McCaffrey leads Stanford in rout of outmanned Iowa
PASADENA >> The first time Christian McCaffrey touched the ball in the 102nd Rose Bowl, he took it 75 yards for a spectacular touchdown. A few hundred yards later, Stanford’s sophomore star had smashed the oldest bowl game’s record for all-purpose yards while leading the Cardinal to a blowout win over Iowa.
Sure, McCaffrey didn’t win the Heisman Trophy, and Stanford barely missed out on the College Football Playoff.
McCaffrey and the mighty Cardinal are still headed into the new year with the Pac-12 champions’ most coveted postseason trophy — and the brightest of futures.
McCaffrey caught a touchdown pass on the opening snap and returned a punt 66 yards for another score while racking up 368 all-purpose yards, propelling No. 5 Stanford to a 45-16 victory over the sixthranked Hawkeyes on Friday.
Three-time Rose Bowl starter Kevin Hogan passed for 223 yards and three TDs in his final game for the Cardinal (12-2) as this unlikely Bay Area football powerhouse won the Granddaddy of Them All for the second time in three trips over the past four years.
“It’s so fun when a team can come together,” McCaffrey said. “We’ve got a bunch of fighters on this team that will never give up. Just love playing with these guys.”
McCaffrey was sublime in his Rose Bowl debut, breaking the all-purpose yards record set by Wisconsin’s Jared Abbrederis in 2012. McCaffrey finished second behind Alabama’s Derrick Henry in the Heisman voting, but the speedy running back turned in one of the most dynamic performances in the Rose Bowl’s lengthy history.
“I think he was the best player in America before this game, so I think it’s just the icing on the cake,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “I do think it’s a shame that a lot of people didn’t get to see him during the course of the year. Apparently the games were too late.”
The world was wide awake to see McCaffrey in Pasadena — and he scored 11 seconds in. Hogan’s throw to McCaffrey was the second-longest TD pass in Rose Bowl history and the longest play given up all season by the stingy Iowa defense.
“I wouldn’t say I was in shock, (but) it was like, ‘Dang, already?’” Stanford left tackle Kyle Murphy said. “I knew they haven’t seen a player of his caliber all year, someone with speed like that. With all the Heisman stuff, he felt really snubbed. He’s not going to say anything about it, but all of us, we know. He’s the best player in the country. It lit a fire under him, although he’s already the hardest-working man and most motivated man.”
McCaffrey finished with 172 yards rushing, 105 yards receiving and 91 on kick returns, putting an appropriate cap on the season in which he set the NCAA record for all-purpose yards. He also became the first player ever to rack up more than 100 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving in a Rose Bowl — and he even became the single-season rushing leader in Stanford history with 2,109 yards on the ground.
Stanford and Iowa finished in the final two spots outside the College Football Playoff field, but the Cardinal showed they belong among the best with their 12th win in their final 13 games.
With a powerful offensive line and a sturdy defense, they also ruined the first Rose Bowl in 25 years for the Hawkeyes (12-2), who followed up their remarkable 12-0 regular season with two postseason losses.