The myriad memories from my first Rose Bowl trip in 1999 are vivid to this day, fresher in my mind than my Bar Mitzvah, my high school graduation or even the EE problem set I did last week. And now we get to make some new ones.
Here’s a little recipe for success for future Stanford coaches: If you want to make it to the Rose Bowl, throw conventional wisdom out the window.
A decade ago, it took three seasons for Stanford to amass ten wins. During those three miserable years, the Cardinal never finished higher than eighth out of the ten teams in the Pac-10. Nineteen losses in conference play. Twenty-three total defeats. Those were the kinds of numbers that defined the program.