2 wins: Cardinal top Irish, division
Rematch set for USC, Stanford in title game
Perhaps it’s a bit of a stretch to suggest that Levi’s Stadium will be “rocking” Friday night. That’s a place that tends not to rock, unless Beyonce, U2 or Coldplay happen to be in town. But in the midst of a depressing 49ers season, Stanford-USC sounds pleasantly intriguing with the Pac-12 conference championship at stake.
There’s nothing inconsequential about beating Notre Dame, and Stanford accomplished that convincingly with a 38-20 win Saturday evening at Stanford Stadium. But the story was some 840 miles to the north, in rainy Seattle. Stanford needed Washington to beat Washington State in
the Apple Cup, and it wasn’t even close: a 41-14 rout that left the Huskies ecstatic but ultimately unsatisfied, wondering what might have been in this wild, thoroughly unpredictable college season.
Flash back to Sept. 9 at the L.A. Coliseum, and it’s somewhat miraculous that Stanford has drawn this Pac-12 assignment. In a powerhouse matchup that arrived far too early on the schedule, the Trojans hammered out a 42-24 win, racking up 623 yards of total offense while quarterback Sam Darnold threw for 316 yards and four touchdowns.
That was awfully long ago, a time when Stanford depended on Keller Chryst at quarterback and when it appeared the Cardinal had lost too many defensive standouts from the season before. “This could be the best thing to happen our team,” safety Justin Reid insisted that night. “It gives us a chance to come together as a team.”
It didn’t happen quickly — Stanford lost at San Diego State the following Saturday — but the turnaround did occur. Bryce Love took a run at the Heisman Trophy, the defense launched a steady progression toward its customary form (a truism since the Jim Harbaugh days), and here we are. USC had a bye this weekend, and looks to be in great shape with a four-game winning streak and Darnold excelling in the Trojans’ 28-23 win over crosstown rival UCLA on Nov. 18.
It appears that Love will be reasonably healthy for the game. Dealing with a sprained ankle, he’s operating at “about 70 percent,” said teammate Cameron Scarlett, since the Oregon game Oct. 14. But he still has that explosive quality, rushing for 125 yards on 20 carries Saturday night after being held to 31 in the first half.
Love has cleared the 1,800yard mark for the season, making it entirely possible he can reach 2,000. Barry Sanders’ record of 2,628 is well out of reach, but that milestone would put Love in the company of Marcus Allen, Tony Dorsett, Charles White and former teammate Christian McCaffrey (2,019 two seasons ago), among others.
“You run out of words for what Bryce Love is,” Shaw said after the game. “He’s been in pain for a month. Doctors, trainers with him all the time, making sure there won’t be any permanent damage. Pain talks. It talks. It’s unbelievable what he did tonight. And what a smile on his face. It’s not about winning awards, being an All-American, being on national TV, he just loves to play. Loves his teammates. It’s awesome.”
Some wondered if Shaw should have benched Love for the second half, saving him for Friday night, once it became apparent that Washington would win. But that did not seem likely, not with Notre Dame in town. This would be a monumental victory for Shaw, Love and everyone in the Stanford program — and if the Cardinal win that game Friday, they’ll take a 10-3 record into what surely will be an attractive bowl game.
Washington State certainly won’t be happy to see Stanford playing at Levi’s. The Cougars beat the Cardinal 24-21 on a snowy Nov. 4 day in Pullman, a game in which Stanford produced just 198 total yards, quarterback K.J. Costello looked stuck in a conservative game plan, and Shaw personally took the blame for “not giving our guys a chance to be successful. I feel like I let my team down.”
For that matter, the Cougars beat USC this season, as well. Then again, what can they really say after two totally embarrassing losses? First came a 37-3 shellacking at Cal, then a 58-37 crusher at Arizona. Those two games erased the memory of WSU’s 6-0 start and left the door open for Stanford to make a run. Now it has Costello in full control of the offense, and as we’ve seen so many times in the past, the Cardinal are peaking at just the right time.
When the team was struggling at 1-2, Shaw said, “There was a lot of doubt. And some of it was internal. We had to ask ourselves a lot of questions, change some pieces around. We talked about not worrying about anything else but playing our style of football. And tonight, I thought that was maybe our best game of the year. To go from 1-2 to winning eight of the next nine, that says a lot about who we are.”