Big upset 10 years ago launched winning era
Ten years ago this fall, Stanford shocked not only the USC Trojans but also most of a crowd of 85,000 at the L.A. Coliseum and a national TV audience.
Jim Harbaugh went a little further than that. The first-year Cardinal head coach at the time, he told the players in the victorious locker room: “You know what you did today, men? You came out and shocked the world!”
The joy of that locker room is what Tavita Pritchard remembers most about the glorious day of Oct. 6, 2007. Even more than the 10yard touchdown pass he threw to a leaping Mark Bradford with 49 seconds left to give the 41-point underdogs a 24-23 win in one of the greatest upsets of all time.
“The cool thing was, for the men in that room, it wasn’t just that we won one game,” Pritchard said this week. “It was the sense that we
were going in the right direction.”
That direction led to the current streak of eight bowl seasons and three Pac-12 championships. “To this day,” said Pritchard, now the team’s quarterbacks and wide receivers coach, “we all take a tremendous amount of pride in what has happened. That game was a step in the right direction.”
Stanford head coach David Shaw, the offensive coordinator at the time, said, “I like to call that game the beginning of the program.”
USC was ranked No. 2 in the country and had won 35 straight home games. Probably buttering up the opposition, Harbaugh said before the season that the Trojans “may be the best team in the history of college football.” Stanford had lost 16 of its previous 18 games and was coming off a 38-point home loss to Arizona State.
Moreover, Pritchard was making the first start of his career because T.C. Ostrander had suffered a seizure. Pritchard had thrown three passes in his career.
“I think some people thought we were going to get beat 1,000 to nothing,” Harbaugh said.
Pritchard completed just three of his first 15 passes that day. But Trojans quarterback John David Booty, playing despite breaking a finger on his throwing hand in the second quarter, threw four interceptions, and USC also lost a fumble.
Stanford trailed just 16-7 late in the third quarter. Pritchard then led the Cardinal on three consecutive scoring drives. In the waning moments, he hit Richard Sherman for 20 yards on a 4th-and-20 play. That set up the final heroics, a fourthdown play called, appropriately, “Special.” Pritchard threw a fade pass that Bradford caught in the back corner of the end zone.
Bradford, whose father had died of a heart attack the previous week, said after the game that he heard his dad’s voice in his head. “He always told me if I wanted to be a wide receiver, I had to hold onto the ball,” he said.
There were many players whose contributions have been all but forgotten. Pannel Egboh blocked USC’s first PAT try, and it turned out to be the difference in the game. Austin Yancy’s 31-yard interception return for a touchdown provided Stanford’s only points through three quarters. Derek Belch kicked the final, decisive PAT. And Bo McNally’s interception sealed the outcome with 13 seconds left.
When the team buses returned to campus about 12:30 a.m., the players expected a small crowd of friends and families. Instead, thousands of fans were waiting to welcome the conquering heroes.