» STANFORD, CAL BOTH AT 6-4 ON EVE OF BIG GAME
STANFORD — As a wide receiver on The Farm from 1991 to 1994, David Shaw went 3-0-1 in the Big Game. As a head coach at Stanford, he’s a perfect 7-0 against Cal.
In fact, the Cardinal enters the 121st edition of the Big Game on an eightgame win streak, the longest in the storied rivalry that dates back to 1892.
Kickoff is Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in Berkeley.
“This game for me is in just a different category,” Shaw said. “There is something about holding that Axe after the game . ... I think anytime you win the Big game it’s extremely satisfying. I think it’s special, it’s different. I’m looking forward to the environment. There’s going to be a lot of emotion, a lot of energy. Two good football teams and it’s going to be fun, it’s going to be exciting.
“And hopefully we find a way to score at least one more than they do and have a chance to bring the Axe back to Stanford.”
The Cardinal (6-4, 4-3 Pac-12) hasn’t lost this decade against the Bears, including a 48-14 triumph at the end of the Jim Harbaugh era in 2010.
Just don’t expect a blowout at Memorial Stadium.
Cal (6-4, 3-4) has closed the gap in the Bay Area after falling behind in the series 63-46-11.
The hiring of second-year head coach Justin Wilcox by the Bears is a big reason for the turnaround, with Cal bowl eligible for the first time since 2015 after last week’s 15-14 victory at USC, which ended a 14-game skid to the Trojans.
“I have the utmost respect for Justin Wilcox as a defensive coordinator, his defensive mind,” Shaw said. “He makes it difficult to game plan against. There are a lot of variety in fronts and blitzes and coverages. The guys play with a lot of effort and a lot enthusiasm, they have a lot of pride in what they do, play with a lot of energy, they’re physical.
“I had a feeling this was going to happen when he got the job.”
In a way, it’s like looking into a mirror.
Stanford barely escaped with a 17-14 triumph in last year’s Big Game — a low-scoring affair that could duplicate itself if Cal can’t figure out how to move the ball against Stanford.
“They’re very physical up front, as they have been for a long time now,” Wilcox said. “They do a really job of mixing and matching fronts and coverages, and make you kind of hunt what the call is and change the stress of the defense.”
Cal got off to a 3-0 start and even cracked the AP Top 25 rankings this year, then promptly lost its next three games.
A statement victory three weeks ago — 12-10 against Washington — helped right the ship.
Stanford got off to a 4-0 start and ranked No. 7 in the nation before losing four its next five games, each of them to teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25: No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 8 Washington State, No. 17 Washington and No. 21 Utah.
The Cardinal bounced back last week with a 48-17 victory over Oregon State in which tight end Colby Parkinson, the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week, tied a school record with four touchdown catches, all of which came in the first half.
The 6-foot-7, 242-pound sophomore is the first tight end to claim the Pac-12 award since Stanford’s Zach Ertz, a Super Bowl champion with the Philadelphia Eagles.
“This team is going to fight no matter what,” said Parkinson, who caught a touchdown on his first play as a Cardinal in Australia last year. “Our scope has changed. Obviously our goals were huge at the beginning of the year and then things changed, but it’s cool to see last week the resiliency of our team to come back and still play really top-notch football.”
It’s clear that Stanford running back Bryce Love won’t win the Heisman Trophy after a runner-up finish last year.
He suffered an apparent ankle injury earlier this season, same as wide receiver JJ Arcega-Whiteside, who leads the Pac-12 with 11 receiving TDs and ranks fourth in the nation, but missed the past two weeks.
Both could play key roles in the 121st Big Game, which could turn into a defensive struggle.
Anything goes after kickoff in a matchup that requires little, if no, motivation.
“After the game starts, all that stuff goes away,” Shaw said. “Both teams are just fighting and scratching, trying to play. They were a motivated team a year ago. I thought for the majority of the game they outplayed us, flat out. They took the fight to us, I thought they were more physical. I feel like it took our guys a while to realize that we needed to at very least match their intensity.” The message hasn’t gone unheard. “We can’t anticipate how big the emotions will be, but I think our guys in the locker room just know that this game is going to be big,” Stanford safety Malik Antoine said. “We’re both fighting for a win and it should be a great game.”
Indeed, it’s a Big Game.