Heisman hopeful struggles with USC, injury.

Stanford’s inactive players, some holding towels to block him from the view of cameras, huddled around Bryce Love as he had his injured ankle retaped during the fourth quarter Friday night.

That might have been the best protection the junior running back had all night during the Cardinal’s 31-28 Pac-12 Championship Game loss to USC at Levi’s Stadium.

Love, who has danced through holes all season and skipped through a nagging injury for much of it, never quite looked like a Heisman candidate against the Trojans. He struggled to find running lanes, failed to break away from USC’s speed and eventually limped off the field.

The usually dynamic tailback finished with 22 carries for 125 yards (52 of which came on one run), which is more than 40 yards shy of his season average (168.0). After averaging 8.6 yards per carry during his first 11 games, Love managed only 5.7 yards per attempt against the Trojans.

“He’s a tough human being,” Stanford head coach David Shaw said. “He loves to play the game. He’s outstanding at it. That being said, he’s outrushed a lot of football teams on 1½ ankles. Not individuals. He’s out-rushed entire football teams. That’s a combination of ability, toughness, heart and character — all those things all rolled into one.”

Love didn’t outgain USC. In fact, he didn’t outgain Trojans starter Ronald Jones II, who had 140 yards and two touchdowns.

Love didn’t gain more than 9 yards on a carry until his 16th, and even then the former track champion couldn’t run away from Chris Hawkins on a 52yard dash. Most damning was that Love wasn’t on the field for the biggest play of the game.

Love hobbled off the field after a shoestring tackle early in the fourth quarter. His teammates surrounded him as he quickly had his ankle retaped, and then he convinced running backs coach Ron Gould to let him back in the game by showing he could bounce on the sideline.

His next three carries netted zero yards, and he limped off the field again after Cameron Smith’s hit left Stanford facing a 3rd-and-goal from the 2. Backup Cameron Scarlett was stopped on each of the next two plays, including a fourthand-goal attempt from the 1 when a field goal would have tied it 24-24.

USC then marched 99 yards for the clinching touchdown, a drive completed by Jones. The Pac-12 Championship Game’s most productive back ran on the final four plays of the possession, churning out 23 yards, including the 8-yard gamewinner.

Asked twice after the game about the health of his ankle, Love looked uncomfortable in responding: “It felt good going in” and then: “It’s just part of the game, going through injury. Things like that happen. I’ve just got to wait for it to come back, and that’s pretty much it.”

At that point Shaw asked for all injury questions to be directed toward him. The coach said going for it on the 1-yard line was a no-brainer, and Love wasn’t on the field because the Cardinal were using their goal-line package.

“As for Bryce, who knows what percentage he’s at? Every time you ask him, he says: ‘90 percent’ — even if he’s not,” Shaw said. “The bottom line is: our doctors and trainers are watching him all the time. If there’s something that he can’t do, we don’t ask him to do it.”