Stanford’s season includes quite the Love story
Star RB’s resiliency in overcoming injury matched team’s run
SAN ANTONIO — As a selfdescribed momma’s boy, Bryce Love understandably had to work in a trip home to North Carolina recently.
The problem was it came in addition to stops in Atlanta for the ESPN College Football Awards and New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony.
That is a lot of time over the last three weeks traveling and walking on perhaps the most talked-about ankle of the bowl season.
Stanford’s star running back sprained it Oct. 14 in a victory over Oregon, and the Cardinal — not to mention Love — have not been the same since.
“It feels amazing right now, a lot better, the best it’s felt in a while,” Love said after a recent practice at Alamo Stadium. “That’s a good sign, obviously. I’m just excited to play.”
That is welcome news to Stanford fans, who know the Cardinal will need Love’s rushing talents out of the backfield when No. 13 Stanford (9-4) meets No. 15 TCU (10-3) in the 25th Valero Alamo Bowl on Thursday night at the Alamodome. The Horned Frogs are fourth in the nation against the run.
Offense needs its go-to guy
It also is worrisome news for TCU fans, who know how important the Heisman runner-up and Doak Walker Award winner is to Stanford’s success.
Without him at full strength, the Cardinal will have to rely more heavily on the passing arm of redshirt freshman quarterback K.J. Costello.
Although Costello has played well — he has passed for 869 yards and seven touchdowns with only two interceptions over the last five games — Stanford is much more dangerous when it can feature a balanced attack led by Love.
The junior from Wake Forest, N.C., has enjoyed a spectacular season — much of it on a gimpy ankle — rushing for 1,973 yards and 17 touchdowns. He is averaging an astounding 8.3 yards per carry and 164.4 yards per game on the ground.
Only once has he failed to gain 100 yards in a game (69 on 16 attempts in a loss to Washington State in the snow). He rushed for 263 yards against UCLA and 301 against Arizona State in back-toback games in September.
Love has game-breaking ability, too. He set an FBS record this season with 12 runs of at least 50 yards. He finished the season with four consecutive 100-yard games on the injured ankle, including 125 in the Pac-12 title-game loss to Southern Cal when he could barely walk. He needs only 47 yards against TCU to break Christian McCaffrey’s 2015 school singleseason rushing record of 2,019.
Cardinal coach David Shaw has been open regarding the condition of his star tailback, saying no one knows for sure how he will react to action at kickoff.
“We worked him into practice a little bit (Sunday),” Shaw said. “He got a few reps. He feels as good as he’s felt in a while. He’s still not 100 percent. The rest has really been key for him.”
Shaw said all the postseason activity has not added wear and tear on Love’s ankle.
“He did a lot of traveling but not a lot of running, thankfully,” Shaw said.
McCaffrey points the way
Love spent his first two seasons in Palo Alto as McCaffrey’s understudy, watching his mentor set records on the way to a Heisman runner-up finish in 2015.
“I could be here all day talking about the things I learned from him,” Love said. “It was just a blessing to go through that. I always say I knew Christian was special from the first time I met him. Just his attitude and how he approached things, how he handled himself. It was an amazing experience.”
Shaw said Love “had a frontrow seat” to McCaffrey’s greatness but became a valued weapon early in his career.
As a sophomore, Love rushed for 783 yards in a relief role and averaged 7.1 yards per carry. As a freshman, he totaled 476 all-purpose yards, rushing and receiving. He scored seven touchdown his first two seasons, with all but one of them on plays for 45 yards or more.
“We knew he was something special even as a freshman, so we would find ways to get him on the field,” Shaw said. “We’d put him at receiver to run a reverse, to run a receiver screen, or put him in the backfield for a couple of runs. We wanted to find ways to keep Christian fresh, so we kept Bryce involved.”
It paid off with a season for the ages in 2017. Love became the fifth Stanford finalist for the Heisman in the last nine seasons.
While he didn’t win, Love said he wouldn’t trade the experience of the trip to New York and getting to know the other finalists — Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield, who won the award, and Louisville’s Lamar Jackson, who won the award a year ago.
“I literally was happy to just be a part of it,” said Love, a human biology major who hopes to become a doctor. “To be there and to represent Stanford was pretty amazing. It was an experience I’ll always treasure.”
Love took fullback Daniel Marx with him to the Heisman ceremony Stanford vs. TCU When/where: 8 p.m. Thursday; Alamodome, San Antonio. TV/radio: ESPN; 97.5 FM.
and offensive linemen Jesse Burkett and David Bright to Atlanta to share in the experiences.
“It was an honor and a privilege,” Burkett said. “It’s fun just blocking for the guy. When somebody like that invites you to an awards show, it says a lot about him as a person.”
Said Love: “If it was up to me, I would have taken the whole team.”
He leads by example
Shaw said he has seen his star running back grow tremendously in three years.
“He’s generally pretty quiet, not overly vocal, but a very positive person,” Shaw said. “The times I’ve asked him to talk to the team he’s stepped in there with his shoulders back and his head held high and the guys will listen to him because everything he says he believes.
“He’s a great example for a young player to follow. He’s a true example of what a Stanford player is supposed to be.”
It is Love’s toughness that has caught people’s attention after his injury. His resiliency has mirrored that of the team, which rebounded from a 1-2 start to win eight of its final 10 games.
He said he hasn’t made a decision on whether he will return to Stanford for his senior season or turn pro. But he wasn’t about to skip the Alamo Bowl. McCaffrey did not play in the Sun Bowl at El Paso a year ago.
“I felt like I owed it to people,” Love said. “This whole experience at Stanford has been like a dream to me. I’m not ready for it to end.”