We continue our ambitious offseason series, counting down the top
40 moments of the Harbaugh/ Shaw era.
No matter how you slice it, Stanford football has
arrived. Though we’ve since assumed all the trappings of a
football powerhouse – the three straight runner-up finishes in
Heisman voting, the two straight BCS bowl berths and top-10
finishes, the top-ten 2012 recruiting class, or the eminent
graduation of top pro prospect of the last decade – it wasn’t
that long ago that Stanford football was an afterthought.
On December 19, 2006, new athletic director Bob Bowlsby hired Jim
Harbaugh, a former star quarterback, but an unproven coach who
had never worked at the FBS level. The rest, as they say, was
history.
We are pleased present Stanford football’s 40 most memorable
moments, trends, games and personalities from the magical
five-plus years that followed that December 2006 announcement.
16. We've Got the Axe
2007 Big Game win the first in six years for Stanford
Today, five years after the great turnaround began, it's tempting to
oversimplify how it all happened. It's easy to consider October 6,
2007 - the night of the "Greatest Upset Ever" against USC - as
the one that single-handedly reversed Stanford football's direction.
To be sure, Richard Sherman's fourth-down conversion, Tavita Pritchard's connection with Mark Bradford, and Bo McNally's
game-sealing interception at the Coliseum will be forever enshrined
in Stanford lore as moments that sparked the Harbaugh resurrection.
But in the larger picture, that epic 24-23 shocker was no more than
a spark. It was wildly re-energizing, but it wasn't even a return to
.500 football on the Farm. Don't forget that the Cardinal still
struggled mightily even after that glorious night, so much so that
they entered the season-ending Big Game on a four game losing streak
sporting a paltry 3-8 record.
With each passing loss, the USC win looked less like a
course-correcting victory and more like a gigantic fluke. Heading
into the Big Game, Stanford had even lost to the most putrid Notre Dame team of all time at home. A win against Cal looked extremely
unlikely, yet the success of 2007 - and momentum moving into the
pivotal 2008 recruiting season - hinged on the rivalry game.
And so the table was set, the Tavita Pritchard/T.C. Ostrander
quarterback platoon pitted against Nate Longshore and company for
the first Big Game in the new Stanford Stadium. The Cardinal hadn't
beaten the Golden Bears in six years, and not many were expecting
them to do it against a Cal team that had whipped Tennessee (who
finished 6-2 in the SEC) earlier in the year.
But the Bears' first possession set a tone of Cal offensive futility
that would last the entire game. Clinton Snyder sacked Longshore and
forced a fumbled on third down to set up a 28-yard
Ostrander-to-Bradford touchdown strike on the very next play.
Stanford never trailed, and they grabbed the game by throat on
Austin Gunder's touchdown catch in the third quarter. Nick Sanchez
intercepted Longshore twice to spearhead a scrappy defense that held
Cal to a single field goal in the second half.
On that note, it can be said that Harbaugh's 2007 team started the
job in unfathomable fashion against USC, and finished it in
surprising form at home against Cal. A gritty 20-13 win brought the
Axe back to Stanford. When the crowd stormed the field, the new
stadium had seen its first great football moment. The Red Zone's
takeover was wild (as the KZSU sideline reporter for that game, I
had the choice of either cutting my mic and joining the mob or
staying on air while getting trampled; I chose the former). Though 2007's final 4-8 tally was not sexy, the win finished the
foundation for the biggest offseason in Cardinal history.
Three months later, Harbaugh successfully inked the heralded
recruiting class of 2008, which included Andrew Luck. And we all
know how that panned out.
Previous
50-41. More
memorable moments -
Loukas, Luck, and a phantom clipping call
40. Fake out
- Luck stuns UW with a naked
bootleg in 2010
39. Polls and
bowls - Stanford climbs into
college football’s beauty contests
38. Steamrolled
- Card run for 446 yards in
2011 beatdown of UW
37. Opening
act - 2009 win over Ducks
launches a November to remember
36. Going
bowling - Loss to Sooners
doesn't ruin first bowl game since 2001
35. "Shut up
and play football" - Cal jaws
pregame, falls behind 45-0 in 2010
34. Look ma,
no legs - Luck throws a 52-
yard dart while in free fall
33. Sit down
- Burfict's head leads to go-
ahead TD, Wilkerson's ices W at ASU
32. Injury bug
- Despite multiple injuries,
2011 Card manage to rally
31. Whale
watching - Stanford starts
recruiting at an elite level
30. Suck for
Luck - The media machine anoints the next football savior
29. Outta my
way - Luck bounces off Cattouse for a 50-yard run
28. 0 for 3
- Card post three shutouts in 2010 campaign
27. Laying the
wood - Luck lays out Wright
26. Concussed
- Owusu is knocked out of four games
25. Jumping
ahead - A 21-3 lead vanishes in Autzen in 2010
24. So close,
yet so far - Luck’s worst game costs Card 2009 Big Game
23. Run, Toby,
run - Gerhart takes over against the Irish
22. Xs and
Os… and Ys and Zs - Stanford toys with defensive
coordinators
21. “The
perfect football player” - Marecic makes purists weep
20. Rumor Mill
- Report: Harbaugh to take every NFL job
19. "What's
Your Deal?" - Stanford hands USC worst home beatdown ever
18. Continuity
Unknown to Mankind - David Shaw named Harbaugh's successor
17. Whitaker
Beats USC - Cardinal hand the Trojans another soul-crusher
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