Stanford football announced the times for two of its 2013 home games on Wednesday—the home opener against San Jose State and its marquee matchup with fellow-Pac-12 North-favorite Oregon.
Fresh off a 2013 Rose Bowl victory, Stanford football is back in action, beginning the first of its two spring practice sessions. For head coach David Shaw, this day could not come soon enough.
After concentrating on conditioning for the last few weeks, the Stanford football team will finally be back in spring practice from Monday, with players ready to start competing for key places in next season’s starting lineup.
It’s been a while since the Cardinal has come out on top in the Granddaddy of Them All—41 years to be exact. Tomorrow on New Year’s Day, No. 6 Stanford (11-2, 8-1 Pac-12) finally has the chance to end that drought as it squares off against Wisconsin (8-5, 4-4 Big Ten) at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
Stanford’s Stepfan Taylor and Wisconsin’s Montee Ball have combined for 9,252 career rushing yards, the largest total for two starting running backs the history of the Rose Bowl. The previous record, set by Ball and James last year, was a measly 8,069 yards, and this will be just the fourth Rose Bowl in the last 40 years to feature two tailbacks who have combined for at least 7,000 over their careers.
I can’t guarantee a winner tonight, but here are the changes each team will look to make if it wants to represent the Pac-12 at the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.
A win is a win, but it certainly was not the way head coach David Shaw drew it up. A 24-point favorite going in to the game, Stanford (6-2, 4-1 Pac-12) escaped with an unconvincing 24-17 victory over a scrappy Washington State (2-6, 0-5) team that refused to quit.
Coming off an incredible 21-14 victory over USC, the Cardinal will face a different kind of animal tonight against the Washington Huskies: its first road test of the season at CenturyLink Field, one of the loudest stadiums in the nation that boasts a crowd capacity of 67,000.