13-yard line was Heisman-esque, as he bulldozed at least three or four Cal defenders through what appeared to be sheer will.

The story of the game wasn’t Gerhart’s performance, however, but that of backup Bears running back Shane Vereen. Replacing the injured Jahvid Best for the second game in a row, Vereen and the Cal offensive controlled the majority of Saturday’s game–the sophomore rushed for 193 yards and three touchdowns on an astounding 42 carries.

“I didn’t even realize he had 42 [carries],” Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. “He’s a great kid. The way he’s performed the past two weeks has been awesome.”
Vereen got plenty of help from his teammates, too. Coming into the game as a significant underdog, the Bears played one of their best games of the year in shutting down Stanford’s heralded freshman quarterback: Luck probably had his worst game of the year, completing just 10-of-30 passes for 157 yards and committing that crucial interception. Cal quarterback Kevin Riley, who has received criticism from fans and media alike at times this season, gave a solid showing with 235 yards on 17-of-31 passing.

Though Cal did dominate the game statistically, the Cardinal jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first half after two Gerhart touchdowns in the first quarter. The first electrified Stanford Stadium, as the running back broke a 61-yard run. The Bears’ defense tightened up from that point on though, containing Gerhart for the rest of the game and stifling Luck all day. Stanford went into halftime with a 14-10 lead, but the second half was all Bears, and the Cardinal found itself down 31-21 with less than ten minutes to go in the game.

Another Gerhart touchdown made it 31-28, and the Cardinal defense held Cal to a field goal after the Bears had great field position after a failed Stanford fourth-down attempt.  With 2:42 on the clock, Stanford would start the game’s final and decisive drive on its own 42-yard line after the Bears squib-kicked to prevent a return from the ever-dangerous Chris Owusu.

The 42-yard line seemed to be a perfect starting point for a storybook ending at Stanford Stadium Saturday, but it was not to be as the Bears captured the Axe for the second year in a row.