Jacob Jaffe – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Thu, 07 Jun 2012 06:31:18 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Jacob Jaffe – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Jaffe: How Stanford sports can change your life https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/07/jaffe-how-stanford-sports-can-change-your-life/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/07/jaffe-how-stanford-sports-can-change-your-life/#respond Thu, 07 Jun 2012 08:46:26 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1068134 When I came to Stanford, I had the fears that everyone else had about college. Four years later, I have voluntarily spent most of my collegiate life reading, writing and speaking to people. And it's all because of sports.

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As I finish up my time on the Farm, it’s hard not to look back and think about my four years here. All of a sudden, I understand all of those speeches we sat through during Admit Weekend and NSO about how fast this would go by, and since Dean Julie is leaving, I’ll try to temporarily fill-in as leader of nostalgia.

When I came to Stanford, I had the fears that everyone else had about college. Except I had all of them. I wouldn’t be able to fit in, I wouldn’t be smart enough and I would make Stanford second-guess its decision to let me in. As far as classes go, I knew that I’d do something techie, mostly because I hated reading, writing and public speaking with a passion. I did not understand anything about literature, writing an essay induced more torture for me than the machine from Princess Bride and I became the first person in memory at my high school to refuse to give a graduation speech as salutatorian.

Four years later, I have voluntarily spent most of my collegiate life reading, writing and speaking to people. And it’s all because of sports.

During the activities fair my freshman year at Stanford, I walked all the way around looking for something to catch my eye. In typical fashion, I didn’t like anything. As I was on the verge of walking away, I realized that my mom would get frustrated and start lecturing me if I didn’t at least try something. Begrudgingly I went back to the tables, where my friend told me there were a couple advertising for sports fans. I’ve always loved sports, and I figured it would sound good if I said I had signed up for a few things, so I wrote my name down for The Stanford Daily and KZSU. And the rest, as they say, is history. Or at least, the rest has been my life for the past four years.

They say that sports are a metaphor for life. I’ve always hated this, mostly because talking about metaphors just reminds me how much I hated analyzing literature. But I suppose there is some truth to it.

In sports, the final outcome is often the result of whether or not you take advantage of opportunities. Whether it’s scoring a goal on the counterattack, knocking down the big putt, closing out a break point or picking off the pass and taking it to the house, you can make up for a long period of being outplayed as long as you take advantage of the opportunities that come your way.

At Stanford, I got outplayed big-time. I was never at the top of my classes, never got prestigious internships, never did research with professors and never stood anywhere close to the top of the social scene. But in the Stanford sports world, I took advantage of the opportunities that came to me, and that has made all the difference in my life.

Of course, opportunities are in some ways all about luck, and I got incredibly lucky to get where I am today. Stanford opened up such incredible opportunities for me, such as the ability to write this column for four years and broadcast play-by-play of some of the best athletes in the world without any prior experience.

I also got extraordinarily lucky to come to Stanford at a time when so many amazing people were here. For instance, my freshman hallway in Branner (the greatest hall of all time) had four athletes in four different sports who played at Stanford the full four years. One set a school record and won a national title in men’s volleyball; one was a first-team All-American and won a national title in women’s soccer; one was an All-American three times in singles and in doubles and won the national men’s tennis singles title; and one is a 14-time All-American and set multiple school and American records in track.

What an amazing way to enter college. And it kept going from there. I got to see the best football player, women’s basketball player and baseball player (it’s ok, Mark Appel, the Astros will soon realize their mistake) in the country perform here. I watched live from the press box as Stanford went to the only three bowl games it had been to in a decade, including the program’s first-ever BCS bowl victory last year. I saw three straight Heisman runners-up who easily could have been winners. I saw four straight Final Fours for the women’s basketball team and the men’s team start to reap the benefits of rebuilding with an NIT title. I saw the men’s volleyball team go from worst to first right here at Maples. I saw women’s soccer finally break through, women’s tennis grind out a thrilling championship and women’s water polo go back-to-back.

The wonderful thing about Stanford, though, is it isn’t just about that. At Stanford, you get to meet some of the greatest athletes in the world and you get to see championships every year. But you also get everything else that goes with it. You don’t need to work for the newspaper or radio station to get an up-close and personal look at all these games. You don’t need to be in the right frat or sorority to know the athletes personally, as friends instead of just icons. And you don’t need to be in the LSJUMB to have your blood pumping when “All Right Now” plays.

Stanford sports are for everyone. They’re for the sports fanatics who check Twitter updates for tennis scores while they walk back from the dining hall, but they’re also for the next Mark Zuckerbergs on campus who want a break from programming. They’re for that girl you want to ask out and that guy you met at a party. They’re for wide-eyed freshman and jaded grad students. They’re even for professors and school administrators.

Whatever your passion, Stanford gives you opportunities. My passion happens to be sports, and after four years, I can proudly say that I took those opportunities. But whether or not you’re a sports nut like me, take advantage of the unbelievable sports scene on campus. Meet athletes and learn about their sports. Go to games that you know nothing about and find new sports to enjoy. Learn when to jump during “All Right Now” and force everyone around you to do it. Get wrapped up in the crazed fandom of a student section and don’t care what the local senior citizens think of your rowdiness.

That way, when you come back for a reunion after making your first billion (because as we all know, a million dollars isn’t cool anymore), you can smile fondly as you reminisce about the football team’s glory years and the days when there were buildings on campus not named Arrillaga. And when the band starts playing, you’ll get goosebumps as you instinctively yell with the crowd.

Five, six, seven, eight.

Jacob Jaffe made his editors cry. Bid him a bittersweet farewell at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Baseball regional at Sunken is a must-see event https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/01/jaffe-baseball-regional-at-home-is-a-must-see-event/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/01/jaffe-baseball-regional-at-home-is-a-must-see-event/#comments Fri, 01 Jun 2012 08:46:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1067891 Fear not! The sports world (and the NCAA selection committee) has given us all another gift: Stanford is hosting a regional in the NCAA baseball tournament this weekend. The Cardinal will compete in a four-team, double-elimination bracket, and the winner will go on to the Super Regionals. From there, a best-of-three series will determine the eight participants in the College World Series.

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The calendar has flipped to June, meaning the world of college sports is nearing its annual hibernation period. Almost every college sport has ended because most college school years have ended, so the athletics schedule is a little sparse.

But it’s coming up on finals season, which means you need something to distract you from studying, your last-second search for a summer internship or, if you’re like me, your impending graduation and the jobless, directionless, nebulous blob known as the rest of your life.

Fear not! The sports world (and the NCAA selection committee) has given us all another gift: Stanford is hosting a regional in the NCAA baseball tournament this weekend. The Cardinal will compete in a four-team, double-elimination bracket, and the winner will go on to the Super Regionals. From there, a best-of-three series will determine the eight participants in the College World Series.

In short, Stanford is beginning a tournament to decide the national champion, and in sports, there is nothing better than a tournament. Basketball’s tournament captures the nation’s attention for a whole month, while football’s lack of a tournament has created such an uproar that even Congress has gotten involved.

But for many, it doesn’t get better than the road to Omaha. In baseball, no game is a gimme, and all four teams have a legitimate shot at advancing from a regional. Take the 2008 Fresno State team. The Bulldogs barely got into the 64-team tournament by winning the WAC tournament, and as a No. 4 seed in their regional, they had the equivalent chance of a No. 13 or 14 seed in basketball. Yet they beat the odds, becoming the lowest seed ever to make the College World Series and then continuing their magical journey all the way to winning the national championship, the first title in any men’s sport in the school’s history.

This is particularly relevant this year given the fact that Fresno State is once again a No. 4 seed and, as chance would have it, the Bulldogs are starting the tournament against none other than Stanford. To make matters worse, Fresno State is the only team that managed to defeat Stanford’s Friday starter Mark Appel. So naturally, Appel and Fresno State are set to face off once more tonight.

Getting to watch Stanford in a tournament like this is a treat, but being able to head over to the ballpark and see it live is another thing entirely. For the first time in four years, the Cardinal gets to play its regional right here on the Farm, which means that the team will get a home-field advantage, but also that we as fans get a rare opportunity to watch the tournament in person.

It is commonly said that baseball is the best sport to watch in person, and Sunken Diamond is as scenic a spot for a game as you could ask for. They say every time you go to a game, you could see something you’ve never seen before, and Stanford has helped support that statement of late. A week ago, the Cardinal played the longest game in school history (18 innings and about six hours), including the first time in my life I’ve ever seen a walk-off win overturned after an argument with the umpires. What will happen this weekend?

Finally, if you’re really looking for a reason to head on over to Sunken Diamond this weekend, here’s the simplest one: There will be some really good baseball. Stanford has as talented a team as any in the country, and at least two Cardinal players will likely be first-round draft picks in the majors. Appel and Stephen Piscotty, Stanford’s two All-Pac-12 selections, are expected to go in the first round this Monday when the 2012 draft begins, and there is a ton of talent behind them on both sides of the ball. The Cardinal has been up and down this year, but Stanford is solidly in the hunt for the national championship with a good shot to beat any team it faces.

The road to Omaha begins tonight, and I hope to see you there.

 Jacob Jaffe hopes that Stanford baseball will give him a good excuse to road trip to Omaha. Let him know what you think at jwjaffe“at”stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Halls of fame seem too roundabout to be effective https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/21/jaffe-halls-of-fame-seem-too-roundabout/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/21/jaffe-halls-of-fame-seem-too-roundabout/#respond Mon, 21 May 2012 08:45:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1066955 While watching the Champions League final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich on Saturday, a friend wondered aloud whether Didier Drogba was a Hall of Famer or if there’s even a World Soccer Hall of Fame for him to enter.

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While watching the Champions League final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich on Saturday, a friend wondered aloud whether Didier Drogba was a Hall of Famer or if there’s even a World Soccer Hall of Fame for him to enter.

As it turns out, the International Football Hall of Fame (remember, most of the world calls the game played with your feet “football”) exists, but judging by the fact that the link to its home page doesn’t work and it hardly shows up on Google, it’s not really at the same level as those for baseball or football.

At first, this seemed odd to me. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, so why wouldn’t it have something so basic as a hall of fame? Sure, there are national halls of fame, but soccer is such an international sport that it would seem to require one hall to rule them all (and I already gave it a tagline). Because let’s face it, there are a lot of halls of fame. Wikipedia has a whole article just listing them.

But thinking about it more, I realized that halls of fame are not nearly as fundamental a concept as I had thought. After all, the first major hall of fame was for baseball, which isn’t quite 80 years old yet. The Baseball Hall of Fame was started because, one, there was a misconception that baseball had been invented in Cooperstown, and, two, it could make money.

The motto for the Baseball Hall of Fame is “Preserving History, Honoring Excellence, Connecting Generations.” These are great goals, and having a place to learn about the best players of the past is a good thing. But halls of fame are known much more for the select groups of former players (and coaches and others involved in the game) that get the honor of being “inducted.”

I don’t have any problem with this, but choosing who to include in the elite class of players is an unenviable task, no matter what the sport. Think about it: if someone asked you to say who are the five best players in the NBA right now, or in the NFL or NHL or MLB or any other sport, you would almost definitely disagree. And these guys all face each other year after year. Imagine comparing players across generations.

That is what hall of fame voters have to deal with, and all that’s hanging in the balance is the entire validation of a player’s career. No pressure.

There’s no way to decide whom to induct without some arguments and flaws, but that still doesn’t stop me from having a beef with the major halls of fame.

Last year, Bert Blyleven was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. When he retired in 1992, he had 285 wins and 3,701 strikeouts. In his first year of eligibility in 1998, he had 285 wins and 3,701 strikeouts, but he did not get into the Hall. For each of the next 13 years, his statistics did not change, but his Hall of Fame vote percentage did change every year, although it wasn’t until last year that the votes eclipsed the 75-percent threshold necessary for enshrinement. As of right now, he still has 285 wins and 3,701 strikeouts, but he’s now in the elite club of baseball players.

What changed? Blyleven’s pitching didn’t. And you can’t tell me that people’s perspective on him changed for 14 straight years. But in the ridiculous system we have now, a player can be on the ballot 15 years in a row. And a lot of times, it takes several years to get the necessary total.

My question is simple: why can’t you make up your minds the first time? Why not just wait 10 years or so after players finish playing so you get some perspective without many players dying before they can be eligible? Give voters one chance. A yes or a no, and that’s it.

And while we’re at it, let voters pick however many players they want. The Pro Football Hall of Fame mandates that between four and seven players be inducted per year. It makes sense for their ceremonies, but it makes no sense if you want to get the best players every year, which is part of the reason why guys like Cris Carter and Tim Brown are still awaiting their call to the Hall.

At some point, there are just so many issues that I have to wonder if a hall of fame is really necessary. But, at least for major American sports, it’s too late. You can’t really stop inducting people now, so let’s at least fix the process so it makes sense. The best players in history deserve at least that.

Jacob Jaffe is still sore that the Stanford Daily Sports Columnist Hall of Fame hasn’t sent him his official induction letter yet. In its place, send your condolences to jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Track & Field: Women take second, men fifth, at Pac-12s https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/16/track-field-women-take-second-men-fifth-at-pac-12s/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/16/track-field-women-take-second-men-fifth-at-pac-12s/#respond Wed, 16 May 2012 08:35:26 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1066468 Five individual titles highlighted a successful trip to the Pac-12 Championships for the Stanford track and field teams. The women placed second while the men tied for fifth, as host Oregon swept both titles.

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Track & Field: Women take second, men fifth, at Pac-12s
Redshirt senior Corey Dysick and the Stanford men tied for fifth at the Pac-12 Championships in Oregon, led by seniors Amaechi Morton and Chris Derrick. The women's team placed second. (IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily)

Five individual titles highlighted a successful trip to the Pac-12 Championships for the Stanford track and field teams. The women placed second while the men tied for fifth, as host Oregon swept both titles.

Freshman Brianna Bain got things going for the women’s team on Saturday, winning the Pac-12 title in the javelin. Bain’s final throw of 53.58 meters was good enough for both the title and a new Stanford record.

Success in the field continued on Sunday, when senior Katerina Stefanidi won the pole vault for the second straight year. Her vault of 4.48 meters broke her own Stanford record and was just two centimeters short of the Olympic “A” standard that Stefanidi is seeking in order to represent her home country of Greece in the London Olympics.

In other field events, redshirt senior Arantxa King and junior Karynn Dunn placed second and third, respectively, in the long jump. King’s first jump of 6.42 meters was the best in the field until Arizona State’s Constance Ezugha edged her by three centimeters on her final jump. King added a third-place finish in the triple jump, while junior Alyssa Wisdom placed third in the hammer throw.

On the track, sophomore Kori Carter rounded out the individual wins on the women’s side with a victory in the 100-meter hurdles. Carter narrowly edged out classmate Katie Nelms, 12.99 seconds to 13.01, and both were far better than the previous Stanford record of 13.13, which was also set by Carter.

Carter and Nelms also contributed to a third-place finish in the 4×100-meter relay. Redshirt senior Shataya Hendricks and junior Carissa Levingston ran the additional two legs to help the team put up a 44.25, good for the second-fastest time in Stanford history. Hendricks also placed third in the 100 and sixth in the 200. Junior Kathy Kroeger had the best finish in the distances, placing second in the 5,000.

Meanwhile, the individual winners on the men’s side were no strangers to success in big meets, as seniors Amaechi Morton and Chris Derrick both added a Pac-12 title to their trophy cases.

Morton won the 400-meter hurdles with the sixth-fastest time in the world this year. His 48.95 missed his own school record by just one-hundredth of a second, but it was enough for the Olympic “A” standard. Along with his first Pac-12 title, Morton added a second-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles to account for 18 of the team’s 78 total points.

Derrick started out his Sunday with a close runner-up finish behind Arizona’s Lawi Lalang in the 1,500. Lalang and Derrick also finished 1-2 at the NCAA Cross Country Championships and both the 3,000 and 5,000 at the NCAA Indoor Championships earlier this year. Derrick broke through later on Sunday, though, edging out Lalang and his teammate Stephen Sambu to win the 5,000. The win was Derrick’s second career title in the event and third overall.

“It was a really good day,” Derrick said. “For the 1,500, I would have liked to have won, but I got boxed in a little early. I closed fast, which I was happy with, but I just couldn’t catch [Lalang]. The 5k was a slugfest. It was a really tough race, and Sambu was the one pushing the pace. With a mile or 2k to go, I noticed Lawi hurting, and I had never seen him struggling. There was a lot of lead-trading, and I was trying to keep up the pressure to finally beat the guy that had beaten me before. We were all wiped afterward, but I was pleased to come out on top.”

Other top finishers for the men were senior Benjamin Johnson, who placed third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and redshirt junior Geoffrey Tabor, who placed third in the shot put. Tabor fouled in every attempt at the discus, though, so he was unable to repeat his 2011 title.

Overall, the men were disappointed with their team finish.

“We weren’t too happy with that,” Derrick said. “We’re at that level as a team where we’re in a pack of quality teams and we needed a big meet to break through. We had some good performances, but not enough. We know we’re built more for NCAAs, though, so we’re looking forward to that.”

Next up for the track and field teams is the NCAA Regional in Austin, Texas, on May 24-26. The NCAA Championships will follow two weeks later in Des Moines, Iowa.

 

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Jaffe: As Mom would say, youth sports’ competitiveness should be toned down https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/14/jaffe-as-mom-would-say-youth-sports-competitiveness-should-be-toned-down/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/14/jaffe-as-mom-would-say-youth-sports-competitiveness-should-be-toned-down/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 08:45:36 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1066179 The only thing that caused me complaints was my aforementioned hatred of exercise (seriously, it’s the worst), but I never really thought much of it until my mom began to question some of my coaches for their methods. She would tell me about how youth sports used to be more about just kids having fun with less emphasis on being ultra-competitive. I know this might sound lame, but we’re talking about eight year olds in a recreational soccer league. You get a trophy no matter what.

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In honor of Mother’s Day, it seemed fitting to talk about my own mom this week. Growing up, my mom had so many roles. On the weekends, she was a soccer mom. She drove players in her minivan, made the team banner, cheered from the sidelines, brought us snacks at halftime and even used her own limited soccer expertise to help as assistant coach. She was the ideal supporter of my soccer career (as well as my equally rewarding baseball and basketball careers) despite the fact that I showed about as much athletic talent as a gum wrapper.

And I loved it. Sports have been my life for as long as I can remember, and I found a way to enjoy sports that I sucked at. I loved playing even though I’ve always despised exercise, and I would have a good time even though I was almost always on an awful team (it took until my third year of playing soccer for my team to win a game). Sports were just what I would do besides school.

The only thing that caused me complaints was my aforementioned hatred of exercise (seriously, it’s the worst), but I never really thought much of it until my mom began to question some of my coaches for their methods. She would tell me about how youth sports used to be more about just kids having fun with less emphasis on being ultra-competitive. I know this might sound lame, but we’re talking about eight year olds in a recreational soccer league. You get a trophy no matter what.

From then on, I started really noticing how intense people get about kids’ sports, and it’s not a pretty sight. Parents get thrown out of games for screaming at officials, players who have yet to reach middle school get verbally abused by coaches at the slightest error, and for what? For a first-place ribbon instead of a second-place ribbon?

Of course, the goal of many parents is to give their child the best shot at becoming the next LeBron James, Lionel Messi, Andrew Luck or Albert Pujols (minus 2012). You can’t wait until you’re 18 to become Novak Djokovic or Tiger Woods, so kids have to start young to have a shot at being an elite athlete.

The problem, though, is that you know these athletes’ names because there are so few who get to that level. What about the 99.9 percent of kids out there playing youth sports? Are “winning is everything” and “your best is not good enough” really the messages we want to be sending our kids?

Naturally, competitiveness factors into sports, and it’s good to be competitive up to a certain point. But kids will be competitive on their own without those messages being drilled into their heads by adults. What kids can’t do on their own is put their latest Little League game in perspective. If your coach tells you that losing will ruin your life, then it’s going to ruin your life, at least for a while. And if you think this problem ends when kids reach middle school or high school, just take a look at the problems in college and professional sports.

Some of the big issues in sports right now can be traced directly to the attitudes ingrained in kids through youth sports. Football is dealing with problems from blows to the head and unnecessarily violent play. Baseball has had to deal with the whole steroid debacle. Basketball is seeing most of the top players skipping their education, or at least blowing it off, in order to make money now. Think about it: If you’re told to win at all costs as a six-year-old and every week of practice from then on, why wouldn’t you do whatever possible to get ahead?

Then again, it’s definitely a two-way street. If you’re growing up idolizing athletes that hit players in the head and take illegal substances and skip college for the money, it’s hard not to want to follow in their footsteps.

There will always be hypercompetitive kids with dreams of being a professional athlete who view youth sports as the first step on their path to stardom. But for the rest of us, youth sports are about having fun the way only kids can. And I just hope by the time I have kids, there’s still some fun left to be had in sports.

Jacob Jaffe isn’t afraid to admit he’s a momma’s boy. Send some of your own Mother’s Day stories to jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Seau’s suicide death prompts questions about football’s safety https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/07/jaffe-seaus-suicide-death-prompts-questions-about-footballs-safety/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/07/jaffe-seaus-suicide-death-prompts-questions-about-footballs-safety/#respond Mon, 07 May 2012 08:45:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1065660 Sometimes even sports can’t escape the tragedies of the real world.

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I hate the news.

I’ve never liked watching the news, reading the news or even knowing the news. I know — this is weird because I work for a newspaper. I know it’s important to stay up-to-date on what’s going on in the world, but every time I see the news, it depresses me. “News” seems to be equivalent to “who was just killed” and “what normal everyday objects are slowly killing you” and “how the government is screwing things up so more people will die.”

Sports, on the other hand, are fun. Sports allow you to experience every possible emotion without ever getting in any danger. You can yell and scream and cry, and all that has changed is that some millionaires have run around a field. The next day, you can go right back to it while feeling good about life.

There are so many great things about sports, and one of the best parts is the distraction they can offer from the world. No matter what is happening in your life, sports can give you that small amount of joy to get you through the day.

Except sometimes even sports can’t escape the tragedies of the real world.

On Wednesday, Jered Weaver pitched a no-hitter for my favorite team in the world, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Yet his brilliance on the mound was regrettably pushed way down on every sports news show in the world, and for a good reason. On a day that should have been about a baseball no-hitter and playoffs in basketball and hockey, football stole the show for all the wrong reasons.

The story of the day was Junior Seau, a former NFL linebacker who was found dead at 43 with a gunshot wound in his chest. Seau was one of the best linebackers in history, and his passion for the game was infectious. Growing up in Southern California, I couldn’t help but root for Seau on the San Diego Chargers even though he went to USC. Before I knew anything about football defense (every new fan just watches the ball), I watched Seau roam around because he seemed to be involved in every single tackle.

The 12-time Pro Bowler ranks 10th all-time with 243 NFL starts, and every anecdote from fellow players says that he loved playing the game every bit as much as fans enjoyed watching him. But less than a week ago, Seau shot himself in the chest.

Seau’s suicide is incredibly tragic, but it also brings up several questions: Was playing football involved in his death? Did it stem from concussions and lasting brain damage? Was it because he didn’t know what to do with his life after his football career ended?

Studies of Seau’s brain could provide some insight, but we will never know the true answers to all these questions. However, these questions will undoubtedly lead to many more doubts about the most popular sport in America. Head injuries and brain damage in football were already of particular interest, and a suicide by a future Hall of Famer will only accelerate the debate.

I love watching football and find many of the recent personal foul penalties excessive and annoying. But clearly, both the safety of players and their future well-being are more important than a penalty flag every so often. At some point, though, this might not be enough.

Is football just inherently too violent to survive? That question, which would seem ridiculous a couple years ago, has become much more complicated. Wednesday’s other top story, the suspensions given to Saints players for their roles in the bounty scandal, does nothing to minimize the issue. Players slamming into each other on every play is one thing, but players doing their best to injure an opponent is even more troubling. Combine this with stories of former players like Seau who, for whatever reason, cannot live normal lives after playing football, and the long-term viability of football really becomes questionable. Because let’s be honest: non-contact football is not a reasonable option.

There’s no easy answer to solve the issues with football and player safety, but acknowledging that there is a real problem is the first step toward saving and improving the game. And when days like Wednesday come around, it’s impossible to ignore that there is a real problem with football.

Jacob Jaffe is still upset about the career-ending concussion he sustained at last year’s Ink Bowl. Help him get back to living his normal life at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Football: Bowlsby offered Big 12 commissioner job https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/03/football-bowlsby-offered-big-12-commissioner-job/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/03/football-bowlsby-offered-big-12-commissioner-job/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 08:55:15 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1065349 According to multiple sources, Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby has been offered the job of Big 12 commissioner and is expected to accept the job

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According to multiple sources, Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby has been offered the job of Big 12 commissioner and is expected to accept the job. Bowlsby will replace interim commissioner Chuck Neinas, who stepped in as interim commissioner when Dan Beebe, who had been the commissioner since 2007, was fired in September 2011.

The 60-year-old Bowlsby, a native of Waterloo, Iowa, was the athletic director at Northern Iowa from 1984-1991 and the athletic director at the University of Iowa from 1991-2006. Bowlsby replaced Ted Leland as Stanford’s sixth athletic director in April 2006.

Football: Bowlsby offered Big 12 commissioner job
Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby (above, center) has been offered the job of Big 12 commissioner and is expected to accept it. Bowlsby has been a big part of Stanford's recent athletic success, including the hiring of Jim Harbaugh and the recent landmark Pac-12 television deal. (Stanford Daily File Photo)

In addition to his experience in Iowa and on the Farm, Bowlsby is also on the United States Olympic Committee Board of Directors, and was the head of the NCAA Basketball Selection Committee in 2006.

Under his leadership, Stanford has continued its tradition of athletic success, extending its unprecedented streak of consecutive seasons with an NCAA title to 35 years. The Cardinal also became the second athletics program ever with 100 NCAA team titles. Stanford added the inaugural women’s Capital One Cup to its trophy case to go along with its 17 consecutive Directors’ Cups. In 2011, Bowlsby signed a contract extension with Stanford that ran through 2017.

Bowlsby was highly influential in the resurgence of Stanford football during his time on the Farm, as he hired Jim Harbaugh as the head football coach in 2006. Bowlsby was also instrumental in the hiring process for Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott and in the negotiations for the Pac-12’s $3 billion dollar television deal in 2011.

The Big 12 Conference is in the midst of change, starting with the departures of Colorado and Nebraska to the Pac-12 and Big Ten, respectively, last year. After a year with 10 schools, the Big 12 lost two more when Missouri and Texas A&M decided to leave for the SEC. Faced with the possibility of collapse, the Big 12 has agreed to add West Virginia and TCU to get back to 10 schools for next season.

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Tennis: Stanford set to play significant role in team, individual NCAA tournaments https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/03/tennis-stanford-set-to-play-significant-role-in-team-individual-ncaa-tournaments/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/03/tennis-stanford-set-to-play-significant-role-in-team-individual-ncaa-tournaments/#respond Thu, 03 May 2012 08:40:39 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1065325 With the Pac-12 Championships completed, the Stanford men's and women's tennis teams can now prepare for the NCAA tournament

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With the Pac-12 Championships completed, the Stanford men’s and women’s tennis teams can now prepare for the NCAA tournament.

The first event in the NCAA tournament is the 64-school team competition, and both the men and women have earned top-16 seeds, meaning that Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Center to host the first two rounds of play May 11-13.

On the men’s side, the Cardinal (17-8, 5-2 Pac-12) has been given the No. 11 overall seed. In the first round, Stanford will host automatic qualifier Sacramento State (11-12), which won the Big Sky tournament to advance to NCAAs for the ninth time. The Cardinal last met the Hornets in January 2011 with Stanford earning the sweep, but Sacramento State’s team is much different this year with freshmen comprising over half the starting spots.

Tennis: Stanford set to play significant role in team, individual NCAA tournaments
Senior Ryan Thacher (above) will compete in both the NCAA singles and doubles tournaments in Athens, Ga. First, though, he will participate in the team tournament beginning May 12 (ALISA ROYER/The Stanford Daily).

If Stanford takes care of Sacramento State, it will take on the winner of Texas and Santa Clara in the second round. USC, the team that knocked Stanford out of the Pac-12 tournament, is the No. 1 overall seed. The Trojans have swept the Cardinal in all three meetings, while no other team has swept Stanford.

On the women’s side, the Cardinal (18-1, 9-1 Pac-12) is the No. 4 overall seed. Stanford will start its tournament run against Stony Brook (14-7), the automatic qualifier out of the America East Conference. The winner of that match will take on the winner of Saint Mary’s vs. Yale.

Women’s tennis is looking for its second national title in three years and its 17th title in 31 years. If seeds hold, the Cardinal could face rematches with No. 5-seed USC in the quarterfinals, No. 1-seed UCLA (the only team to beat Stanford this year) in the semifinals and No. 2-seed Florida (the team Stanford has met in the final each of the last two years) in the final.

After the first two rounds, both the men’s and women’s tournaments will move to Athens, Ga., for the remaining rounds.

Following the conclusion of the team tournament, the focus will switch to individuals during the NCAA singles and doubles championships from May 23-28. Stanford will have participants in each individual tournament.

Seniors Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher will represent Stanford during the men’s tournaments. Each is an unseeded entrant to the 64-player singles tournament, while the pair will be the No. 4 seed in the 32-team doubles tournament. The duo lost to a team from Texas A&M in the NCAA doubles final last year. Klahn, who missed the beginning of the season due to injury, won the NCAA singles title in 2010.

Pac-12 singles champion Nicole Gibbs leads a trio of Stanford women competing in the individual tournament. The sophomore is the No. 3 overall seed, while her teammate, junior Mallory Burdette, is the No. 5 seed. Junior Stacey Tan made the singles bracket as well as an unseeded at-large. For doubles, Gibbs and Burdette will team up as the No. 2 seed, while Tan will join freshman Ellen Tsay to form Stanford’s second doubles entrant.

Stanford’s NCAA tournament action will kick off May 11 at 2 p.m. with the Cardinal women hosting Stony Brook. The men begin May 12 at noon against Sacramento State.

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Jaffe: Puny men’s volleyball tournament shouldn’t exclude teams like Stanford https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/30/jaffe-puny-mens-volleyball-tournament-shouldnt-exclude-teams-like-stanford/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/30/jaffe-puny-mens-volleyball-tournament-shouldnt-exclude-teams-like-stanford/#respond Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:46:17 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1065033 Every March, dozens of college basketball teams wait anxiously for a selection committee to decide their postseason fate. Coaches go on television making their team's case, resumes are compared in hundreds of different ways and the word “bubble” gets thrown around approximately 12,000 times per second. Months and months of hard work get boiled down to a few numbers and the opinions of a group of old men in a room on one Sunday afternoon, leaving several good teams left outside the Big Dance. And there's nothing the players can do about it.

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Every March, dozens of college basketball teams wait anxiously for a selection committee to decide their postseason fate. Coaches go on television making their team’s case, resumes are compared in hundreds of different ways and the word “bubble” gets thrown around approximately 12,000 times per second. Months and months of hard work get boiled down to a few numbers and the opinions of a group of old men in a room on one Sunday afternoon, leaving several good teams left outside the Big Dance. And there’s nothing the players can do about it.

Compared to men’s volleyball, though, basketball players have a cakewalk.

Imagine being a team that dominates throughout the season, ranking as high as No. 1 while finishing in a close second in by far the best conference in the nation. In your conference tournament, you come inches away from winning, eventually blowing a lead to the No. 2 team in the country in the tournament final. Still, as the No. 3 team in the nation, what’s to worry about?

In basketball or nearly any other collegiate sport, there wouldn’t be a worry, as your only question would be about seeding in the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately for the players on the Stanford men’s volleyball team, their sport doesn’t work like that.

Nope. In the mind-boggling world of NCAA men’s volleyball, a No. 3 national ranking, a 22-7 record and second-place finishes in both the regular season and tournament in the crazy-good Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) gets you nothing more than a seat on the couch for the rest of the postseason.

That’s because the NCAA tournament is nothing more than the Final Four, which includes automatic qualifiers from the three big conferences in the country: the MPSF, the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) and the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA). This leaves room for exactly one at-large team. No, not the 37 at-large teams of men’s basketball. One.

It makes some sense…in theory. The sport of men’s volleyball is on a much smaller scale than men’s basketball. Instead of the 340 teams in Division I men’s basketball, Division I men’s volleyball has just 30, so its tournament must obviously be smaller. But trying to scale it all the way down to four is just ludicrous. More than that, it’s unfair.

Volleyball is one of the few sports where the men’s game has yet to catch up to the women’s game. There are over 10 times as many women’s teams as men’s teams in Division I, and only recently has men’s volleyball begun to pick up steam as a big-time college sport.

This has caused many of the tall, athletic kids in middle and high school to start choosing volleyball, even though the sport is still underrepresented at the college level.

This inequity between the number of great players and the number of available teams means that several volleyball teams are unbelievably stacked. The top six or seven teams have so much talent that they beat up on each other constantly. The winner of one match — or even one set — seems to have virtually no advantage when the next meeting rolls around, which is why so many teams come back from 2-0 deficits to win in five. Using one or two head-to-head matchups to distinguish between so many qualified teams is extremely difficult, and it’s flat-out ludicrous when the committee can only choose one at-large team.

I know that the idea in men’s volleyball is to have conference tournaments act as play-ins for the Final Four, but that just cannot work when one conference is so much better than the others. When 10 of the top 12 teams in the country come from the MPSF, which they do seemingly every year (including 2012), then you can’t tell me everyone has an equal chance to make the Final Four.

Stanford has many of the best players in the country, including the best libero ever (Erik Shoji) and many of the school’s all-time greats, such as Brad Lawson, Evan Barry and Gus Ellis. Few teams, if any, can match the athleticism and entertainment value of the Cardinal. Robbing the nation of seeing this team compete against the best opponents in the nation for all the marbles is unfair and unfortunate. Robbing this team of the chance to accomplish its goals and win the national title is just flat-out wrong.

Get it together, NCAA. Make a men’s volleyball tournament where all the best teams can compete for a title.

All Jacob Jaffe wants for Christmas is an at-large bid to the NCAA men’s volleyball tournament. Help his holidays come early at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Learning to love the tie https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/25/jaffe-2/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/25/jaffe-2/#respond Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:30:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1064513 Yesterday I watched one of the most intense games I've ever seen. It kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish and made me nervous innumerable times throughout. There was as much drama in this game as any game I can remember. And yes, it was a soccer game.

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Yesterday I watched one of the most intense games I’ve ever seen. It kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish and made me nervous innumerable times throughout. There was as much drama in this game as any game I can remember. And yes, it was a soccer game.

In fact, it was a soccer game that finished in a tie. And I know most people, even most sports fans, in America would simply stop right there and just complain about how boring soccer is. I’ve heard it all: it’s too slow, there aren’t enough goals, the players flop all the time, nothing happens, it’s not American enough. And there is some truth to that. Compared to a sport like football, where people crash into each other on every play, slight nicks of the heel in soccer seem less interesting. Compared to basketball, where players score every 20 or 30 seconds, the hour-long goal droughts in soccer can appear boring.

If you can get past that, though, and really watch the intricacies of the game, you can see why billions of people are captivated by soccer. Yesterday’s Champions League semifinal between Barcelona and Chelsea was a perfect example of everything soccer can give you. There were high stakes: the winner gets to advance to the final of the most important club tournament in the world. There were talented players: Barcelona’s Lionel Messi is the best player in the world and one of the best to ever play the game, and his team is basically a worldwide all-star team, while Chelsea is one of the richest and most talented clubs in the world as well.

There was an incredible atmosphere: even soccer haters have to acknowledge that the passion of fan bases for top soccer clubs is impressive. Heck, even soccer-challenged America can produce goosebump-inducing moments like the Portland Timbers fans singing the national anthem. The Barcelona fans were so raucous and formidable that they were seemingly able to get Turkish referee Cüneyt Çakir to show a yellow card to Chelsea whenever they wanted.

Accordingly, there was also controversy: Chelsea captain John Terry was shown a red card when he kneed Barcelona’s Alexis Sanchez in the back away from the ball. Çakir did not even see the play and only gave the red after being alerted by his assistant and then seeing a magnificent flop from Sanchez. This came when the match was tied 1-1 on aggregate, and, combined with the Barcelona goal just six minutes later, appeared to seal the deal in favor of Barcelona. As the best club in the world and the reigning champion at home with a man advantage and the lead, Barcelona had the game in the bag.

But that’s why they play the game. Chelsea shocked Barcelona with a quick break right before halftime, and a perfect through-ball from Frank Lampard to Ramires left the latter in open space. Ramires calmly chipped the ball over Barcelona keeper Victor Valdes with incredible skill to give Chelsea the first away goal of the semi, which left the visitors clinging to an aggregate lead at halftime (the tiebreaker is away goals.)

The second half was one of the most nerve-racking experiences I’ve had in a long time. As a somewhat new follower of soccer, I have been a fan of Chelsea for the past few years, and my support was even stronger in this game given Chelsea’s underdog status. I could hardly breathe for the entire second half as Barcelona camped around the 18-yard box, threatening to score virtually every minute. Hope appeared lost when Messi, who had never scored against Chelsea, stepped up for a penalty kick in the second half. The soccer gods finally gave Chelsea a break, though, as Messi hit the crossbar, and later the post, to keep Chelsea in front.

The capper came in stoppage time when possibly the most maligned player in the world, Fernando Torres, broke past the Barcelona defense and stepped around Valdes to score the dagger.

It was truly incredible. Soccer is not really a game of stats, but being a stats lover I have to point out the ridiculous nature of this semifinal. Over the two legs, Barcelona outshot Chelsea 46-12 and held possession 72 percent of the time. Chelsea only managed to get four shots on goal in three hours on the field, and one of them was a prayer from Chelsea’s own side of the field. It was enough, though, as the other three shots on target found the back of the net, leading the underdogs to an improbable 3-2 win and a trip to the final.

I know soccer isn’t for everyone. Some people cannot get past the different pace and the lack of scoring, and most won’t give it a chance. But if you consider yourself a real sports fan, give soccer a shot. You might just find yourself captivated for good.

Jacob Jaffe knows one thing for sure: he doesn’t want to go back to that dark, ignorant world where he was without “the beautiful game.” Share your moments of soccer epiphany with him at jwjaffe@stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: After dominant weekend, Stanford baseball should be seen as an imposing force yet again https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/23/jaffe-after-dominant-weekend-stanford-baseball-should-be-seen-as-an-imposing-force-yet-again/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/23/jaffe-after-dominant-weekend-stanford-baseball-should-be-seen-as-an-imposing-force-yet-again/#respond Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:45:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1064309 After a woeful stretch where runs seemed to come with the frequency of Halley's comet, the Stanford baseball team found its offense this weekend in a much-needed sweep of Arizona State.

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Well that’s more like it.

After a woeful stretch where runs seemed to come with the frequency of Halley’s comet, the Stanford baseball team found its offense this weekend in a much-needed sweep of Arizona State.

I’ll be the first to admit that I did not see this coming. I honestly did not think the Cardinal would be able to even scratch out one win against the Sun Devils this weekend. Think about it: Stanford had gone just 3-7 in its past 10 conference games, and if the Cardinal couldn’t beat San Jose State, how could it hope to beat perennial College World Series contender Arizona State? And despite the fact that ASU is banned from postseason play this year, the 2012 Sun Devils are still formidable. Arizona State had won five in a row and eight of nine coming into the game and sat just six spots below Stanford in the national rankings.

Well, the Cardinal proved me (and a whole lot of people) wrong by winning all three games. And these weren’t just lucky bounces. These were we’re-every-bit-as-good-as-you-thought-we-were wins. Which, for the rest of the nation and particularly the rest of the Pac-12, is very unwelcome news.

In Arizona State’s first 15 conference games of the year, the Sun Devils allowed only 38 runs while going 9-6. In just three games against Stanford, the Sun Devils allowed 34 runs while going 0-3. Arizona State came in with a team ERA of 2.65, putting ASU in the top five pitching staffs in the country. After one series with Stanford, that ERA is up to 3.53, meaning ASU is no longer even in the top five pitching staffs in the conference.

It all started on Friday, when the Cardinal had to match up against Sun Devil righthander Brady Rodgers, whose sparkling numbers gave him a case for being the best pitcher in the nation. Rodgers had an incredible 55-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio and the sixth-best ERA in the country, an unbelievable 1.13. He had allowed nine earned runs in nine starts and had gone at least eight innings in each of his past seven outings.

Stanford smacked Rodgers around to the tune of eight runs, six of them earned, in a season-low 5.1 innings. So naturally, Arizona State head coach Tim Esmay took him out, allowing the bullpen to give up another nine runs in the next 2.2 innings. Yep, after scoring eight runs total in its past four games, the Stanford offense scored 17 in one game against one of the best starters in the nation and some of the top relievers in the conference.

Any team can have a good game every so often (although few could have that good of a game against those guys), but what is really heartening for Stanford fans is how the Cardinal followed up the big blowout on Friday with two more wins.

On Saturday, Stanford was locked in a close duel with the Sun Devils. The game was tied 2-2, 3-3 and 7-7, the last of which came in the ninth inning. But with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Alex Blandino came through with a clutch RBI single to give Stanford the walk-off win.

Blandino, a freshman from a stone’s throw away in Palo Alto, has gone from occasional late-inning fill-in to occasional starter to major contributor to big-time star in the past few weeks. And although this weekend’s sweep was a team effort, Blandino was undoubtedly the star of the show.

Thanks to injuries to Lonnie Kauppila and Jake Stewart, Blandino found himself starting the week at third base. And despite entering the week with only 44 collegiate at-bats, Blandino made the most of his playing time. On Tuesday he had a two-run homer, his third of the season, to account for Stanford’s only two runs in a loss to San Jose State. In the demolition on Friday, he hit two monster homers to left, driving in four runs and scoring four himself. On Saturday, he hit another home run to go with his walk-off hit. And on Sunday, he was the only Cardinal player with more than one hit as he led Stanford to the sweep. Oh, and he also made the defensive play of the game with a diving stop down the third-base line. In total, he was 9-for-16 with eight runs scored, 11 RBI and four home runs for the week.

Sunday’s game was close throughout, but with Stanford’s recent swagger, you could just feel that the Cardinal would come through in the clutch. And that’s exactly what Stanford did, winning 9-5 in front of a season-high crowd of over 3,000 people to put the finishing touches on the team’s first sweep since February.

Looking forward, it’s hard to predict what Stanford will do considering the team’s recent inconsistent history. But I’m inclined to think that this series proves that the Cardinal will be ready come playoff time. Stanford desperately needed wins this weekend after falling to 5-7 in Pac-12 play, and the opponent was daunting. It would have been easy to roll over and continue the lull. Instead, the Cardinal ripped out its most impressive three-game stretch of the season, pounding a top team to get back over .500 in conference play and back in the mix for a top-eight national seed.

I don’t think there’s a team in the country that could have matched up with Stanford this weekend, and the way the team played, no one wants to see the Cardinal on its schedule any time soon.

Unlike Alex Blandino, Jacob Jaffe didn’t quite hit three home runs this weekend. Send him some “hitting” pointers at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Spring Game, though inexact, reveals questions about Cardinal offense https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/15/jaffe-spring-game-though-inexact-reveals-questions-about-cardinal-offense/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/15/jaffe-spring-game-though-inexact-reveals-questions-about-cardinal-offense/#respond Sun, 15 Apr 2012 08:45:40 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1063460 April is the time of the year when nearly every sport has something major going on. College basketball has its championship, playoffs begin in the NBA and NHL, the MLB season gets underway and the NFL has its draft. The Masters brought golf back to the limelight, and European soccer is reaching its pinnacle with leagues and tournaments coming down to the wire. If there was ever a time to forget about college football, it would be now.

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April is the time of the year when nearly every sport has something major going on. College basketball has its championship, playoffs begin in the NBA and NHL, the MLB season gets underway and the NFL has its draft. The Masters brought golf back to the limelight, and European soccer is reaching its pinnacle with leagues and tournaments coming down to the wire. If there was ever a time to forget about college football, it would be now.

Except you can’t forget about college football. Ever. And just to make extra sure that college football doesn’t leave your mind three months after the season ends, we have a divine invention known as the spring game.

Stanford, realizing that it suddenly has a good (and more importantly, profitable) football team, has taken full advantage of its spring game, making tweaks year after year to what is — and always will be — simply a scrimmage.

The big move, of course, was taking the game off-campus, which changed the game from “a scrimmage we have every year that, if you’re really bored and have nothing better to do, maybe kinda sorta drop by if you happen to be in the neighborhood and see some guys on the team play” to The Cardinal and White Spring Game at Historic Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.

Pretending the game is important was bold, pretending Stanford is really connected to San Francisco is bolder and pretending that it’s worth expansive media coverage (ESPN covered it last year) is just downright impressive.

The fact is that it’s a scrimmage. It’s a scrimmage where absolutely nothing is at stake, where the scoring system and format are completely arbitrary and ridiculous, where incoming freshmen don’t play, where outgoing seniors don’t play, where many players with minor injuries don’t play and where the team is still almost five months away from participating in a meaningful game. Logic states that there is nothing to possibly read into about this “game.”

But I read into it. I, like so many fans and media members around the country, put way too much stock into this little exercise. Last year, despite being in Los Angeles calling Stanford’s baseball game at USC on the radio, I still found myself glued to my computer screen, watching Andrew Luck dissect his own defense. I was convinced that he could beat any defense and that we wouldn’t miss our graduating receivers. I was convinced that the holes in our secondary would be our only issues. I was convinced that we’d be one of the best teams in the country. And all it took was a silly scrimmage in April that I didn’t even go to!

This year, I was actually able to attend the game, and my convictions are just as strong, albeit not as positive. I came in expecting to see a team that missed Luck and was still searching for its starting quarterback. I came in expecting to see a dominant linebacker corps that would be the best group on the field by far. I came in expecting to see some fun plays that would get me excited for Stanford football.

Well, I was somewhat right. The linebackers were overpowering, getting touch-sacks (no one was allowed to hit the quarterbacks) so often that I honestly wondered if they were ever told to back off just to give the offense a chance to run from time to time. The quarterback competition still looks very much up in the air, but none of the choices looked nearly as promising as I’d hoped.

As for the excitement…well, that was a little lacking. There were a couple nice plays (Ty Montgomery’s first touchdown catch and Jordan Richards’ interception come to mind), but I found myself employing more facepalms than rounds of applause.

The offense had more drops than any roller coaster I’ve ever been on, and the rest of the plays seemed to be either a sack or a bad pass. It’s hard to read too much into the running backs considering Stepfan Taylor, Anthony Wilkerson and Tyler Gaffney weren’t playing, Jeremy Stewart is gone and Barry J. Sanders hasn’t joined the team yet, but no one particularly stood out.

The defense certainly deserved to win, but it’s hard to tell if that’s due more to the stingy defense or the mediocre offense. Has the defense really improved from the squad that struggled against the better teams Stanford played last year? It’s hard to know, but the biggest difference between January and April was clearly the loss of Luck. That will clearly be the big story of the offseason, and it’s up to Stanford to make sure that isn’t the big story of the whole season as well.

Even with the lackluster performance on Saturday, my expectations for Stanford football haven’t really changed. The Cardinal will definitely experience a drop-off from the success of the past couple seasons. Yes, Luck is gone, but so are several other cornerstones of the team. Still, there is a heck of a lot of talent on this squad, and Stanford can absolutely be one of the better teams in the Pac-12 in 2012. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait several more months to see just how good the Cardinal will be.

Jacob Jaffe didn’t pay nearly enough attention to The Daily’s delegation at the Spring Game, which looked in tip-top shape for next year’s Ink Bowl. Submit your projected depth charts at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Way-too-early MLB predictions https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/09/jaffe-way-too-early-mlb-predictions/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/09/jaffe-way-too-early-mlb-predictions/#respond Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:46:12 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1062622 It's the second week of April, which means March Madness and the Masters have given way to the start of baseball season. And that means it's time for Jumping to Ridiculous Conclusions, Volume 2! Since I'm far too lazy to physically jump to these conclusions, here's my second annual way-too-early MLB column.

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It’s the second week of April, which means March Madness and the Masters have given way to the start of baseball season. And that means it’s time for Jumping to Ridiculous Conclusions, Volume 2! Since I’m far too lazy to physically jump to these conclusions, here’s my second annual way-too-early MLB column.

Last year, I analyzed the first week of the season to predict what would happen at the end of the year, and to everyone’s surprise, the first week didn’t adequately predict the entire season.

But I’ve learned my lesson. As a mathematical and computational science major, I can tell you that last year’s sample size was far too big. So I’ve taken it upon myself to write this column after the first full weekend of the season, when just 48 of the 2,430 games have been played. Here’s what we’ve learned so far in Major League Baseball.

As expected, the World Series looks like it could very well come down to a battle of eastern teams. Both the Mets and Orioles completed three-game home sweeps on Sunday thanks to starters that flirted with no-hitters. Next stop, Fall Classic!

Likelihood of this happening: about the chance of me getting a double eagle in the final round of the Masters. And I’ve never played golf.

In fact, winning your opening series isn’t much of a sign of postseason success. Three of the last four World Series champs lost their opening series 2-1. So maybe we should be looking for a Phillies-Angels World Series after both lost two in a row to sub-.500 central teams.

Likelihood of this happening: decent. Despite their poor starts, both are expected to contend for their respective pennants. The Phillies are aging but still as talented as anyone in the National League, while the Angels pulled the ultimate offseason trifecta of adding the best hitter available (Albert Pujols), adding the best pitcher available (C.J. Wilson) and subtracting the worst hitter available (Jeff Mathis).

If you want to look for a star pitcher in the American League, you could look at obvious guys like Justin Verlander and Jered Weaver, who each threw eight shutout innings in their first start. But if you want a real Cy Young threat, how about Verlander’s teammate Duane Below? He leads the majors with two wins already and has allowed just one baserunner all year.

Likelihood of this happening: none. Sorry, Duane, but a middle reliever with zero career wins before this season isn’t going to take home the trophy, even if you don’t allow a run all year.

As far as hitting, the early season hasn’t lacked power. Four players — Miguel Cabrera, Yoenis Cespedes, Corey Hart and Jay Bruce — have already hit three home runs apiece. Hart and Bruce are two of the better power hitters in the National League, and Cabrera may very well be the best hitter in the game, but Cespedes has been capturing the nation’s attention (which is hard to do when you play for the A’s) with his mammoth home runs. Could this quartet be at the top of the home run lists at season’s end?

Likelihood of this happening: unlikely, but definitely possible. With the departures of Pujols and Prince Fielder to the American League, the National League lost two of its three best home-run hitters, so Hart and Bruce could be two of the best sluggers left. Cabrera has hit 30 home runs in seven of the past eight years, so I wouldn’t put it past him. At some point, AL pitchers will stop throwing Cespedes belt-high fastballs and make him work for his homers, and you’d have to think that Pujols and Fielder (not to mention Jose Bautista and the whole Yankees and Rangers rosters) will factor into the home run races.

For all the good so far, there’s of course been an equal amount of bad, and for some of the big boys, opening weekend was less than stellar. Three of the past five champs — the Giants, Yankees and Red Sox — got swept in their opening series. This is particularly surprising for the Yankees, who, prior to their weekend sweep at the hands of the Rays, had not been swept to start a season since 1998. And that year New York won 114 games and the World Series. So don’t cry for the Yankees yet (not that you ever would).

Likelihood of this happening: very unlikely. For as much talent as the Yankees have (what else is new), there is a whole lot of other talent in that division. Winning over 70 percent of the next 159 games will be almost impossible when over a third of them will be against Boston, Tampa Bay and Toronto, although the World Series is certainly in play for the Bombers.

With so much to be determined over the next seven months, I might as well throw my own guesses into the mix. I’ll say the Rays, Tigers and Rangers will win their divisions in the American League, with the Yankees and Angels as the wild cards, and the Phillies, Reds and Diamondbacks will win their divisions in the National League, with the Cardinals and Giants as the wild cards. I’ll go Rays-Reds in the World Series, with Tampa Bay bringing home its first title.

Likelihood of this happening: not a chance.

Likelihood of Jacob Jaffe writing about baseball each of the next nine weeks: 100 percent. Predict the topic of next week’s column at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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W. Tennis: Cardinal sweeps four dual matches in eight days https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/05/w-tennis-cardinal-sweeps-four-dual-matches-in-eight-days/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/05/w-tennis-cardinal-sweeps-four-dual-matches-in-eight-days/#respond Thu, 05 Apr 2012 08:36:35 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1062295 After a two-week break for finals, the No. 6 Stanford women's tennis team got right back into action with four dual matches in eight days. The Cardinal (14-0, 6-0 Pac-12) showed no signs of rust, though, winning all four dual matches without dropping a single team point

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After a two-week break for finals, the No. 6 Stanford women’s tennis team got right back into action with four dual matches in eight days. The Cardinal (14-0, 6-0 Pac-12) showed no signs of rust, though, winning all four dual matches without dropping a single team point.

Stanford’s first match after the break, a March 25 matchup with No. 38 Washington State, was canceled due to rain, so the Cardinal did not get underway until March 28, when the squad traveled to Las Vegas to take on No. 51 UNLV.

The extra layoff was not an issue, though, as Stanford swept the three doubles matches against the Lady Rebels, losing just six games in total. Singles was similarly dominated by the Cardinal, as Stanford dropped just one set en route to a 7-0 win. The lower courts of doubles particularly favored Stanford, as the Cardinal lost only 20 games in eight sets on courts three through six. Including doubles, Stanford’s junior Stacey Tan, freshman Ellen Tsay, senior Veronica Li and junior Natalie Dillon won 65 games and lost just 22.

W. Tennis: Cardinal sweeps four dual matches in eight days
Sophomore Nicole Gibbs (above) has not lost a set since the finals break as the Stanford women's tennis team has swept all four of its foes in the past week and a half.

After dismantling UNLV, the Cardinal returned to conference play, hosting the Arizona schools over the weekend. The results were similar, as Stanford rolled over No. 27 Arizona State 7-0 before beating No. 28 Arizona 4-0.

Against the Sun Devils, Stanford again lost just one set en route to the sweep. In singles, Arizona State reached five games in just two of the 10 sets on the way to its first shutout loss of the season. Injuries also played a role, as the Sun Devils were forced to forfeit the third doubles match and the sixth singles match.

The Cardinal had similar success against the Wildcats before rain ended the match early. The threat of bad weather caused the singles matches to go before the doubles matches, and when sophomore Nicole Gibbs finished off her match on court one to give Stanford a 4-0 lead, the match was called. Junior Mallory Burdette, Tsay and Li also won in straight sets, while Tan and Dillon did not complete their matches.

Stanford ran its shutout streak to six consecutive matches with an easy 7-0 win over Cal Poly on Wednesday afternoon. The Mustangs (7-7) are just the fourth unranked team Stanford has faced this year, and they were no match for the Cardinal at Taube Family Tennis Center. Stanford won every set and needed just one tiebreaker to dispatch Cal Poly.

In doubles, Stanford took care of business on all three courts, winning 8-3, 8-3 and 8-4. Head coach Lele Forood changed up the singles lineup, giving Tan a break and allowing sophomore Amelia Herring to secure her first win in a singles dual match. Gibbs and Burdette had no trouble on the top two courts, as each won by an identical 6-1, 6-1 score. Herring closed out the sweep with a 7-6, 6-4 win on court six.

The Cardinal will look to continue its shutout streak against another unranked opponent in its final nonconference match of the season when Stanford hosts Santa Clara this Saturday at 9:30 a.m.

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Jaffe: Cardinal men looking trendy on the hardwood https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/02/jaffe-cardinal-men-looking-trendy-on-the-hardwood/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/02/jaffe-cardinal-men-looking-trendy-on-the-hardwood/#comments Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:45:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1061926 For several years, there has really been no comparison between Stanford men’s basketball and women’s basketball. While the men have struggled to get over .500, the women have been blowing out their opposition left and right. The men haven’t been able to sniff NCAA tournament contention, whereas the women are locks to be national title contenders year after year.

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For several years, there has really been no comparison between Stanford men’s basketball and women’s basketball. While the men have struggled to get over .500, the women have been blowing out their opposition left and right. The men haven’t been able to sniff NCAA tournament contention, whereas the women are locks to be national title contenders year after year.

This year, that reality has not changed one bit. In a weak Pac-12, the Stanford men still managed to finish in the bottom half of the conference, and the team has been on such a downward trend that an NIT berth was seen as quite an achievement. On the other hand, the women continued their destruction of the Pac-12 by running their winning streak over conference foes to 78 games and had an overall winning streak of 32 games this year.

However, sometimes perception plays an even bigger role than reality, and for the first time in recent memory, the perception is much more favorable to the Stanford men than the women.

Stanford women’s basketball has gone to the Final Four each of the last five years, which is one of the most impressive streaks in the sport’s history. But after falling to No. 1 Baylor last night, the Cardinal has yet again failed to secure the elusive national title. For the seniors, particularly All-American Nnemkadi Ogwumike, last night marks the end of four unsatisfying trips to the Final Four. At some point, the national view of Stanford women’s basketball has become similar to that of Andy Murray in men’s tennis — an immaculate record and total domination of lesser foes, but just not enough against the top-quality competition to win the big one.

For a team with such an impressive resume and the amount of talent that Stanford has, almost no one in the media gave Stanford a shot to win the national championship, which says something about the effect of all these Final Four defeats. I’m not suggesting that the team has stopped believing it can win, but you have to wonder if doubts start creeping in when Stanford falls behind by eight or 10 points deep in the postseason.

Doubts about whether the team can indeed close the deal can also be detrimental to recruiting. Stanford will invariably have one of the top recruiting classes in the country thanks to its success under Tara VanDerveer and the allure of what the Farm has to offer. The only question is if that one extra top recruit will pick a place like Connecticut instead of Stanford. And if you’ve watched any amount of women’s basketball, you know what kind of impact one player can have (see: Brittney Griner, Maya Moore, Candace Parker, Diana Taurasi, etc.).

Meanwhile, the Stanford men’s basketball team has faced none of the expectations and pressure that have followed the women for years. The Stanford men quietly extended their season with an NIT berth, and despite less-than-stellar attendance at Maples Pavilion, the Cardinal advanced past Cleveland State before the rest of the bracket disintegrated in Stanford’s favor.

As a three-seed, Stanford faced two five-seeds, two six-seeds and a seven-seed while playing three home games and two neutral-site games en route to an NIT title. Although no win in particular was truly notable (Stanford was favored in all five), stringing together five straight wins in any postseason tournament is impressive. Winning games you should win is an important part of sports — just ask Missouri and Duke — and it’s an area where Stanford has struggled (see: losses to Butler and Utah).

In the past few weeks, though, the Stanford men did anything but struggle. The Cardinal played inspired basketball, getting impressive contributions from a variety of players while gaining momentum with each game. The way Stanford played on both ends of the floor by the end of the tournament brought back memories of the “good old days” of Mike Montgomery and yearly trips to the Big Dance. It was easily the best Stanford has looked in Johnny Dawkins’ four-year tenure, and it brought back something that has been missing for all four of those years: hope. For once, Stanford men’s basketball is trending upward, and with a strong crop of recruits ready to join the Cardinal’s solid core of underclassmen, the future looks bright.

Of course, if you’re placing early bets on the 2012-13 season, you’d still be smart to predict the Stanford women to advance deep into the NCAAs, and you’d be foolish to expect the men to do the same.

But for the first time in a long time, the buzz surrounding the men’s team has at least equaled that of the women’s team. And considering that women’s team just made the national semifinals for the fifth straight year, I’d call that a pretty positive sign.

Jacob Jaffe is planning to take on Brittney Griner one-on-one to revive Stanford’s basketball pride. Suggest an appropriate venue at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: March Madness is spelled N-I-T https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/13/jaffe-march-madness-is-spelled-n-i-t/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/13/jaffe-march-madness-is-spelled-n-i-t/#comments Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:15:40 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1061256 Silly you. You’re probably thinking of that other tournament, the one with 68 teams and all that media hype

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It’s finally mid-March, which means you’ve set aside your textbooks and notecards in favor of something much more important than finals: March Madness. You’ve been poring over the bracket in front of you, figuring out which low seeds can find a way to knock off the big boys and which four teams will outlast the rest to take the coveted spots at the end.

 

You’ve probably heard all the wisdom of past years: the team that wants to be there more is the more dangerous team, where you play the games matters and seedings don’t mean nearly as much as individual matchups.

 

You might even have scouted some of the teams. Drexel has won 25 of its past 27, Iowa will be an underdog despite playing its first game at home and Middle Tennessee State shoots 50 percent from the field as a team.

 

Wait, those don’t sound right to you? Silly you. You’re probably thinking of that other tournament, the one with 68 teams and all that media hype.

 

I’m talking about the real March Madness: the NIT.

 

I mean, seriously, the “Big Dance” was dumb enough to leave Stanford out for the fourth year in a row, which shows you how flawed that tournament is. But as Stanford fans, it’s probably better this way.

 

Think about it: The NIT doesn’t have any teams with losing records, but that other tourney does. The champion of Stanford’s conference isn’t wasting its time in that 68-team field; it’s in the NIT. Fans of schools in the NIT get to watch their teams play on campus instead of paying hundreds of dollars to follow them around the country like those supporters of other schools. And you want the toughest competition? Stanford is 5-3 against teams in The Tournament That Must Not Be Named, but the Cardinal is 0-4 against NIT teams. Challenge accepted.

 

So with all the media idiotically focused on You Know What, you probably haven’t gotten a real sense of what March Madness is all about. Luckily for you, here’s a glimpse at what the NIT has in store for true college basketball fans this month.

 

The format is simple. Rather than having crazy play-in games and regional sites, the NIT works like this: 32 teams are split up into four brackets of eight teams each, and the teams are seeded one through eight. For the first three rounds, the games take place at the home of the team with the better seed (except Dayton, which unfortunately sold out to The Man and has to play all its games on the road because its arena is hosting the other tournament). The real Final Four teams will square off in the most famous arena in the world: Madison Square Garden. Yep, the NIT plays its basketball games in a basketball arena, not a football stadium.

 

Washington, Tennessee, Seton Hall and Arizona are the four No. 1 seeds, with Dayton, Miami, St. Joseph’s and Ole Miss as the No. 2 seeds. Stanford checks in at a No. 3 seed, giving the Cardinal a first-round home game Tuesday against sixth-seeded Cleveland State. Oregon is also a No. 3 seed, giving the Pac-12 four bids, tied with the Atlantic-10 for the most in the tournament.

 

In order for any team to hoist the trophy, it will need to win five games. For Stanford, if seedings hold, that would mean a home win over Cleveland State, road wins over Ole Miss and Arizona and neutral-site wins over Seton Hall and either Washington or Tennessee.

 

Of course, as in any tournament, upsets will greatly alter the expected matchups. Ole Miss could have its hands full with Illinois State, a team whose 13-loss record is skewed by five losses to Wichita State and Creighton. Oral Roberts will be a very difficult second-round matchup for Arizona after winning 20 of its past 22 contests. Either of these potential upsets could pave the way for Stanford to play more home games and possibly advance all the way to the finals.

 

In other parts of the bracket, teams are lurking for a potential run to the title. Northwestern, sporting a well-known drought of never having reached the NIT semifinals, could ruin Washington’s tournament in the second round, while Tennessee could face a daunting challenge from in-state rival Middle Tennessee State, which enters the tournament at 25-6 on the year. And don’t sleep on Mississippi State. The fourth-seeded Bulldogs have lost six of their past eight, but they still boast wins over No. 1 seeds Arizona and Tennessee.

 

So there are some hints for all your bracket competitions. This seems like a year of upsets, so I envision only one No. 1 seed reaching Madison Square Garden, with a team from a smaller conference eventually winning the crown.

 

No matter who wins, though, the NIT will surely make college basketball fans forget about that other tournament.

 

 

Jacob Jaffe is not all about the U. Give him reasons why Miami will win the NIT at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Maples crowd gets back to form in energetic win over Cal https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/05/jaffe-maples-crowd-unites-behind-stanford-in-energetic-win-over-cal/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/05/jaffe-maples-crowd-unites-behind-stanford-in-energetic-win-over-cal/#respond Mon, 05 Mar 2012 09:45:15 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1060398 For the first time in several years, Maples Pavilion on Sunday resembled the Maples Pavilion of old as the Stanford men’s basketball team held off archrival Cal on Senior Day.

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For the first time in several years, Maples Pavilion on Sunday resembled the Maples Pavilion of old as the Stanford men’s basketball team held off archrival Cal on Senior Day.

 

Sure, this wasn’t anywhere near undefeated Stanford stunning Arizona on The Shot, nor was it even a game with national implications. But considering where this program has been for the past few years, a tough win over the best team in the conference in the final game of the regular season was still a momentous achievement.

 

The Cardinal’s win was even more impressive considering the team had to play most of the contest 5-on-8. Despite playing at home, Stanford couldn’t catch a break from the officials, and to say that the calls were questionable is a drastic understatement. There were 24 fouls called on Stanford compared to 16 on the Golden Bears, and three of those fouls came in Cal’s desperation mode in the final minute.

 

But the sheer numbers don’t tell the full story. There were charges called as blocks, blocks called as charges and several phantom fouls that the players themselves didn’t seem to understand. The Cardinal’s starting frontcourt of seniors Josh Owens and Andrew Zimmermann was in foul trouble early and at least half the calls were perplexing. On the other hand, the Bears had almost no foul issues, particularly in the second half.

 

As frustrating as the officiating was, the response from the Maples crowd was encouraging. Despite the presence of a substantial Cal contingent, the crowd responded to the questionable calls by raining boos louder than I’ve heard in my four years on the Farm.

 

I’ve been fairly disappointed with Stanford men’s basketball in my time here because this program has been underachieving for years. I haven’t been convinced that Johnny Dawkins is necessarily the right coach to lead the Cardinal, and one game hasn’t changed that. But for 40 minutes, you could see the potential of this squad, and as the team improves, maybe the fan base will as well.

 

Back when I started watching Stanford basketball as a kid, Maples Pavilion was known as one of the tougher environments for opposing teams to enter, and Sixth Man was among the nation’s most intimidating student sections. Go back and check out The Shot on YouTube. Look how insane that atmosphere was. Heck, Tiger Woods was celebrating right there with the students.

 

These days, Sixth Man has had to lower its price from cheap to really cheap to free to the current state of needing to bribe students with raffles and prizes just to get them to come to the arena. There was a time when people with no interest in basketball would come out to Maples just to be a part of the atmosphere. Now, plenty of basketball fans skip games to watch others on television.

 

Sunday’s game wasn’t quite like the old days, but it was a start. Maples was near capacity, and the place was rocking from the get-go. Yes, some of the noise came from the Cal section (which still feels the need to yell lame cheers during the national anthem), but that only helped spark the Stanford faithful into even more raucousness.

 

Of course, it all comes back to the team. On a campus with world-class athletes in virtually every sport, where multiple other top-five teams also play home games at Maples Pavilion, the fan support will always struggle if the team isn’t competitive.

 

And that is exactly why Sunday’s win was so encouraging. The Cardinal’s 20th win of the season didn’t get close to putting Stanford in NCAA tournament contention, but it did give the team some much-needed momentum before this week’s Pac-12 tournament.

 

Zimmermann played perhaps his most inspired game in his final home game, and the Cardinal backcourt of freshman Chasson Randle, sophomore Anthony Brown and sophomore Aaron Bright combined for 39 important points to make up for a subpar game from Owens, the team’s second-leading scorer. Fellow seniors Jarrett Mann and Jack Trotter had highlights of their own, as each had a crowd-thrilling dunk to keep the momentum on Stanford’s side.

 

And, oh yeah, it stopped the Cardinal’s biggest rival from winning a share of the conference title.

 

Moving forward, the team’s short-term and long-term paths are very much up in the air. This win showed that the Cardinal has the ability to beat any team in the conference, but last week in Utah, the team showed it can lose to any team in the conference as well. The Pac-12 is wide open, and Stanford has a legitimate shot at contending for the title, but also has a similarly legitimate shot at losing to Arizona State on Wednesday.

 

The future is unknown, but Sunday could be a good start to getting Stanford men’s basketball where it once was.

 

Jacob Jaffe almost slipped on a referee’s uniform for the second half to help call the game, but recent Pac-12 football history convinced him otherwise. Suggest a classier way for Jacob to streak at the Cardinal’s postseason games at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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W. Basketball: Stanford hosts Seattle in final home game of regular season https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/29/w-basketball-stanford-hosts-seattle-in-final-home-game-of-regular-season/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/29/w-basketball-stanford-hosts-seattle-in-final-home-game-of-regular-season/#comments Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:50:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1059838 The No. 2 Stanford women’s basketball team will look to close out a perfect home campaign when it hosts Seattle University tonight at Maples Pavilion

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The No. 2 Stanford women’s basketball team will look to close out a perfect home campaign when it hosts Seattle University tonight at Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal (26-1, 17-0 Pac-12), which has not lost at Maples in nearly five full years, will take on the Redhawks (17-9) in a rare February nonconference game.

W. Basketball: Stanford hosts Seattle in final home game of regular season
Freshman forward Bonnie Samuelson (above) and the Stanford women's basketball team will look to close out another undefeated home campaign tonight at Maples Pavilion (MEHMET INONU/The Stanford Daily)

 

Stanford is blazing hot as the regular season comes to a close. The Cardinal is riding a 23-game winning streak, with each of the last five being decided by at least 23 points. Stanford’s 79-game home winning streak, the longest active streak in the nation, will be put to the test tonight as the Cardinal looks to close out its fifth straight perfect home season.

 

The low-post duo of sisters Nnemkadi and Chiney Ogwumike continues to baffle the opposition, as each is averaging a double-double for the season. Senior Nneka leads the Cardinal with 21.7 points and 10.5 rebounds per game, but sophomore Chiney is not far behind with 16 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. One of the sisters has led Stanford in scoring in 22 of the team’s 27 games, and one of the two has been the rebounding leader in 23 of the 27 games.

 

For Stanford’s three seniors — Nneka Ogwumike and guards Lindy La Rocque and Grace Mashore — tonight will be the final regular-season game at Maples Pavilion, a building where the trio is undefeated.

 

“We try our best to bring the heat every time we’re here at home because this place is so important to us, and I’m really excited to play Seattle,” Nneka said. “I think it’s good that we’re getting in another game in between now and Cal; it is better than practice, I’d rather play.”

 

Stanford and Seattle have never squared off before, as the Redhawks are currently transitioning into Division I and will move from being an independent to the Western Athletic Conference next year. The transition year has been very successful for the Redhawks, who boast an 8.2-point margin of victory for the year and an 11-3 record in their past 14 games.

 

Guard Talisa Rhea, the reigning Independent Player of the Week, leads Seattle with 13.9 points and 5.3 assists per game. She has some experience against the Cardinal, as Rhea played for Oregon State for three seasons before transferring to Seattle. In seven career games against Stanford, Rhea averaged over nine points per game, including a 26-point outburst in Corvallis two years ago. Rhea has yet to beat the Cardinal in seven tries.

 

The Redhawks’ main inside presence is forward Kacie Sowell, who averages 13.8 points and a team-leading 9.6 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-2 sophomore also shoots an impressive 59 percent from the field, but she could have her hands full against the Ogwumike sisters. Forward Ashley Ward is the other Redhawk averaging double digits with 10.9 points per game, but at 5-foot-11, Ward will be at a significant height disadvantage against Stanford’s forwards, who are all at least 6-foot-2.

 

For the year, Seattle averages 71.3 points per game, but the Redhawks will be hard-pressed to keep up that average against the stingy Cardinal defense. Stanford has held 12 of its past 13 opponents below 60 points, and Tennessee is the only team to score more than 71 points on Stanford this year. Meanwhile, the Redhawks have allowed half of their 26 opponents to score 70 points, and now they must take on the nation’s No. 6 scoring offense in Stanford, which averages 77.6 points per game.

 

After tonight’s nonconference game, the Cardinal will return to conference play with a trip across the Bay to take on rival Cal in the season finale. Stanford will then participate in the Pac-12 tournament in Los Angeles next week before it attempts a run at a fifth consecutive Final Four.

 

Stanford and Seattle will square off tonight at Maples Pavilion at 7 p.m.

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Jaffe: Pitchers headline early Cardinal baseball dominance https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/27/jaffe-pitchers-headline-early-cardinal-baseball-dominance/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/27/jaffe-pitchers-headline-early-cardinal-baseball-dominance/#respond Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:45:24 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1059488 Well, the Stanford baseball team wasn’t a one-week wonder. The second weekend series of the year was just as impressive as the first, and after seven games, the Cardinal looks unstoppable.

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Well, the Stanford baseball team wasn’t a one-week wonder. The second weekend series of the year was just as impressive as the first, and after seven games, the Cardinal looks unstoppable.

 
For the second straight series, Stanford capped a strong weekend with an offensive explosion, following last week’s 18-run outburst with a 13-run fourth inning Sunday afternoon.

 

This season, seven of Stanford’s nine regulars are hitting over .315 — the other two have combined for 25 RBI — and the squad is averaging over 10 runs per game.

 

So naturally, the story of the season is…pitching.

 

Going into the season, everyone knew that the team’s strength would be its hitting. Seven of eight position players returned from last year’s squad, and the highly touted recruiting classes of hitters had finally gained enough experience to approach their potential.

 

But what about the pitching staff? Last year, Stanford had to scramble a little, with senior Danny Sandbrink stepping into the starting rotation late in the season, and two of the most reliable pitchers for Stanford were starter Jordan Pries and closer Chris Reed.

 

Now those three are gone, leaving Stanford’s pitching staff in a state of flux. Junior Mark Appel returned to anchor the rotation, but after him, things were a little more in question. Redshirt junior Brett Mooneyham has been a strikeout pitcher in his time on the Farm, but he came into the year as a question mark after missing all of 2011 with a finger injury. Junior Dean McArdle returned after some starting experience, but he appeared to fit more as a long or middle reliever. The closer and Sunday starter roles were up in the air, leaving most of the pitching staff in doubt heading into the season.

 

Seven games into the season, there is a whole lot less doubt on the Farm. Of course, when you’re 7-0, it’s easy to feel good about how your staff has been pitching.

 

It’s a whole lot easier to feel confident in pitchers with a 3.32 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 65 innings. The overall numbers have been very solid so far, as only Pacific has been able to score more than five runs in a game against Stanford. And five runs is nothing in college baseball, particularly with a lineup that averages more than a run per inning.

 

However, the overall numbers don’t tell the full story of the Stanford pitching staff. The Cardinal appears to have found a weekend rotation consisting of Appel, Mooneyham and freshman John Hochstatter. And that trio has gone above and beyond expectations for Stanford’s pitchers this year.

 

Appel has looked every bit the number one MLB Draft prospect he’s been touted to be, baffling Vanderbilt and Texas hitters in his two starts. He has allowed a single run in each of his two appearances, pitching seven strong innings both times. A three-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio and only two extra-base hits in 14 innings show just how dominant he has been.

 

Mooneyham has been just about equal to Appel in his first two starts, closing out one of the best one-two punches in the country. The redshirt junior has matched Appel with 15 strikeouts in 14 innings, allowing just four runs in his two starts. His eight-inning gem against Texas on Saturday was one of the best performances of his career, and if he pitches like that for the rest of the season, it will be almost impossible to win a series against Stanford.

 

Appel and Mooneyham have been extremely impressive, but the best Cardinal pitcher so far has been Hochstatter. The freshman came on in relief for his first collegiate appearance, and promptly got 19 Vanderbilt Commodores out without allowing a hit. This performance earned him a start against Texas, and Hochstatter took the opportunity and ran with it, going 6.1 innings and allowing just a single run.

 

The trio has been unstoppable, giving up 18 hits in 40.2 innings for an unreal .129 opponents’ batting average. And yes, their 6-0 record and 1.45 ERA aren’t too shabby either.

 

There are still questions left to be answered, though. The rest of the staff has an ERA of 6.29, and roles in the bullpen have yet to be completely fleshed out. At some point, the weekend starters will have a bad day, and it will be up to this shaky bullpen to step up. Stanford also needs to find a weekday starter, as its worst performance by far was an extra-inning squeaker last Tuesday at Pacific.

 

You can always find something to nitpick, but the early results for Stanford’s pitching staff have been overwhelmingly positive.

 

Jacob Jaffe is considering a career holding the radar gun at MLB ballparks, given his infatuation with top-tier pitching. Send him tips for a steady hand at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Early numbers offer hope for Omaha https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/22/jaffe/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/22/jaffe/#respond Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:30:24 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1058980 This year, the pressure is really on the Stanford baseball team. For the first time in 10 years, the Cardinal is in the top three of all the major polls, and this season will not be a success unless Stanford gets to Omaha. How do you play with those expectations weighing on you?

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This year, the pressure is really on the Stanford baseball team. For the first time in 10 years, the Cardinal is in the top three of all the major polls, and this season will not be a success unless Stanford gets to Omaha. How do you play with those expectations weighing on you?

 

Quite well, thank you very much. Here’s a look at just how dominant Stanford was this weekend:

 

10: Let’s start off with a reminder that Vanderbilt came into the series as the No. 10 team in the country, which isn’t surprising considering that the Commodores were in the College World Series last season.

 

17: After just three games at Sunken Diamond, Vanderbilt dropped seven spots to No. 17. That tumble was the second-biggest in the country, behind only the eight-place drop by UCLA, who lost two of three home games to unranked Maryland.

 

8: On to the actual games. The Cardinal scored at least eight runs in each of the first three games of the season. Last year, Stanford only managed to score eight runs in two consecutive games twice.

 

18: In the first two games, Stanford’s offense was explosive, scoring 17 runs in its first 13 innings at the plate while running away from Vanderbilt in each game. Eight of the nine Cardinal regulars had at least one hit, run and RBI in the first two games, showing the incredible potential of this lineup. But that was just an appetizer for Sunday.

 

A team’s chances of winning a game that it trails 4-0 in the second aren’t great. Its chances of winning are even lower when its starter is already knocked out of the game, and when the opponent is a top-10 team…The chances of winning that same game by 13 runs? You might as well bet on the Generals to take down the Globetrotters.

 

Unless, of course, you have Stanford’s offense. The Cardinal reeled off 18 unanswered runs to blow the Commodores out of the water and end its opening weekend with a bang.

 

Consider this: last season (when, I should point out, Stanford did reach the Super Regionals) the Cardinal had 13 weekend series, each lasting three games. Only twice did Stanford score 18 runs in an entire series, and both came against the two worst teams in the Pac-10. Sunday, it took just seven innings against a top-10 opponent from the nation’s best conference for the Cardinal to put up 18 runs.

 

7: With all these runs on the board, it comes as no surprise that several players stood out for the Cardinal. In his first seven at-bats, first baseman Brian Ragira had six hits, and he finished the weekend with seven hits. Vanderbilt had only two players with more than two hits for the series.

 

Third baseman Stephen Piscotty was the slugger many people predicted he could be, as he knocked in seven runs on Sunday alone. He hit a home run in his first at-bat of the season and a grand slam on Sunday, putting him two-thirds of the way to his entire 2011 homer total of three. His three extra-base hits have helped him accrue an otherworldly .786 slugging percentage. Somehow, that isn’t even the best on the team though.

 

5: That distinction belongs to designated hitter Christian Griffiths, who missed all of 2011 with an injury. Despite hitting at the bottom of the lineup, he managed to slug .909 thanks to a home run and a pair of doubles. Griffiths had five RBI in his 11 at-bats this weekend, almost eclipsing his career total of six RBI in 65 at-bats coming in.

 

.500: Speaking of slugging percentage, five of the nine regulars are slugging at least .500. Last year, the Cardinal’s leader was left fielder Tyler Gaffney at .472. Likewise, Stanford has five regulars with an on-base percentage of at least .500, which is well above Piscotty’s team-leading .423 from 2011.

 

6.1: With all this hitting, you’d have to be crazy to say that the most impressive performance was on the mound. Luckily, I’m crazy. And more importantly, John Hochstatter was terrific.

 

Who, you ask? Hochstatter, a freshman lefty, came on in relief of A.J. Vanegas on Sunday with the Cardinal trailing 4-0. All he did was throw 6.1 scoreless innings to pick up the win. And oh by the way, he got those 19 outs without allowing a hit. So while the Cardinal batters were piling up all those runs, the Commodores were going quietly against Hochstatter.

 

Hochstatter wasn’t the only Stanford pitcher to have an impressive outing over the weekend. Friday starter Mark Appel looked every bit the No. 1 pick many expect him to be in the upcoming MLB Draft, throwing seven innings of two-hit ball to lead the Cardinal to the easy opening win. Saturday starter Brett Mooneyham, pitching for the first time since 2010, also looked to be on top of his game, allowing just three runs through six innings to help Stanford cruise on Saturday as well. If the pitching continues to be solid, it’ll continue to be tough to match the Cardinal’s hitting.

 

12: Stanford doesn’t have long to pat itself on the back, as No. 12 Texas comes to town this weekend, following a midweek game on Tuesday at Pacific. The Longhorns took two of three from the Cardinal last year in Austin and could pose a greater threat than Vanderbilt. Of course, Stanford poses quite a threat itself.

 

2: Somehow, despite winning in such convincing fashion (outscoring any team 35-13 is impressive, let alone the No. 10 team in the country) while No. 1 Florida lost one of its three games to then-No. 25 Cal State-Fullerton, Stanford did not move up in any poll, so it’ll have to settle for No. 2.

 

For now.

 

Jacob Jaffe thinks even he could pick up a win on the mound with Stanford’s offense backing him up. Talk about pitching mechanics with Jacob at jwjaffe”at” stanford.edu or on Twitter “at” Jacob_Jaffe.

 

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Jaffe: In a game of numbers, Stanford baseball looks primed for success https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/13/jaffe-in-a-game-of-numbers-stanford-baseball-looks-primed-for-success/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/13/jaffe-in-a-game-of-numbers-stanford-baseball-looks-primed-for-success/#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:45:37 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1057997 Well, I guess it’s about time we all admit that football season really is over. It was another incredible year, both in the NFL and in college. But as sad as it makes me, we’re now over a week into our post-football lives and over a month into the post-Stanford football doldrums.

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Well, I guess it’s about time we all admit that football season really is over. It was another incredible year, both in the NFL and in college. But as sad as it makes me, we’re now over a week into our post-football lives and over a month into the post-Stanford football doldrums.

 

This means it’s time for basketball season, right? Well, yes, but with both Stanford teams doing what they always do, it’s hard to find much to analyze. The men’s team is in the midst of its usual conference nose-dive, losing five of its last six to drop to the middle of the Pac-12 before an unimpressive win over dreadful USC yesterday. The once-high hopes from a 10-1 start have vanished thanks to a 7-7 stretch that saw the Cardinal win just three games by more than eight points while losing six by double digits. Instead of looking for Stanford in the latest Bracketology, Cardinal fans are back to looking up CBI dates.

 

Despite being incredibly successful, the women’s team is equally as predictable. Just like seemingly every year, Stanford is running over its competition in the regular season with just a lone loss to perennial nemesis Connecticut besmirching the team’s record. The Cardinal has allowed some teams to hang around, leading to a staggering three games decided by single digits. Stanford is great, and fans of the team are incredibly spoiled, but the fact remains that everyone knows the Cardinal will be one of the top seeds in the Big Dance. You can pretty much script Stanford’s way into at least the Elite Eight, so until then, the wins are just par for the course.

 

So what is there for a Cardinal fan to do? Well, it’s Stanford, so there are always other sports for the Cardinal to dominate. And one of those, baseball, starts this week. So why not check out a few numbers, Stat on the Back-style, to prepare you for baseball season.

 

13: In 2011, head coach Mark Marquess’ squad reached the Super Regionals before falling to North Carolina. Stanford ended the year ranked No. 13 in the Baseball America poll.

 

2: This year, Stanford is expected to surpass last season’s output, as the Cardinal is ranked in the top four in every poll and No. 2 in the Baseball America poll.

 

7: A big reason for the high expectations is the amount of talent returning to the Farm. Seven of the team’s eight starting position players from last year returned, with just catcher Zach Jones graduating.

 

79: In total, the Cardinal returns 79 percent of its at-bats, 76 percent of its runs scored and 82 percent of its hits from the 2011 team that hit .299. In other words, the lineup is stacked.

 

8: How stacked is the lineup? Take Saturday’s Cardinal and White scrimmage for example. In that game, the Cardinal team was comprised of the starters while the White team was mostly backups. Right fielder Austin Wilson, who hit .311 and led the team with five home runs, was batting eighth in the Cardinal lineup. Yes, eighth. That’s what happens when you have speedsters Jake Stewart and Tyler Gaffney at the top of the lineup, followed by RBI machines Stephen Piscotty, Brian Ragira and Kenny Diekroeger and solid contact-hitter Lonnie Kauppila. Let me say it again: the lineup is stacked.

 

140: As mentioned before, the main departure from the lineup is Jones, and the hole he leaves could be a big one. Jones has started 140 of the last 145 Stanford games behind the plate, so the Cardinal has not developed a clear backup for him. This year, utility infielder Eric Smith has been moved to catcher to compete with Christian Griffiths — who missed last year with an injury — Trevor Penny and Wayne Taylor, a promising freshman who may need some more seasoning in the field. As of now, there has not been a clear choice for the starting catcher job, so it will be an area to watch throughout the season.

 

48: While the starting lineup is almost all the same as in 2011, the 2012 pitching staff has had to undergo some changes. With the departures of Chris Reed, Jordan Pries, Danny Sandbrink and Scott Snodgress, the Cardinal lost 48 percent of its innings pitched from last year’s squad, not to mention 53 percent of its strikeouts. Pries and Sandbrink were two of the team’s top starting pitchers from last year’s squad, Snodgress was a key reliever, and Reed was a shutdown closer. How well Stanford can replace them will likely determine how far it can go in the postseason.

 

99: One aid to the pitching staff is the return of left-hander Brett Mooneyham, who missed all of last season with a hand injury. In 2010, Mooneyham racked up 99 strikeouts, the most of any Stanford pitcher over the last three seasons. If he can regain his past form, he will form a dynamic 1-2 punch with right-hander Mark Appel, the Friday starter who is projected by many to be the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s MLB Draft.

 

 30: The final piece of the puzzle for any team is its schedule, because who you play and where you play can make all the difference. After a brutal 2011 schedule, the Cardinal can at least make fewer travel arrangements this year. Of the team’s 54 games, 30 are at Sunken Diamond (last year the Cardinal had 25), and only three are outside the Pacific Time Zone (the three-game set with new conference member Utah). The only non-conference road series is just down the highway against Fresno State, whereas last year Stanford traveled to Rice, Texas and Vanderbilt.

 

Still, the Cardinal has to play that same trio of highly ranked non-conference foes this year, but all will have to travel to the Farm. The Commodores, No. 10 in the Baseball America poll, will have first crack at Stanford this weekend in the season-opening series for both teams.

 

6/15: The College World Series begins on June 15 in Omaha. You might want to start looking up flights.

 

Jacob Jaffe won’t admit it, but he’s still in the running for the open catcher spot after showing off his hands in a stunning 2011 Ink Bowl performance. Send him some non-suggestive hand signals for the last week of the preseason at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Spare me all the legacy talk https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/07/jaffe-spare-me-all-the-legacy-talk/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/07/jaffe-spare-me-all-the-legacy-talk/#respond Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:31:57 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1057184 It has now been over 24 hours since Super Sunday, so by now you are probably aware that, in between the M.I.A. bird-flip and the sadly sub-par commercials, there was actually a football game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots

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It has now been over 24 hours since Super Sunday, so by now you are probably aware that, in between the M.I.A. bird-flip and the sadly sub-par commercials, there was actually a football game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.

 

And, from a relatively neutral perspective, it was … decent. There were moments: the penalty-induced safety on Tom Brady’s first pass, the fumbles the Patriots couldn’t recover, the iconic Manning-to-Manningham connection on the final drive and, of course, the most awkward Super Bowl-winning touchdown of all time, courtesy of Ahmad Bradshaw. Plus, the game did come down to the final moments, which is, in many ways, all you can ask for from any football game.

 

Then again, it wasn’t exactly the most thrilling game. Unless you are a diehard fan of the Giants or Patriots, or someone who bet a large amount of money on the game, you probably can’t remember much that happened between the opening safety and the last five minutes of the game. Except maybe the new Volkswagen Star Wars ad.

 

As a stats nut, I love dissecting box scores, but this one is fairly dull as big-game scorelines go. There was only one turnover (which was the equivalent of a punt anyway), only one player with more than 73 yards rushing or receiving and only one play of more than 24 yards (the aforementioned pass to Manningham).

 

The game’s MVP (Eli Manning) accounted for exactly one touchdown; the supposed best player in the game (Brady) looked off and missed some crucial throws. The supposed genius coach (Bill Belichick) wasted a timeout on a dumb challenge, and the most talked-about and prolific pass-catchers (Rob Gronkowski and Victor Cruz) had 51 receiving yards combined.

 

Yes, there were great plays and great performances, but even 24 hours later, it’s starting to be forgettable for me.

 

Yet if we ignore the Super Bowl, then we have to accept the reality that we have over 200 days until the next meaningful football game. And that is scary.

 

Perhaps it is because of this fear, or maybe it’s just the nature of sports media, but within .02 milliseconds of the final Hail Mary hitting the ground, you could hear the “legacy” whispers begin around the country. The first topic on everyone’s minds after running through the highlights seemed to be about the legacies of the players, coaches and teams involved.

 

If you’re the kind of person that only watches the occasional game and not the 400 hours of pre- and postgame coverage surrounding it, here’s a typical legacy debate: “After winning this game, does [insert winning team’s best player] now belong among the all-time greats?” “Well, he won [the game], so he is now definitely better than [insert historically famous player that everyone knows is better than the current player] because he won [the game].” “Is [insert winning coach] now a sure-fire Hall of Famer?” “Does this loss tarnish [insert losing team’s best player/coach]’s legacy?” “Yes, he can’t win the big one/No, he just didn’t have the weapons around him this year.”

 

You can tweak a word or two, but those templates can basically give you an entire daily sports show for the next two weeks. Just fill in Eli Manning, his second Super Bowl, Peyton Manning, Joe Namath, Dan Marino, Tom Coughlin, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady where appropriate.

 

By far the most popular question seems to be if Eli is an elite, surefire Hall of Famer. Brady and Belichick, as the World’s Perfect Player and World’s Perfect Coach, are immune from insult, and Coughlin is an old guy who won two Super Bowls when people thought he’d be fired. Go him. But what about Eli? Did he really put the “Eli” in “elite”?

 

The general consensus seems to be that he did. I’m fine with that. He won his second Super Bowl, and he was the MVP in both. That seems elite to me. What I can’t stand is that the conversation instantly goes to his legacy. A common refrain is “if he retired today, he’d go down as an all-time great and a definite Hall of Famer.”

 

No way. If Eli Manning retired today, he’d go down as a guy who was really good and then randomly retired at age 31. He’s played eight years. Let’s leave the legacy talk for when he’s actually done.

 

This is nothing against him. I don’t think it diminishes Eli at all to say that his legacy isn’t something to discuss right now. Merriam-Webster says that legacy is “something transmitted from the past.” Eli’s career, and that of his brother Peyton, Brady, Belichick, Coughlin and everyone else in that Super Bowl, is still going. Let’s save those discussions for when their careers actually are in the past.

 

Instead of talking about if Eli is now better than his brother Peyton, talk about how incredible his throw to Manningham was on that final drive. Instead of blaming the Patriots’ loss on everyone but Brady and Belichick, hold them accountable for not stepping up in the biggest game of the year. You can worry about how it’ll all look to future people when the future actually comes around.

 

 

Jacob Jaffe doesn’t worry about his legacy. Give him extra affirmation of his Hall of Fame status at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Stanford men’s hoops team needs to fight like Nadal https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/30/jaffe-stanford-mens-hoops-team-needs-to-fight-like-nadal/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/30/jaffe-stanford-mens-hoops-team-needs-to-fight-like-nadal/#respond Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:31:49 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1056044 Late Saturday night, or more accurately early Sunday morning, I watched one of the most fascinating sporting events I’d ever seen

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Late Saturday night, or more accurately early Sunday morning, I watched one of the most fascinating sporting events I’d ever seen. It kept me up until 7 a.m. even though it was my first time watching the sport in several months. I had no strong rooting interest, but it was still one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had watching sports in a long time.

 

The event was the Australian Open final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. The top two players in the world played one of the best tennis matches ever, obliterating the record for the longest Grand Slam final in history by squaring off for nearly six hours. Six hours. You could watch the entire third season of Arrested Development in that time—and still have enough time to watch a whole basketball game, too.

 

It wasn’t just the length of the match that made it fascinating. Djokovic and Nadal are two of the best players in tennis history, and they showed why in this match. Even after five hours of running, diving, jumping and smacking the Wilson logo off the ball, these two guys were still peppering blistering shots all over the court. Some of the best points I’ve ever seen were at the tail end of this match, when any mortal person would have been fainting from exhaustion.

 

For a while, a six-hour marathon seemed very unlikely. Djokovic looked flat early, allowing Nadal to take the first set 7-5. After that, Djokovic took control, winning the next two sets and appearing to cruise toward victory. As the fourth set wore on, though, Nadal just kept hanging around, and a late spurt allowed him to win the fourth and nearly take the match in the fifth. Djokovic ended up winning, but anyone watching the match had to be impressed with Nadal’s fight in that match.

 

Now, it may have just been the sleep deprivation in me, but the match got me thinking about something several thousand miles closer to home: the Stanford men’s basketball team. Yep, the Cardinal is like Nadal. I know it seems like a stretch, but bear with me.

 

This year, Stanford got off to a quick start, winning 10 of its first 11 games and nearly knocking off Syracuse. The Cardinal has since hit a rough patch, going just 5-5 over its past 10 games, including a bad home loss to Butler and four road losses by double digits. Just like Nadal, Stanford looks to be down and out. Of course, Stanford is nowhere near as good at basketball as Nadal is at tennis, but thankfully the Pac-12 is no Djokovic. And that’s exactly where the parallel comes in.

 

We’re halfway through the Pac-12 season, and even with the poor performances by Stanford, the Cardinal can look up at the standings and see a golden opportunity to get right back in contention. Nadal saw his opportunity and parlayed it into a near-win in the Aussie Open. Whether or not Stanford is able to finish strong and contend, the opening is there for the taking.

 

This was particularly evident in last night’s game at Cal. Stanford was very flat early, shooting below 30 percent for much of the first half. The Golden Bears couldn’t build a very big lead, though, and an unexpected boost from Stefan Nastic allowed the Cardinal to hang around. Stanford got virtually nothing from its backcourt duo of Chasson Randle and Aaron Bright (two points, no field goals in the first 34 minutes), yet the Cardinal actually took the lead in the second half and was still just one small run from taking control for much of the game.

 

Stanford is a very inconsistent team, as evidenced by the sudden outbursts from role-players and the equally frequent disappearances from starters. Even with these woes, the Cardinal is still in position to contend in the Pac-12, two games behind co-leaders Washington and Cal. Just nine games remain, and five of them will be at Maples Pavilion, where Stanford is 11-1. The Cardinal doesn’t have to play the Washington schools anymore, and two of the four remaining road games are against bottom-feeders Utah and USC.

 

Of course, just like Nadal against Djokovic, Stanford didn’t have enough down the stretch against Cal. The way the team is playing during this three-game losing streak, there doesn’t appear to be much left to hope for. But at 5-4 in the Pac-12, things could really go either way for this young team.

 

The opportunity is still there. It’s time for Stanford to finally start taking it.

 

 

Jacob Jaffe is currently the subject of an internal investigation in his dorm after five residents submitted complaints about his alleged boisterous cheering during the match at four in the morning. Send him your support at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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M. Basketball: Peaks and valleys https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/25/m-basketball-peaks-and-valleys/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/25/m-basketball-peaks-and-valleys/#respond Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:03:00 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1055480 After a 15-3 start, the Stanford men’s basketball team appeared to have stepped up into the top tier of the Pac-12, and all signs pointed toward a fight to make the NCAA Tournament. Two games later, and there are suddenly questions of whether the Cardinal has even improved very much since head coach Johnny Dawkins’ first year on the Farm.

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After a 15-3 start, the Stanford men’s basketball team appeared to have stepped up into the top tier of the Pac-12, and all signs pointed toward a fight to make the NCAA Tournament. Two games later, and there are suddenly questions of whether the Cardinal has even improved very much since head coach Johnny Dawkins’ first year on the Farm.

M. Basketball: Peaks and valleys
The Stanford men’s basketball team had a discouraging weekend in Washington, falling to both schools in double-digit losses. The Cardinal will look to harness its strong defense and rebounding this weekend when it takes on cross-bay rival and conference frontrunner California. (IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily)

 

That may be a bit of an overreaction, but a come-from-ahead, double-digit loss to mediocre Washington State and an uncompetitive beat down by Washington don’t inspire very much confidence.

 

Of course, the 15 wins so far are already as many as the team had last year and more than in ’09-’10, but success in major college basketball is measured by postseason success. And so far, Dawkins has led Stanford to one postseason tournament–the lowly CBI three years ago–and lost to a conference foe that year. The quick start this year has given Stanford fans hope of making it back to the Big Dance, and that hope is certainly still there. But the team’s struggles in the Evergreen State are worrisome for those chances.

 

For much of the season, the Cardinal’s calling cards have been defense and rebounding. Against foes from the Pacific Northwest, however, those have been flaws instead of strengths. Case in point: in the 16 games against teams outside Oregon and Washington, the Cardinal allowed 72 points or fewer in every game and outrebounded its opponent in every game but one. Not surprisingly, Stanford’s record in those 16 games is 14-2. In Stanford’s four contests against Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State and Washington, though, the Cardinal has allowed more than 72 points in every game and has failed to outrebound any of its four opponents. Stanford’s record in those four games: 1-3, with the one win coming in quadruple overtime.

 

All this is not to say that the problem is confined to those particular teams. The other trait that those four games share is that all four were on the road, and this could be the biggest issue. In six road games, Stanford is 3-3, but only one of those wins came against a team with an RPI above 280 (the quadruple-overtime win over OSU).

 

This is particularly notable because the Cardinal’s next game comes on the road against the likely favorite to win the conference: Cal. The Golden Bears are 13-0 at Haas Pavilion, and Stanford has lost its last three games there by a combined 52 points. With how bad the Pac-12 is this year, the Cardinal cannot afford a poor showing against the conference’s current top dog.

 

On the positive side, Stanford sits just a game out of first place in the Pac-12 and has ample opportunity to move up in the standings. Six teams have two or three conference losses, and the Cardinal gets to play five games against those teams in its final 10 games, so winning the conference is fully in Stanford’s control. And even as bad as the Pac-12 has been, the team that wins the regular-season title–particularly if its conference record is around 13-5 or 14-4–will almost definitely make the NCAA Tournament in March.

 

Stanford has shown flashes of the ability necessary to win the conference, and its schedule going forward sets up well for a run at the Pac-12 title. In order to have any shot at doing so and making the first major postseason tournament in the Dawkins era, though, the Cardinal desperately needs to become more consistent, particularly on the road. Stanford will get its toughest road test of the year on Sunday, and the team’s performance against Cal will be very telling about its postseason chances.

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Jaffe: Conference title games decided by unexpected players https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/23/jaffe-conference-title-games-decided-by-unexpected-players/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/23/jaffe-conference-title-games-decided-by-unexpected-players/#respond Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:32:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1055114 Sunday was the second-most important day of the NFL year: conference championship Sunday. And although sports analysts spent hundreds of hours dissecting the ins and outs of the teams, there isn’t a person in the world that expected the two deciding figures in the action to be Billy Cundiff and Kyle Williams

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Football is a team game.

 

It’s a simple saying, and its sheer obviousness makes it a cliche that everyone seems to feel the need to say. Of course, on days like Sunday, you start to remember where that cliche came from.

 

Sunday was the second-most important day of the NFL year: conference championship Sunday. And although sports analysts spent hundreds of hours dissecting the ins and outs of the teams, there isn’t a person in the world that expected the two deciding figures in the action to be Billy Cundiff and Kyle Williams.

 

Yep. Tom Brady, Ed Reed, Frank Gore and Eli Manning all did their thing, but in the end the two spots in the Super Bowl came down to the right foot of Cundiff and the right hand (and right knee) of Williams.

 

In case you live under a sports-free, ESPN-free, NFL-free, news-free, Facebook-free rock, here’s a brief summary of what happened.

 

The Ravens and Patriots went back and forth in a very closely contested affair in Foxboro, Mass. Neither team led by more than a touchdown, and the Patriots held a slim 23-20 lead in the final minutes. The Ravens drove down the field and appeared to take the lead with just seconds left when quarterback Joe Flacco threaded the needle to find his receiver Lee Evans in the end zone. However, Patriot cornerback Sterling Moore knocked the ball out of Evans’ hands at the last second, preventing the touchdown.

 

Overtime was still virtually assured, though, as Cundiff lined up for the game-tying kick with almost no time left on the clock. It was only a 32-yard kick, and Cundiff was 22-for-24 inside 40 yards and hadn’t missed a kick inside 50 yards in the second half all year. Naturally, he hooked it wide left, and just like that, the Patriots lucked in to the Super Bowl.

 

If you’re thinking no one could possibly feel worse than Cundiff, you only needed to wait about four hours to find a great candidate. The NFC Championship Game was just as down-to-the-wire as the AFC version, as the 49ers and Giants were impossible to separate for 60 minutes of action, sending the game to overtime. After each team punted in the extra period, the Giants were stopped near midfield and forced to punt again.

 

Williams, a second-year receiver out of Arizona State, was filling in for the injured Ted Ginn, Jr., as punt returner. Regulation wasn’t kind to Williams, who had no catches on four targets and also let a punt bounce off his knee before the Giants’ Devin Thomas recovered. That muff led to the Giants’ second touchdown, but it wouldn’t even end up being the most memorable gaffe for Williams. That’s because he fumbled another punt in overtime, and again Thomas recovered, this time at the San Francisco 24-yard line. A few runs later set up New York kicker Lawrence Tynes, and unlike Cundiff, he didn’t miss the short field goal.

 

So here we are: Patriots-Giants, round two. It’ll happen almost exactly four years to the day after the two teams met in the famous Super Bowl XLII.

 

And that means we’ll get two weeks of David Tyree helmet catch clips. Two weeks of 18-1 talk. Two weeks of Tom Brady vs. the Giants’ pass rush. Two weeks of comparing Eli Manning to his brother Peyton. Two weeks of Bill Belichick, Victor Cruz and the Gronk.

 

But will any of that really matter? The Ravens had more rushing yards, more passing yards, fewer fumbles and fewer interceptions than the Patriots. Baltimore probably wins that game 99.9 times out of 100. But Sunday was the 0.1, and New England gets to take the trip to Indy. The Niners’ offense had no turnovers, its defense held Manning to five yards per attempt, and the Giants had to punt an unbelievable 12 times. Yet it’s New York that gets to represent the NFC on Feb. 5.

 

Games don’t always go the way the statistics say, and that’s one of the great things about football. Fans of the Ravens and 49ers are all too familiar with Cundiff and Williams than they ever wanted to be, and fans of the Patriots and Giants had better take notice.

 

Football is the team game. It takes every player on the team to make a Super Bowl winner, and great performances can be negated by the simplest mistakes.

 

No one was talking about Tyree four years ago. Who knows who will make the difference on Feb. 5…

 

 

Jacob Jaffe had a premonition that there would be no Harbaughs in the SuperBowl. And yesterday afternoon he had a dream that the Giants would resign David Tyree and he would make another circus catch to beat the Patriots. Will he be right again? Send him your thoughts at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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M. Basketball: Stanford triumphs in quadruple overtime https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/09/m-basketball-stanford-triumphs-in-quadruple-overtime/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/09/m-basketball-stanford-triumphs-in-quadruple-overtime/#respond Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:55:21 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1053698 After holding its first 14 opponents to 72 points or fewer en route to a 12-2 start, the Stanford men’s basketball team gave up season-high point totals in back-to-back road games against the Oregon schools. Thanks to a late comeback on Saturday night, though, the Cardinal was able to salvage a split in thrilling fashion, winning the longest game in school history 103-101

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After holding its first 14 opponents to 72 points or fewer en route to a 12-2 start, the Stanford men’s basketball team gave up season-high point totals in back-to-back road games against the Oregon schools. Thanks to a late comeback on Saturday night, though, the Cardinal was able to salvage a split in thrilling fashion, winning the longest game in school history 103-101.

M. Basketball: Stanford triumphs in quadruple overtime
Freshman guard Chasson Randle led all scorers with 24 points, including the first five points in the fourth overtime, to help Stanford outlast Oregon State 103-101 in the longest game in Stanford history. (IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily)

 

On Thursday, Stanford (13-3, 3-1 Pac-12) suffered its first loss in conference play, falling 78-67 to Oregon (11-4, 2-1). Duck forward Devoe Joseph scored 16 of his game-high 30 points in the final 10 minutes to help Oregon pull away. Joseph, a senior transfer from Minnesota, had not scored more than 19 points in nearly three full years. Meanwhile, the Cardinal was outrebounded for only the third time all season—Stanford is 1-2 in those games.

 

Thursday’s game was the Cardinal’s first road loss, but Saturday’s tussle with Oregon State was the game of the weekend in the Pac-12 and perhaps the nation.

 

For much of the early going, the game was anything but exciting for Stanford. The Beavers used an early 18-5 run to take a 32-17 lead with six minutes to go in the first half. The big blows were back-to-back three-pointers by reserve guard Roberto Nelson after one of his shoes had fallen off. Nelson, who had made just six shots total in his past three games, was 6-for-9 with 15 points in the first half to lead all scorers.

 

Stanford responded to the Beavers’ lead with a 15-2 run of its own, but Oregon State stretched the lead back to seven at halftime. The Beaver offense clicked at the start of the half, and several early layups gave Oregon State a 55-43 lead. Just when it appeared that the Cardinal was reverting to last year’s poor form, Stanford’s guards took over. Sophomore Aaron Bright and freshman Chasson Randle hit three-pointers to cap a 10-0 Stanford run that gave the Cardinal its first lead of the game at 61-60 with 8:30 to go.

 

From there, the game tightened up, as neither team led by more than three points. Sophomore forward Dwight Powell, who did not score on Thursday, got crucial playing time on Saturday and made a layup to give Stanford a 74-71 lead with just over two minutes to play. Oregon State responded as forward Angus Brandt banked in a three-pointer to tie it.

 

With just 25 seconds left, the score was tied again, and Brandt was fouled by Powell. Brandt missed both free throws, giving Stanford a chance to win the game at the buzzer. Powell missed a jumper with two seconds left, and Oregon State forward Eric Moreland got the rebound. Instead of just holding it for overtime, Moreland tried to heave the ball downcourt, and redshirt senior forward Josh Owens knocked it down and immediately laid the ball in right at the buzzer.

 

The Stanford bench mobbed Owens as it appeared he had just won the game. However, the referees checked the monitors and determined that the red light on the backboard—the official indicator of the end of the game, rather than the stadium clock—was illuminated a fraction of a second before Owens released the ball, making the shot not count and sending the game to overtime.

 

Stanford began overtime at a disadvantage because sophomore forward John Gage fouled out during regulation. The Cardinal’s foul trouble worsened as Bright picked up his fourth foul and senior guard Jarrett Mann fouled out. Trailing 83-82 with 23 seconds left, Randle made one of two free throws to tie the game up, and Beaver guard Ahmad Starks dribbled the ball off his foot out of bounds on Oregon State’s final possession to force another extra frame.

 

In the second overtime, the two teams traded leads back and forth. Down by one with 20 seconds left, Powell threw a perfect inbounds pass to Randle for an easy layup to take the lead. Oregon State forward Joe Burton then got fouled and made one free throw to tie it back up, and Randle’s desperation shot was blocked to send the game to triple overtime.

 

By the third overtime, both teams were clearly exhausted. The Beavers didn’t make shots, but they still held a 95-92 lead thanks to three free throws. The final of those three came after Bright’s fifth foul, making him the third Cardinal starter to foul out. Stanford looked to be at the end of its road, but Oregon State missed a couple put-backs to keep the game within a score, and finally sophomore forward Anthony Brown knocked down a clutch game-tying three-pointer with 17 seconds left. The 14th tie of the game forced yet another overtime session.

 

Randle came out on fire to start the fourth overtime, sinking a three-pointer and converting a layup on the first two possessions of the period to give Stanford a 100-95 lead. This marked the first time since the game was 60-55 with nine minutes left in regulation that either team led by more than one possession. The two-score lead proved to be too much for the Beavers, as Stanford led for the whole period. Oregon State did cut the lead to one point twice, and the Beavers had a shot to win it at the buzzer, but Nelson’s fall-away three-pointer fell off the rim to preserve the 103-101 Stanford win.

 

The game was the longest in both teams’ history, as neither team had ever played more than two overtimes in a game. Randle led both teams with 24 points, but each team had six players notch double-digit point totals. Stanford, which had had just one double-double all season, had two—Owens had 16 points and 11 rebounds while Powell had his best game of the year with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Oregon State also had two double-doubles—Burton had 18 and 10 while forward Devon Collier had 16 and 11.

 

Each team had four players log at least 40 minutes on the court, led by Beaver guard Jared Cunningham’s 54 minutes. Cunningham, the Pac-12’s leading scorer, was held to just 4-for-16 shooting from the field but did make 10 free throws to finish with 19 points.

 

For the second consecutive game, Stanford was outshot and outrebounded, but this time the Cardinal pulled out the victory. A big reason was Stanford’s long-range shooting. Despite shooting just 37.5 percent from two-point range, the Cardinal was 13-for-28 from three-point range, led by Bright and Randle, who each made four.

 

After the three-hour marathon, Stanford has a few days to rest before hosting Pac-12 newcomers Utah and Colorado. The Buffaloes are the only Pac-12 team without a conference loss in the first two weekends. The Cardinal hosts Utah at Maples Pavilion on Thursday night at 7 p.m. and Colorado on Saturday at 1 p.m.

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Jaffe: Pain in loss only outweighed by pride in seniors https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/09/jaffe-pain-in-loss-only-outweighed-by-pride-in-seniors/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/09/jaffe-pain-in-loss-only-outweighed-by-pride-in-seniors/#respond Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:35:56 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1053747 Every week this football season, I’ve delved into the numbers related to Stanford football and tried to use statistics to gain greater insight into the team and the games themselves. I could do this same thing about last week’s Fiesta Bowl. Except I can't

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Every week this football season, I’ve delved into the numbers related to Stanford football and tried to use statistics to gain greater insight into the team and the games themselves. I could do this same thing about last week’s Fiesta Bowl.

 

Except I can’t.

 

I’ve looked at the numbers. I’ve seen how much Stanford outgained Oklahoma State. I know the Cardinal had over 200 more yards than the Cowboys. I know Stanford didn’t trail until that final field goal went through the uprights. I know painfully well what Andrew Luck’s stats were, what Stepfan Taylor’s were, what Ty Montgomery’s were.

 

The thing is, sometimes the stats don’t give you any more information. If you saw that game, or if, like me, you were at University of Phoenix Stadium (yep, that’s really its name) that day, you know what happened. You saw Stanford dominate virtually every facet of the game, only to lose in heartbreaking fashion.

 

I’m not here to point the finger of blame. There are dozens and dozens of other columns out there ridiculing Jordan Williamson for his three missed kicks. Many others bash David Shaw for his conservative play-calling. For lots of pained Stanford fans, anger and blame are the only means of coping. I understand that.

 

But that’s just not me. Not because I’m noble or above that or anything. I just don’t have the energy. The Fiesta Bowl took so much out of me that I just can’t bring myself to rant and throw people under the bus.

 

Instead, I’m just deflated. As my colleague Jack Blanchat so accurately put it, the Fiesta Bowl was going absolutely perfectly for Stanford, and then in the span of a moment, it all fell apart. I’ve gone over this game so many times in my head that I can see a football sailing to the left of an upright every time I blink. I’ve already compared it to the other worst moment in Stanford football history, a comparison that is too fitting for my liking.

 

Many other people have moved on, but one week has not been enough for me to get past the pain of the Fiesta Bowl. Losing at the last second is tough, but for me, this game was even more than a rough loss. This was the end.

 

In my time at Stanford, I’ve had the great fortune to broadcast football games for KZSU. I’ve been at all three bowl games and traveled to almost every road game for the past two years. It’s been an unbelievable experience, but as I am a senior, the Fiesta Bowl marked the end for me. The end of anything great is difficult, and seeing such an incredible four years end as heart-wrenchingly as possible was almost unbearable.

 

But I’m just a broadcaster and a fan. I didn’t play a down, and I can take no credit for a single success of Stanford football.

 

Think about the players. Think about the guys that have been there for four, five or even six years working their tails off every day to make Stanford into a contender.

 

It’s easy to get caught up in the abysmal ending, but as I sat in the booth watching Oklahoma State fans celebrate a game Stanford should have won, I couldn’t help but go over the last four years in my head.

 

I wasn’t on the Farm yet when the Cardinal went through that infamous 1-11 season, but I’ve been a fan since far before then. I remember my sister telling me frantically that Stanford had somehow beaten USC in the Biggest Upset Ever. I remember the roughly 20 people in the stands with me at the end of a rainy Stanford blowout of Washington State my freshman year. I remember being in the distinct minority as a Stanford fan in our own stadium when the Trojans came to town.

 

I remember when a five-win season was a success. And I know many of you do too.

 

Just think about that for a second, and think about what Stanford football has just accomplished. An 11-win season is a disappointment. Let that sink in. Eleven wins. Before 2010, Stanford had never gotten 11 wins in a season. Now it’s not enough. This year, Stanford Stadium was sold out for every home game but one. Yep, the same stadium that caused Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian to prepare his players for a lack of crowd noise because of attendance issues.

 

The 2012 football schedule was just announced, and I’m already hearing complaints from people that had never even been to a game three years ago. Casual fans are scouting out the 2012 football season. In January.

 

To say that the seniors on the team have changed the culture here is as big an understatement as saying that Luck is a decent quarterback. Stanford football is unrecognizable compared to what it was a few years ago, and it’s only getting better.

 

I know the Fiesta Bowl hurt. It’s still hurting. But think about the big picture. Think about where Stanford football has been, and think about where it’s going now.

 

And think about those seniors. This is it for them too. Do you want to remember one bad minute or four years of unbelievable achievement?

 

Even as pessimistic as I am, I’ll take Option B.

 

So thank you, seniors. You may not all make millions in the NFL, but you’ve all done incredible things for Stanford, and you’ve made the last four years an absolute pleasure.

 

 

Jacob Jaffe wanted to take Option A, even going so far as to tattoo “this one hurts—Fiesta Bowl ‘12” on his chest. But he ended up choosing Option B, meaning he has long hours of laser tattoo-removal sessions ahead. For live blog updates of his plight, email him at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Cardinal has issues to correct before Fiesta Bowl tonight https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/02/jaffe-cardinal-has-issues-to-correct-before-fiesta-bowl-tonight/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/02/jaffe-cardinal-has-issues-to-correct-before-fiesta-bowl-tonight/#respond Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:15:45 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1053571 The foe is definitely daunting, but Stanford fans should be more worried about their own team in this contest. Before you just dismiss this as ridiculous, think back to how Stanford has played this season. Not just the result, but how the team has looked.

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With the Fiesta Bowl right around the corner, you’ve probably heard a lot about how good Oklahoma State is. If not, you will.

 

Justin Blackmon is the best receiver in the country and could probably start for half the teams in the NFL this week. Brandon Weeden, besides being older than Aaron Rodgers, is also an incredibly accurate passer and one of the best quarterbacks in the country. Joseph Randle, often overlooked by the Cowboys’ potent passing game, is fourth in the country with 25 touchdowns on the season. Oklahoma State’s defense forced 42 turnovers in the regular season, six more than any other team in the nation and twice as many as Stanford. Heck, even the Cowboys’ kicker, Quinn Sharp, leads the nation in scoring by kickers.

 

The foe is definitely daunting, but Stanford fans should be more worried about their own team in this contest. Before you just dismiss this as ridiculous, think back to how Stanford has played this season. Not just the result, but how the team has looked.

 

Yes, the 2011 season was a banner one for Stanford football. A top-five finish is unbelievable for a team like Stanford, let alone a second consecutive top-five finish, and the 11-1 record speaks to the quality of this team. The Cardinal boasts a National Coach of the Year finalist, the Heisman runner-up and a truly complete team in all phases.

 

But if you really watched this team every week, you know that the results mask some major issues. Things looked so great after the Cardinal won its first seven games by at least 25 points and led wire-to-wire in every game. Stanford then looked shaky against USC before rallying for an impressive win, but then the team looked flat against Oregon State. In the last three games, all of which were in the friendly confines of Stanford Stadium, the Cardinal was actually outscored 95-89 and failed to score more than 31 points in any of them. Granted, this was against tougher competition (all three opponents made bowl games), but Oklahoma State certainly won’t be any easier.

 

Still, these are just the results. What’s more worrisome is the way the Cardinal looked in many instances. Andrew Luck, transcendent as he is, threw eight interceptions in the final eight games of the season and looked extremely uncomfortable against Oregon, when Stanford needed him most. The defense allowed mediocre quarterback Zach Maynard to put up big numbers in Big Game and almost bring Cal all the way back to win, not to mention the defensive debacle against the Ducks. The offensive line allowed more sacks against Oregon and Cal (five) than it did in the other 10 games combined (four) and struggled in both pass blocking and run blocking at various points. Stanford even developed kicking problems late in the season.

 

Of course, a huge factor in all of this is the impact of injuries. Stanford was hit hard—literally and figuratively—as players seemed to be dropping like flies, particularly near the end of the season. It was hard for the offense to function when two-thirds of its vaunted tight-end trio was injured, severely reducing the playbook. A couple members of the offensive line were banged up, and the Cardinal’s main deep threat missed the final three games. Two of Stanford’s top leaders on defense missed significant time while others played hurt, and the Cardinal had to rely on its backup kicker in crucial situations.

 

The time off should help this, but it will not cure everything. Shayne Skov and Chris Owusu are still out, but pretty much everyone else should be fit to go. Even if the rest are good to go health-wise, though, it all comes back to execution. Stanford has not been able to play four strong quarters on both sides of the ball. Even when the Cardinal was rolling over lesser opponents, there was still a strong sense that the team should be playing better, and the players have echoed that sentiment throughout the year. There’s been that little something extra missing from Stanford, and it might take that to beat Oklahoma State.

 

Of course, the games aren’t played on paper, and bowl games exemplify this unpredictability. Usually intangibles have a greater impact than normal in bowl games, and Stanford should be in a good place mentally for this game. The Cardinal has an experienced team that went to a BCS game just last year and has senior leaders all over the field. Stanford definitely wants to be there—it’s the team’s first ever Fiesta Bowl—and still has plenty to play for, namely a second-straight BCS bowl win and an improvement on last season’s No. 4 finish. It will be the first bowl game for David Shaw as head coach and the final game for Luck and the rest of the senior class, so that should provide a little extra incentive for the whole team. Meanwhile, the Cowboys haven’t played at a game of this magnitude, and many of the players still believe they should be playing a week later in the BCS National Championship Game instead.

 

So maybe Stanford will have that necessary boost. If it does, and the team plays to its full potential, I don’t know if any team in the country can beat the Cardinal. If, however, Stanford doesn’t correct some of its issues from the end of the season, 2012 will start out far from the successes of 2010 and 2011.

 

We’ll find out tonight.

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Jaffe: Fiesta Bowl offers ideal matchup https://stanforddaily.com/2011/12/07/jaffe-fiesta-bowl-offers-ideal-matchup/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/12/07/jaffe-fiesta-bowl-offers-ideal-matchup/#respond Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:48:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1053291 Well, here we are. Our BCS overlords have spoken, and the bowl games are set. And from a Stanford perspective, things couldn’t have gone much better

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Well, here we are. Our BCS overlords have spoken, and the bowl games are set. And from a Stanford perspective, things couldn’t have gone much better. The Cardinal will play in not-too-far-away Glendale, Ariz., against arguably the second-best team in the country on Jan. 2. Here’s Stat on the Back’s first look at the numbers of Stanford’s Fiesta Bowl matchup with Oklahoma State.

 

Number of the game: 92.92

 

What it means: Stanford and Oklahoma State, two of the top five offenses in the country, combine for 92.92 points per game. Yes, you read that right.

 

Why it matters: LSU and Alabama will play a week later in what is supposedly the meeting of the two best teams in the nation. But they could play a thousand more rematches and those teams wouldn’t come close to approaching 90 points in a game.

 

You want offense? This is a game for offense. Stanford boasts Andrew Luck, the best player in the country (regardless of the Heisman results). The Cardinal has a running game that has already put up 446 yards in a game against a team with a winning record (yep, Alabama, those teams exist.) In 12 games this year, Stanford scored at least 44 points seven times.

 

But Stanford’s may not even be the best offense in this game. Oklahoma State boasts its own prolific quarterback in Brandon Weeden, whose grandkids will take over for him in Stillwater next year. (Okay, I guess he’s not that old. But he did graduate high school when Luck was 12. Seriously. And the next year, he was traded to the Dodgers for Kevin Brown. Yes, that Kevin Brown.) Weeden has been putting up insane numbers this season, and those are certainly helped by Justin Blackmon, who is arguably the best wide receiver in the country. The Cowboys have even found a running game this year, which is just unfair for an offense that already ranks second in the nation in passing and scoring. Oh yeah, and Okie State has scored at least 44 points eight times.

 

Needless to say, this game should be fun.

 

Other notable numbers:

 

1: With these crazy-good passing games, who leads these two teams in points and yards? That would be Cowboy running back Joseph Randle, who has 25 touchdowns this season, including 23 on the ground. To put this in perspective, Stanford’s trio of Stepfan Taylor, Tyler Gaffney and Jeremy Stewart have 23 rushing touchdowns combined. Randle has more rushing yards than Taylor on fewer carries, and he also has 38 catches, more than any Stanford player besides Griff Whalen. Watch out for No. 1 in orange and black.

 

26: On the other hand, Stanford never relies on one player to do all of its scoring. The Cardinal is all about balance, and few teams do it so well. Stanford is one of just three teams to rank in the top 26 nationally in passing and rushing on offense, along with Baylor and Texas A&M.

 

Of course, those two teams both struggle on defense, while Stanford’s balance carries over to the other side of the ball. The Cardinal is also one of just three teams to rank in the top 26 in scoring and total offense and scoring and total defense, along with Wisconsin and Boise State. It’s hard to get much more balanced than that.

 

113: Meanwhile, Oklahoma State cares as much about balance as the BCS bowls do about selecting the best teams. The aforementioned Blackmon had a historic 2010 campaign, running away with the Biletnikoff Award for top receiver in the country while shattering several records. This year hasn’t gone as well for the redshirt junior—he only has 1,336 yards on 113 catches. 113!!! Despite the “drop-off,” Blackmon has more yards and touchdowns than Stanford’s top two receivers (Whalen and Coby Fleener) combined and almost half as many grabs as the Cardinal’s entire team. He is once again in the running for best receiver in the country, and he’s undoubtedly the scariest player for the Stanford secondary.

 

42: One of the most intriguing aspects of this game is Oklahoma State’s defense. The offense gets all the hype, but it’s the Cowboy defense that has elevated Mike Gundy’s crew to a team that is merely settling for its first-ever BCS bowl. Oklahoma State is 107th out of 120 in yards allowed, yet they only give up about 25 points per game.

 

How do they do it? Turnovers. The Cowboys have forced a mind-blowing 42 turnovers in 12 games, easily the most in the nation (Stanford has only half as many and is still above-average nationally.) Despite being mediocre in terms of giving the ball away, Oklahoma State is still second in the country in turnover margin, and this is the main reason the Cowboys have been so dominant this season.

 

15: Stanford will pose a tough test to this strategy, though, as the Cardinal has coughed up the ball just 15 times all year; that’s fewest in the Pac-12 and tied for 11th-fewest in the nation. Luck has thrown an interception in each of his past five games, but there are still very few (if any) quarterbacks more difficult to rattle than Luck.

 

6: Of course, Stanford’s biggest defensive strength is its pass rush, which has registered 38 sacks on the year, sixth-best in the country. Oklahoma State combats this with a line that has allowed just 11 sacks, the 12th-fewest in the country. Negative plays will be tough to come by in general, as the Cardinal and Cowboys rank first and 11th in tackles for loss allowed, respectively.

 

37: These two teams are from two different conferences, but they did have one common opponent: Arizona, appropriate given the setting of the Fiesta Bowl. Oddly enough, both teams scored exactly 37 points against the Wildcats. What does that mean? Probably nothing. Or maybe everything.

 

4: There are so many ways to compare these two teams. Oklahoma State has seven wins over teams with winning records; Stanford has four. The Cowboys have six wins by 25 points or more; the Cardinal has eight. Each team has one loss—Oklahoma State in overtime to a team it should have beaten, Stanford in a blowout to a team that has its number. The Cowboys’ best non-conference win was against 8-4 Tulsa; the Cardinal’s was against 8-4 Notre Dame.

 

Any way you slice it, these are two of the top four teams in the nation, making this the best possible matchup outside the national title game. Oklahoma State will look to prove it should have been ranked ahead of Alabama, and Stanford will look to match last year’s school-record win total and send Luck to the NFL with a bang.

 

Either way, you can be sure of one thing. This one won’t finish 9-6.

 

Unfortunately, Jacob Jaffe has fallen just a little bit short of 113 catches over his prolific Ink Bowl career. Before he leaves school for a certain career in the NFL, help him attain that Blackmon-esque flair at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu or follow him on Twitter at @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Seniors complete another historic regular season https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/28/jaffe-seniors-complete-another-historic-regular-season/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/28/jaffe-seniors-complete-another-historic-regular-season/#respond Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:35:12 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1052211 It’s hard to believe, but we’ve reached the end of another regular season of Stanford football. Here’s Stat on the Back’s take on the Cardinal’s final game of 2011

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It’s hard to believe, but we’ve reached the end of another regular season of Stanford football. Here’s Stat on the Back’s take on the Cardinal’s final game of 2011.

 

Number of the game: 11

 

What it means: For the second consecutive year, Stanford won 11 games in the regular season.

 

Why it matters: The Cardinal’s 11-1 record opens up great BCS possibilities, but we’ll get to that later. In the big picture, this season (like last season) will go down as one of the greatest in school history. From 1892 through 2009, Stanford football never won more than 10 games in a season. Now, the Cardinal has won at least 11 games in back-to-back years.

 

Some people may point out that teams play more games now than they used to. This is true, but it doesn’t make this season any less historic. Until last year, no Stanford team had lost fewer than two games since the 1940 team went 10-0. (You know, the 1940 season when the AP Poll ranked exactly 19 teams, including current powerhouses Santa Clara, Fordham, Georgetown, Penn, Cornell, Lafayette and, of course, Hardin-Simmons. Let’s just say the college football world has changed a little since then.)

 

Back-to-back 11-1 regular seasons are incredible for any team, but for Stanford they are downright unbelievable. Consider that in the not-so-distant past (as in a few years ago), the Cardinal went seven straight years without getting even halfway to an 11-win season. This team has a great deal of potential, but with the quality of talent leaving after this season, who knows when the program will ever ascend to these heights again? Alas, that is a question for a later day.

 

Other notable numbers:

 

4: This is the big number as far as this year’s team is concerned. In this week’s BCS standings, the Cardinal jumped over Virginia Tech to place in the all-important No. 4 slot. Per BCS rules, any team that finishes in the top four of the final BCS standings is guaranteed an at-large bid to a BCS bowl.

 

All indications are that Stanford would make a BCS bowl no matter what, but now it appears a certainty. The only way the Cardinal could be left out now is if a team passes Stanford next week, and the Cardinal’s lead over Virginia Tech is .0748, which is fairly large by BCS standards. In other words, expect to see Stanford playing in early January, likely against Oklahoma or Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl.

 

But enough of the big picture. Saturday night provided plenty of numbers of its own as the Cardinal beat Notre Dame 28-14.

 

80: Okay, so this is another somewhat big-picture number, but it came to fruition during Saturday’s game. Andrew Luck, in what was likely his final collegiate home game, threw four touchdown passes against the Fighting Irish. Apart from helping to win the game, the TD passes allowed Luck to break two school records. The four TDs gave Luck 35 for the season, breaking his own school record of 32 from last season.

 

More significantly, though, Luck broke John Elway’s school record of 77 career touchdown passes. In typical Luck fashion, he shattered the record, tallying his 80th touchdown pass with a 55-yard bomb to Coby Fleener. Whereas Elway played all four years on the Farm, Luck will leave after three, but he may still go down as the greatest quarterback in Stanford history. This says quite a lot considering the achievements of Elway and Jim Plunkett, who remains Stanford’s only Heisman winner. It’ll be up to voters to decide if that will still be the case two weeks from now.

 

10: The aforementioned 80th touchdown was fitting in another sense, because it went to a tight end. Three of the four touchdowns on Saturday went to tight ends, including a pair to Fleener. After starting the year as just one member of the outstanding trio of tight ends, Fleener has cemented himself as one of the best in the nation. Stanford fans got a glimpse of his talent in the Orange Bowl, when he hauled in three touchdowns, and he’s only grown from there. Fleener’s 10 touchdowns this season are the most for any tight end in the nation, and he has assumed the role of big-play threat in the Stanford offense.

 

1.8: The Stanford rush defense began the year on fire, but the second half of the year hasn’t treated the Cardinal run D well. On Saturday, though, the Fighting Irish were stymied on the ground, averaging just 1.8 yards per carry on 31 carries. The pass rush helped that number in a big way, as the Cardinal sacked Notre Dame’s quarterbacks five times.

 

23: Saturday was all about the Stanford seniors, and in the end, it really was all about them. David Shaw and the coaching staff elected to have all 23 fourth-year and fifth-year seniors honored during pre-game, and many of them had major contributions in the game, from Luck to Fleener to Chase Thomas to Michael Thomas to Matt Masifilo to Corey Gatewood…the list goes on and on. These seniors helped the Cardinal escape the seven-year bowl drought to become one of the nation’s elite teams, and they have gone 23-2 in their past two years.

 

Thanks and congratulations to Stanford’s seniors. We’ll see you in January.

 

Jacob Jaffe is hoping to get an invitation to New York as a Heisman finalist after some outstanding play as a nose tackle and offensive guard in the Ink Bowl. If you’d like to voice your support for Jacob, email him at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Another ugly win keeps Stanford on track for BCS bowl https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/23/jaffe-another-ugly-win-keeps-stanford-on-track-for-bcs-bowl/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/23/jaffe-another-ugly-win-keeps-stanford-on-track-for-bcs-bowl/#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:32:44 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1051961 Little things like school holidays aren’t enough to stop Stat on the Back. There’s no print issue this week, but here’s an online-only look at how Stanford kept the Axe in its rightful home yet again

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Little things like school holidays aren’t enough to stop Stat on the Back. There’s no print issue this week, but here’s an online-only look at how Stanford kept the Axe in its rightful home yet again.

 

Number of the game: 1

 

What it means: The Cardinal got humbled by Oregon but found a way to bounce back and stop the losing skid at one game. And even though it was far from a pretty win, Stanford is now likely just one win away from a BCS bowl.

 

Why it matters: Nearly every team loses a game at some point, but the best teams find a way to minimize the damage. Stanford looked awful against the Ducks and not entirely better against Cal, but a win is a win. And in a weekend when four teams ranked ahead of Stanford fell to lesser foes, it can’t be stressed enough how important that is.

 

Every Cardinal fan had dreams of a national title (dreams that may have some hint of a chance of a glimmer of a hope…but not much) and an undefeated season seemed possible. But with the way things are going in college football, a one-loss season is pretty darn good. Heck, a one-loss season is always good. There is still a lot to play for, and Stanford checked off item No. 1 on its checklist: keep the Axe.

 

Other notable numbers:

 

10: The Big Game win gives Stanford back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time ever. The recent run of success has given people insane expectations, but the fact is that Stanford hasn’t been this good in a long, long time (and may or may not be this good in the future). It’s worth a step back every once in a while to put things in perspective before delving into each specific play.

 

2: As stated above, Saturday was not an aesthetically pleasing game, and it wasn’t much prettier on the stat sheet. Players were slipping all over the field, and a pair of impressive Stanford streaks fell to the wayside as well.

 

Coming into Saturday’s game, the Cardinal was the only team in the nation to score on every red zone trip of the season. After 57 straight successful trips to start off the year, Stanford finally came up empty inside the 20 when Jordan Williamson shanked a 33-yard field goal in the final minute of the first half.

 

Stanford also came into the game perfect on fourth-down conversions. The Cardinal’s 11-for-11 record on do-or-die downs led the nation until Stepfan Taylor was thrown for a loss on fourth-and-2 from the Cal 31-yard line.

 

Losing two streaks is unfortunate. The positive side? Stanford is still awfully good in both areas. Even with the missed field goal, the Cardinal is still the best red zone team in the nation. Every other team has at least two empty red zone trips, and Stanford’s 374 red zone points are more than any other team. What’s even more impressive is the Cardinal’s balance. Of the team’s 61 scores inside the 20-yard line, 13 are field goals and the touchdowns are split in half—24 through the air and 24 on the ground. As far as fourth downs, the now 11-for-12 mark is good for second in the nation, trailing only the 6-for-6 of Stanford’s next opponent, Notre Dame.

 

13: The Cardinal has had a much tougher time in its past four games than its first seven. Stanford has outscored its past four opponents by just 13 points (3.25 points per game) after outscoring its first seven by 252 points (36 points per game). One reason for the drop-off…

 

38: Stanford has scored 38 points or fewer in regulation in each of its past four games, for an average of 33.3 points per game. This isn’t awful, but it’s not nearly at the level of the Cardinal’s offense in the first seven games, when the team scored at least 44 points in every game but one for an average of 48.6 points per game. On a possibly related note, Zach Ertz hasn’t played an offensive snap in the past four games. That’s not a coincidence. A lot is due to the competition, but injuries to Ertz, Chris Owusu, Levine Toilolo, Cameron Fleming and Williamson haven’t helped either. Of course, it’s not all the offense’s fault…

 

142: Stanford’s defense has struggled much more than its offense. In this same four-game stretch, the Cardinal allowed 142 points for an average of 35.5 points per game. Stanford didn’t allow 35 points in a single game before this stretch. In fact, the Cardinal hadn’t even allowed more than 21, ranking fourth in the nation by allowing just 12.6 points per game through the first seven contests.

 

Of course, these struggles make sense. Apart from the aforementioned injuries (and others), the last four games represent a significant increase in difficulty. If you look at the Sagarin rankings, you’ll see that Stanford’s three toughest opponents so far this season (Oregon, USC and Cal) all played the Cardinal in the last four weeks. Of course, if you look at the Sagarin rankings for more than five seconds, your brain might explode. (Let’s just say that any system where the 10 toughest strengths of schedule are assigned to all 10 teams from one conference has some issues. Especially when one of those 10 is a team whose non-conference schedule consists of Texas State, New Mexico and Nevada. I could—and very well might—write an entire column about how awful these rankings are. So for now let’s just stick with David Shaw’s assessment: “Bottom line, the BCS is flawed.” But I digress.)

 

6: Now all this talk of a drop-off might be getting you down. But here’s the important part. Before this four-game stretch, Stanford was ranked No. 6 in the BCS standings. Now? No. 6. Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.

 

Barring an absurd Oregon State upset win this weekend, Stanford’s final game of the year will be this Saturday against Notre Dame. A win would give the Cardinal an almost certain berth in the Fiesta Bowl. If Stanford sneaks up to the top four in the BCS standings, it will be a certainty. Not too shabby.

 

42-21: Speaking of not too shabby, there was another rivalry football game Saturday on Stanford’s campus. The Stanford Daily took on The Daily Californian in the annual Ink Bowl, a no-holds-barred flag football game for Bay Area collegiate journalism supremacy. And for the third straight year, Stanford finished victorious, riding a Tim Tebow-esque performance from quarterback/sports editor Miles Bennett-Smith to a 42-21 win. The all-important Exacto Knife remains on the Farm.

 

And yes, you just read a column where the first Stanford quarterback named was not Andrew Luck. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

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Jaffe: National title hopes crushed by better team https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/14/jaffe-national-title-hopes-crushed-by-better-team/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/14/jaffe-national-title-hopes-crushed-by-better-team/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:32:42 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1051764 With all the pressure, hype and media attention focused on the Farm for the first time this season, only one team stepped up. And for the first time this season, it wasn’t Stanford. Here’s Stat on the Back’s take on the Cardinal’s first loss of the season, a 53-30 thrashing by Oregon

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With all the pressure, hype and media attention focused on the Farm for the first time this season, only one team stepped up. And for the first time this season, it wasn’t Stanford. Here’s Stat on the Back’s take on the Cardinal’s first loss of the season, a 53-30 thrashing by Oregon.

Number of the game: 2

What it means: 10/2/2010 and 11/12/2011 had a whole lot more in common than just the zeros, ones and twos. These two days are the only two times in the past two years when Andrew Luck threw at least 14 incompletions. They’re the only two times Stanford faced a team ranked higher than No. 15. They’re the only two times the Stanford defense gave up over 50 points. And they’re the only two times Stanford has had to play Oregon.

Most significantly, of course, they’re the only two times in the past two seasons Stanford has lost. And that is no coincidence.

Why it matters: The Cardinal is one of the best football teams in the nation. There is no doubt about that. Stanford has gone 21-2 since the start of the 2010 season, which is tied for the most wins by any FBS team in that span.

Of course, it’s those two losses that really stand out. In the past two seasons, the Cardinal has had two shots to knock off a top-10 team. Once it was as a road underdog, once it was as a home favorite and both times it was against the Ducks. Stanford whiffed both times, and this inability to win big games is what separates the Cardinal from the truly elite teams.

Other notable numbers:

1: Saturday was the first time in a long time that Stanford was thoroughly outplayed from start to finish. In fact, it was the first time in the Andrew Luck Era (2009-11) that Stanford was outscored in both halves of a game. You have to give credit where credit is due, and Oregon was far superior to the Cardinal in every aspect of the game. The Ducks deserved to win, and they left no doubt.

3: It’s unfair to point to one player in a game like this, and the loss should be spread around to the whole team. However, Luck is seen as the best player in the country and possibly one of the best ever, but he did not look remotely deserving of the Heisman on Saturday.

For just the third time in his career, Luck threw multiple interceptions in a game. One of them was completely Luck’s fault and set up the Ducks’ first score of the game. The other was not his fault at all but was returned for a touchdown. Three is also the number of turnovers Luck had, as he also fumbled for the first time this season, one of three fumbles by Stanford.

Three was not a kind number for the team, as the offensive line allowed Luck to be sacked three times by Oregon. Luck had been sacked just four times total in the first nine games. The sacks on Saturday caused Luck to be held to -13 rushing yards, just the second time in his career he has had negative yards on the ground.

Stanford fumbled three times after fumbling just twice in the first nine games. The Cardinal seemed to give up at the end of the game, as three of Stanford’s season-high five turnovers came in the final five minutes.

5-for-14: Stanford converted just five of its 14 third downs, and two of those conversions came in the fourth quarter when the game was out of hand. For a Cardinal team that relies on long, punishing drives and came in ranked fourth in the nation in converting third downs, starting 3-for-10 isn’t going to cut it.

13: It seems unthinkable, but Stanford actually outgained Oregon by 13 yards. I’m not kidding—look it up. If you only saw that the Cardinal forced two turnovers, held the Ducks to 387 total yards and forced Oregon to go 1-for-9 on third downs, you would probably expect Stanford to come away with the win.

However, if you were watching the game, you know that Oregon was much more dominant than any of these statistics show. The Ducks made big plays—four of their seven touchdowns came from at least 40 yards out. They forced five Stanford turnovers, kept pressure on Luck in a way that no other team could and they dominated special teams.

17, 11: The loss marks the end of Stanford’s 17-game winning streak and 11-game home winning streak. The Cardinal almost certainly cannot win the Pac-12 North and will not play in the national title game. All hope is lost.

Yet, contrary to popular belief, the season is not over. There’s this little thing called Big Game this week, and rumor has it that Stanford and Cal don’t like each other. After that is Notre Dame to close out the regular season. Neither team will be a pushover, and the Cardinal had better regroup fast in order to beat those two teams.

And although a national title really is out of the picture (don’t bother finding a scenario—I’ve heard it, and it’s not happening), Stanford still has a good chance at playing in a BCS bowl. But before we go into scenarios, let’s wait and see how the Cardinal does in its final two games. After all, as Saturday showed, wins can never be assumed.

 

Jacob Jaffe had one of the greatest fantasy football weeks of his life and still spent Sunday afternoon eating lactose-free ice cream and watching “Bambi,” “The Fox and the Hound” and “The Lion King.” If you would like to console Jacob or want to join him in his misery, email him at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu or follow him on Twitter at @Jacob_Jaffe.

 

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Jaffe: Huge matchup with Oregon sets up dead even https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/11/jaffe-huge-matchup-with-oregon-sets-up-dead-even/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/11/jaffe-huge-matchup-with-oregon-sets-up-dead-even/#respond Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:51:28 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1051655 With a top-10 team coming to town, College GameDay at the Farm for the first time ever and national title hopes hanging in the balance, Saturday’s clash with Oregon is much more than just a normal football game. If LSU-Alabama was the “Game of the Century,” then Oregon-Stanford looks to be the “Game of the Century: Watchable Edition,” or at least the “Game of the Century: Now with Offense!”

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With a top-10 team coming to town, College GameDay at the Farm for the first time ever and national title hopes hanging in the balance, Saturday’s clash with Oregon is much more than just a normal football game. If LSU-Alabama was the “Game of the Century,” then Oregon-Stanford looks to be the “Game of the Century: Watchable Edition,” or at least the “Game of the Century: Now with Offense!”

In any case, the Pac-12 Game of the Year necessitates a special edition of Stat on the Back. Here’s a statistical preview of what could be the most significant regular season game in Stanford sports history.

Number of the game: 2

What it means: This game truly is a showdown of the top two teams in the Pac-12. Of the four major statistical categories on each side of the ball — rushing, passing efficiency, total yards and points — the Pac-12 leader for each is either Stanford or Oregon. The two teams rank 1-2 in the Pac-12 in scoring offense, rushing offense, total offense, passing efficiency, sacks allowed and sacks.

Why it matters: At seemingly every angle you look at this game, this is a battle of juggernauts. Even more than just being good teams, though, these two squads appear perfectly designed to exploit the other team’s weaknesses.

Consider: Oregon’s biggest strength on offense is its speed on the edge, which is Stanford’s biggest weakness. The Cardinal’s biggest strength on offense is its power up the middle, which is Oregon’s biggest weakness. Stanford likes to churn up clock, as it leads the conference in time of possession, which is exactly where the Duck defense is susceptible. Oregon has a quick-strike attack, ranking last in the nation in time of possession, and these quick strikes are exactly what have caused the Cardinal defense major problems.

Oregon hasn’t lost a conference game since it last played on the Farm, a span of 18 Pac-12 games. Stanford hasn’t lost any game since it last played at Autzen Stadium, a span of 17 games. Each team is the other’s kryptonite and the other’s antithesis. Fiery Chip Kelly against calm David Shaw. Cliff Harris’s suspensions against Andrew Luck’s saintliness. Public against private. Green against red. About the only thing these two teams have in common is Phil Knight.

Other notable numbers:

406: Saturday will be the 406th day since Stanford last played Oregon. It will also be the 406th day since Stanford lost a game. Many things have changed in those 406 days (incoming freshmen, outgoing seniors, new coaches, suspensions, injuries, etc.), and how much things have changed will decide who wins this game.

21-2: One of the main things that has changed over this time span is the location of the game. The Autzen crowd made Stanford’s life miserable last year, but the Cardinal will welcome the Ducks to the Bay Area this year. And for the Cardinal, Stanford Stadium has provided quite the home-field advantage. Stanford is 21-2 in its last 23 contests on the Farm, including a current streak of 11 straight wins.

190.4: Luck is the complete package (I’m talking to you, Phil Simms) and has very few flaws. But Luck at home is just flat-out unfair. In the past two seasons, Luck has a 190.4 passer rating in home games, and unsurprisingly the Cardinal is 11-0 in those games. In those 11 contests, Luck has thrown 30 touchdowns compared to just two interceptions (one of which was a perfectly thrown pass that senior wide receiver Chris Owusu dropped into an opponent’s arms.) If you want a comparison, Aaron Rodgers’ absurd season in the NFL this year would net him an NCAA passer rating of 183.

110.1: On the other hand, Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas has not enjoyed the road nearly as much as Eugene. Thomas has a passer rating of 110.1 on the road compared to 209.9 at home this season, and his yards per attempt on the road (5.15) is less than half his home split (11.67).

117: Last year, the Oregon running game torched Stanford’s defense, but it was the dual-threat nature of Thomas that made the biggest difference. Thomas ran for 117 yards in that game on 15 carries. In 2011, he’s run for just 114 yards all year and he’s carried the ball 26 times. In fact, the Ducks have been taking the ball out of his hands much more this year. In last year’s game, 44 plays were either throws or passes for Thomas, and he had 355 total yards. This year, only one game has had more than 30 plays for him, and he has only had over 252 total yards once.

257: The same can be said for star running back LaMichael James, who had 31 carries for 257 rushing yards in last year’s matchup. James has not run the ball 31 times in a game yet this year, and he has eclipsed 257 rushing yards once.

This is not to say that Oregon’s offense is sagging. The Ducks just have more weapons this year. Junior running back Kenjon Barner has already surpassed last season’s output with 601 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground. True freshman De’Anthony Thomas has instantly become a major weapon for the Ducks, racking up 731 total yards and 12 touchdowns while leading the team in receiving yards. With weapons all around, James said that this year’s team is even faster than last year’s, which could spell doom for the Cardinal defense.

17: Both squads rank in the top 10 in giving the ball away, as the two teams have only committed 17 turnovers combined. Both are below average in forcing turnovers, though, and in a game as closely contested as this one should be, one turnover could make the difference.

57: One factor that could neutralize Stanford’s home-field advantage is injuries. The Cardinal looks to be without both Owusu and junior tight end Zach Ertz, which is a loss of 57 combined catches on the season, or over a quarter of the passing game. Owusu is Stanford’s best deep threat and Ertz is Stanford’s top third-down receiver. Their absence could be crucial. In other injury news, it looks like senior strong safety Delano Howell and junior tight end Levine Toilolo will play, which will be a significant boost on both sides of the ball. Sophomore kicker Jordan Williamson and sophomore offensive lineman Cameron Fleming are both questionable heading into the game. On the other hand, Oregon appears to be healthy at the right time, as both Darron Thomas and James were back to their old selves last week against Washington after recovering from injuries.

1: Whichever team comes away with the win on Saturday night will also win the first ever Pac-12 North crown (technically, if Oregon wins, it will need one more win to clinch the title, but there’s no way the Ducks will lose at home to Oregon State) and a trip to the Pac-12 Championship Game. The winner of this game will be a big favorite over either Arizona State or UCLA in that game, so in essence, the winner of the Game of the Year will likely play in the Rose Bowl at worst.

Jacob Jaffe just might faint doing the play-by-play this weekend. Help him prepare a first-aid kit for the KZSU broadcast booth at jwjaffe@stanford.edu or on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Ugly win sets up huge clash on Saturday https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/07/jaffe-ugly-win-sets-up-huge-clash-on-saturday/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/07/jaffe-ugly-win-sets-up-huge-clash-on-saturday/#comments Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:37:22 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1051498 Despite another poor first half, Stanford cruised to another road win, beating Oregon State 38-13. Here’s Stat on the Back’s take on the final regular-season road game of the season

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Despite another poor first half, Stanford cruised to another road win, beating Oregon State 38-13. Here’s Stat on the Back’s take on the final regular-season road game of the season.

Number of the game: 9-0

What it means: The Cardinal didn’t win any football beauty pageants on Saturday, but after nine games, Stanford is still undefeated. And that’s all that matters.

Why it matters: Stanford had nothing to gain and everything to lose on Saturday, and the team showed it for the first 40 minutes of the game. At the end of the day, though, the Cardinal got things together in the final third of the game for an easy victory over an outmatched team.

Every game is important and no opponent can be taken lightly, but the truth is that Stanford just needed to get through this week without an epic collapse in order to remain undefeated with Oregon coming to town. And that’s just what the Cardinal did.

Other notable numbers:

81: Besides staying undefeated, the biggest story of the game was yet another scary head injury for Chris Owusu. Seeing No. 81 crumpled on the ground with trainers around him seems to be a weekly occurrence these days, and Saturday’s injury may have been the worst of them all. Owusu looked to be completely unconscious as he lay motionless for quite some time. Whenever an ambulance needs to be brought on the field, you know things are serious (unless you are an Oregon State fan, of course, but we’ll get to that momentarily).

Luckily, Owusu was able to give a thumbs-up while being loaded into the ambulance, and he was able to join his team after the game in the locker room with full use of his extremities. Head coach David Shaw said Owusu will be all right and that the team will be cautious with him, but with three concussions in the last 13 months and numerous other tough hits in that same time span, Owusu likely will miss another chunk of time. With this being his senior year and with the nature of concussions being so delicate, it is possible that we’ve seen the last of Chris Owusu on a football field. However, recovery from concussions is extremely unpredictable, so his future remains to be seen.

Seeing Owusu down made me (and any viewer with an ounce of empathy) sad, but seeing the response of Oregon State fans made me mad. It was homecoming weekend, and the fans were fired up to play a top-five team, but that doesn’t excuse the loud chorus of boos raining down on Reser Stadium while Owusu lay motionless. I know the fans were disputing the penalty call, but the fact is that if a player is as seriously injured as Owusu appeared to be, you throw away all thoughts of penalties for a few minutes until you are sure he is all right. That’s Fandom 101.

Instead, according to Chase Thomas, the fans were doing more than just booing. “The fans were kind of rude about it and making fun of him,” Thomas said. “That lit a fire. They were yelling things that shouldn’t be said when someone is hurt on the ground like that. We took it personally.”

There’s no place for that kind of behavior, and I can only hope the majority of Beaver fans acted with more class.

1: Saying “Stanford has three of the best tight ends in the country on the field, all at the same time!” has a nice ring to it. Saying “Stanford has three of the best tight ends in the country, and only one can play!” is a little less satisfying. With Zach Ertz sidelined due to a knee injury, it appeared to be time for just the Dos Amigos of Coby Fleener and Levine Toilolo. However, on Stanford’s first scoring play of the game, Toilolo took a knock to his head and had to miss the rest of the game. Without him, Stanford was forced to use its fullbacks more to cope with having just one deadly tight end on the field. The bad news is that Ertz is expected to miss at least one more game, but on the bright side, Toilolo did not get a concussion and is expected to play on Saturday.

0: Speaking of the first scoring play of the game, it came in the second quarter. This was the first time in 28 games that Stanford was held scoreless in the first quarter. The last team that stopped the Cardinal from scoring in the first frame? Oregon State, of course, in Stanford’s last trip to Corvallis two years ago.

300: For the second time in three weeks, the Stanford running game exploded with 300 rushing yards. Yes, it was against a bad team. But there aren’t many teams in the nation that can put up 300, whether or not they have a great quarterback. That’s just what makes Stanford so dangerous: one week after Luck threw for 330, the Cardinal ran for 300.

48: Stanford racked up those 300 rushing yards on 48 carries. To put this into perspective, Oregon State ran just 47 offensive plays and gained just 285 total yards. Who needs a passing game?

76: Cardinal fans would have liked to see that passing game in the first half, when Luck threw for just 76 yards. He completed just 11 of 19 passes and threw one of the worst interceptions he’s thrown in his three years at Stanford. The passing game was completely out of sync, which is why the run game was so crucial. In the second half, Luck turned it on, completing nine of his 11 attempts for 130 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

4: Despite Alabama’s home loss to LSU, the Crimson Tide remained ahead of Stanford in the latest BCS standings, keeping the Cardinal at No. 4. Before you go burning down the BCS headquarters (hint: there’s no such place), fear not. Stanford is in the same position as last week. If the Cardinal finishes undefeated and Oklahoma State loses, Stanford will vault over Alabama into the all-important No. 2 spot.

17: An ugly win, yes, but the victory over Oregon State was the Cardinal’s 17th straight. Next up: the biggest test of all, the Oregon Ducks. Check out The Daily’s coverage of Stanford-Oregon this week, including Stat on the Back’s preview of the Pac-12 Game of the Year.

 

Jacob Jaffe is looking for a special someone to share his tent ahead of ESPN College GameDay’s arrival on campus this weekend. If you are a special someone, and your name is Erin Andrews, make his day with an email to jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu or follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

 

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Jaffe: Stanford-USC transcends (most) numbers https://stanforddaily.com/2011/10/31/jaffe-stanford-usc-transcends-most-numbers/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/10/31/jaffe-stanford-usc-transcends-most-numbers/#comments Mon, 31 Oct 2011 08:32:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1051303 Saturday marked the zeroth anniversary of one of the most thrilling and memorable games in Stanford football history. Stat on the Back looks at how it all went down at the Coliseum

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Saturday marked the zeroth anniversary of one of the most thrilling and memorable games in Stanford football history. Stat on the Back looks at how it all went down at the Coliseum.

Number of the game: 0, as in the number of statistics that can accurately describe the madness that was Stanford vs. USC.

Let’s be clear: I love stats. I mean, really, I have an unhealthy obsession with everything from third-down conversion rate to punt-return defense. Every time I watch a game, I find every random stat I can, and I have yet to meet a person that cares half as much about the stats I babble as I do.

That said, this game was less about stats than any game I have ever seen. This game was about intangibles and grit, momentum and fight, hostile environment and motivation and every other term I usually ignore. In most games, a play-by-play and box score can tell you everything you need to know, but in this one, you had to be there. You had to be a part of that atmosphere, and you had to see the drama unfold to understand just what took place.

Let’s be clear on one thing: the fact that Stanford very narrowly beat a USC team that has somehow flown under the radar should not diminish anyone’s view of the Cardinal.

For one thing, USC is a high-caliber team with NFL talent overflowing on both sides of the ball. There could be three top-10 picks on the offense alone, as quarterback Matt Barkley and left tackle Matt Kalil are projected to enter the draft this year, and wide receiver Robert Woods will be among the nation’s best prospects when he is eligible.

Just as importantly, USC had as much intangible benefit as I could imagine in this game. While I usually downplay the importance of things like “motivation” (doesn’t everyone want to win every game?), I changed my tune after seeing the Trojans. The local radio before the game was abuzz with the most anticipation fans had had for any game in years. People have talked about USC having nothing to play for, because the Trojans cannot make the Pac-12 Championship Game or a bowl game due to NCAA sanctions.

Immediately upon entering the Coliseum parking lot, it became apparent that this game really was “USC’s Super Bowl.” ESPN’s College GameDay brought an even greater media presence than usual to USC football, throngs of fans filled the Coliseum and the players were as riled up as any team I’ve seen for a regular-season matchup.

After taking a second-half lead, the Trojans did their best Georgia impression, acting as though each and every player had just won the lottery at the exact same time. With over 25 minutes to go in regulation, USC players were jumping on benches, huddling up and screaming along with their tens of thousands of fans.

Call it what you will, but there was little doubt that the Trojans were playing at their peak effort level all game long. USC, with or without sanctions, usually has the best talent on the field no matter what team it plays, but the issue can sometimes be effort. There was no lack of energy from USC from the first snap to the last, and that makes USC nearly impossible to beat, especially with the home crowd providing such support. Add in huge momentum boosts for the Trojans—chief among them being the pick-six by Nickell Robey in the waning minutes—and it would take a miraculous effort by the Cardinal to pull out the victory.

And that’s just what happened. Now, don’t get me wrong. Stanford was far from perfect—very far. Penalties, bad play-calling, poor throws, dropped passes, bad blocking, missed tackles, bad special teams play…to say there was room for improvement is an understatement. But as the saying goes, big-time players make big-time plays, and that’s just what the Cardinal did.

Looking forward, many people question how Stanford can compete with an even better opponent (Oregon) when the Cardinal struggled so mightily with USC. The notion of a transitive property—for those of you far removed from math class, that is the idea that Oregon is way better than USC and USC almost beat Stanford so Oregon should beat Stanford—does not hold true in the sports world.

Oregon is a very different team with very different matchup problems from the ones offered by USC. The game will be played in a much different atmosphere (Stanford Stadium) with different personnel (such as Delano Howell, hopefully) on a different week (12 days away and counting). Previous results give you an idea of what a team will do, but they don’t tell the whole story. Sometimes there’s more to a game than the numbers.

Of course, numbers can still say a whole lot, and this is Stat on the Back, so let’s take a look at the numbers that mattered:

6, 4: Coming into the game, Stanford had not trailed a single time all season and had not been tied at any point after the first score. In this game, there were six lead changes and four ties, half of which came in the overtimes. To say Stanford was finally challenged is putting it lightly.

11, 91: Known as a disciplined team, the Cardinal was anything but against the Trojans and their crowd. Stanford committed 11 penalties for 91 yards after averaging roughly half those totals (five penalties for 45 yards) the rest of the season. Some penalties, such as a pass interference call against Robert Woods, were somewhat justified. Others, like a pair of delay-of-game calls on Luck, a too-many-men-in-the huddle call and two offsides penalties on nose tackle Terrence Stephens, were much sloppier. In a close game, these penalties almost cost Stanford its undefeated season.

145, 2: USC running back Curtis McNeal looked like LaMichael James as he gashed Stanford’s previously stout rush defense for 145 yards and two touchdowns, both career highs. McNeal came in as the second-best running back on a pass-centered offense, but when Marc Tyler went down to injury, McNeal stepped up in a big way (at least until the final play of the game). The Cardinal defense is still ranked sixth in the country in rushing yards allowed, but the past few weeks have exposed some glaring weaknesses against the run.

2, 0: Many people thought this game would come down to line play, and Stanford had arguably the nation’s best lines on paper before the game. Despite allowing just two sacks all season, the Cardinal offensive line let USC double that total with a pair of sacks of Luck among several QB hurries. Meanwhile, the much-praised Stanford pass rush hardly got to Matt Barkley at all and failed to record a sack. In fact, the Cardinal registered just four tackles for loss, only half its season average.

17: It was a good day for players wearing No. 17. Linebacker A.J. Tarpley—starting in place of the injured Shayne Skov—picked off Barkley in the first half and later forced a fumble. His biggest contribution of all, though, was falling on McNeal’s fumble in the end zone to end the game.

The leading receiver in the game, with 102 yards receiving, was…Griff Whalen? Yep, Luck’s roommate (the other No. 17) was his favorite target on big third-down plays, and Whalen responded with some great catches. Meanwhile, Woods, possibly the best receiver in the nation, finished with 89 receiving yards on nine catches and didn’t even lead his own team in receiving. The Stanford defense had many flaws, but it did hold Woods down.

99: Stepfan Taylor was just a yard away from notching his fifth 100-yard rushing game in the past six contests. Taylor carried the load for Stanford, setting a season high with 23 carries, and his two touchdowns were in the most crucial situations. The first one tied the game with 38 seconds to play in regulation, and the second one proved to be the game-winner in triple overtime. Just like nearly every other game, the running game eventually overpowered the USC defense after a slow start.

39: Thanks to Jordan Williamson being a late scratch due to an undisclosed injury, Stanford had to rely on its backup kicker, Eric Whitaker. He responded by making all six of his extra points and both his field goal attempts, but kickoffs were another story. Whitaker kicked off out of bounds twice, and in all, half of USC’s 12 drives started at the Trojan 39 or better. That kind of field-position advantage is tough to overcome, and the Cardinal likely can’t afford a repeat of that performance.

47-for-47: Helped by Whitaker’s kicking, Stanford remained perfect in the red zone this season (despite an error in some versions of the box score that credits Stanford with a phantom zero-second drive at the end of regulation). The Cardinal scored on all nine trips inside the USC 20, with seven of those scores being touchdowns. Stanford remains the only team in the nation without a red zone miss this season.

93,607: The listed attendance of 93,607 means that the game was a sellout, and I have no doubt that there were at least 90,000 people in attendance. Apart from the obvious impact in terms of noise and momentum, the sellout (the first at the Coliseum since 2009) shows just how important this game was to USC.

3: The win was Stanford’s third straight in the Coliseum. The last time the Cardinal won three straight road games with USC? The 1930s. This really was a historic win.

16: It might have been the narrowest escape in years, but Stanford’s winning streak is intact.

56-48: Just admire that score. It’s never going to get old.

 

Jacob Jaffe nearly fell off of his perch atop the roof of the Los Angeles Coliseum when Tarpley fell on the loose ball in the end zone. Only divine intervention and Jaffe’s tremendous core strength allowed him to enjoy the Stanford victory in his own bed and not a hospital. For more details, or pics of Jaffe’s abs, email him at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

 

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Jaffe: Cardinal’s huge win is a statistical field day https://stanforddaily.com/2011/10/24/jaffe-cardinals-huge-win-is-a-statistical-field-day/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/10/24/jaffe-cardinals-huge-win-is-a-statistical-field-day/#respond Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:32:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1051048 Saturday’s 65-21 win over Washington was a dream game for Stat on the Back. Here’s a look at how Stanford got it done

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Saturday’s 65-21 win over Washington was a dream game for Stat on the Back. Here’s a look at how Stanford got it done.

Number of the game: 446

What it means: Stanford had 446 rushing yards against Washington. Yep, that’s really a four in the hundreds place.

Why it matters: Finishing with 146 rushing yards is a decent game (about the average output in a college football game), 246 is a great game (better than any of Stanford’s first six games this year) and 346 is an incredible game.

But 446? That’s historically good. In the 1,176 games Stanford played before Saturday, the Cardinal had never run for that many yards. The previous best was 439, a record that had stood for 30 years. Stanford had only reached the 400-yard mark twice in its history.

Putting up enormous totals is great, and treating the alumni to a spectacle at the Homecoming game helps to energize the fan base. More importantly, though, Stanford proved to the entire country that it can dominate any team it faces in any way it wants.

Pundits across the country have acted like Stanford football is Andrew Luck, and some have gone so far as to say that without Luck, Stanford wouldn’t even be a .500 team. Those “experts” can eat Stepfan Taylor’s dust. And Tyler Gaffney’s. And Anthony Wilkerson’s. And the whole offensive line’s. Let’s just say that there’s a lot of dust to go around.

Luck is great, and there have been countless articles deservedly ogling his saintliness on and off the football field. He had an efficient game through the air and his best game of the season on the ground, and his play-calling was perfectly executed. But for once, this wasn’t about Luck. This wasn’t even a “see, other people can do things too” game.

This was a statement. Stanford is a great team with a great coach, great defense, great offense, great running backs, great quarterback, great receivers, great fullbacks, great tight ends and great lineman. Luck is just one of the many pieces to the Stanford puzzle.

Other notable numbers:

17: While looking at all these stats, don’t forget that Stanford wasn’t playing Directional State. This was supposed to be the toughest test of the season for the Cardinal, and Washington came in with a BCS ranking. Further, the Huskies came in ranked 17th in the country in run defense. Washington had allowed 62 yards or fewer on the ground in four of its six games this season. For the year, the Huskies had only given up 582 yards on the season before giving up 446 to Stanford. This one performance dropped Washington 40 spots from 17th in the country to 57th.

348: The trio of Taylor, Gaffney and Wilkerson combined for 348 rushing yards and four touchdowns on just 33 carries. Each had his own highlights, including a run of at least 34 yards for each. Wilkerson was just seven yards from being Stanford’s third 100-yard rusher of the game, which has never happened in Cardinal history. Washington had allowed just one 100-yard rusher in its first six games.

65: Stanford didn’t waste its yards, racking up 65 points on Washington. That is the second-most points the Cardinal has ever scored in conference play, trailing only the 82 scored by Pop Warner’s 1925 Stanford team against UCLA. Overall, the 65 points are the seventh most in Stanford history and second most in the past 35 years.

21: Even while scoring all these points, Luck threw the ball just 21 times. He was efficient with his passes, completing 16 for 169 yards and two touchdowns, but he did not have to do much. In the post-Toby Gerhart era, the 21 attempts were the second fewest by Luck, trailing only the 20 from last year’s Big Game. Combined score of those two games: 113-35 Stanford.

107: After allowing just 59.5 rushing yards per game, Stanford gave up 107 yards on two long runs by Chris Polk in the first half. The absence of injured safety Delano Howell was all too evident in the tackling problems faced by Stanford’s secondary.

1: Polk’s 143 first-half rushing yards were followed by just a single rushing yard in the second half. As it has all season, Stanford’s defense buckled down in the second half, helping the Cardinal to outscore the Huskies 48-7 after Polk’s second touchdown.

20: Once the ball gets to the 20-yard line, Stanford goes from being one of the nation’s best teams to the undisputed best in the country. The Cardinal scored on all seven of its red zone possessions on Saturday, keeping Stanford perfect on the season at 38-for-38. Every other team in the country has come up empty at least once in the red zone. On the other side of the ball, the Cardinal is second in the nation at keeping opponents off the scoreboard inside the 20. One of the biggest reasons is…

2-for-11: One of the silliest stats you’ll ever see is opponent field-goal percentage. But in the case of Stanford, it has gotten absurd. For the season, the Cardinal’s opponents have made just two of their 11 attempts, good for an 18-percent success rate. This is especially surprising considering those same kickers have combined to make 26 of their 32 attempts against everyone else, good for an 81-percent success rate.

0: In what might be Stanford’s most impressive stat, the Cardinal has trailed a grand total of zero times this season. Zero is also the number of other FBS teams that can say that.

10: Okay, maybe this is Stanford’s most impressive stat. The Cardinal has now won 10 straight games by 25 points or more. No team has ever done that in the 75-year history of college football’s poll system.

6: More important than any of these stats is Stanford’s standing in the BCS. The Cardinal currently ranks sixth, and with the upsets of Oklahoma and Wisconsin, Stanford’s path to the BCS National Championship Game is getting increasingly simple. At this point, if the Cardinal wins its next six games (a tall order to be sure), Stanford would likely need just one upset of Oklahoma State to earn a spot in the title game, because the Cardinal’s computer ranking should improve enough in the coming weeks to pass Boise State and Clemson.

2005: Stanford will travel to the L.A. Coliseum to take on USC this Saturday. The last time the Trojans beat the Cardinal in Los Angeles was 2005, marking the longest home drought USC has against any of the former Pac-10 teams. With ESPN’s College GameDay on campus, Saturday will prove if the Coliseum really has become a second home for the Cardinal.

 

Jacob Jaffe will be heading down to the friendly confines of the Coliseum on Saturday when Stanford takes on USC. He firmly believes that ESPN College Gameday’s Lee Corso will be suiting up in Trojan armor, but wants to know what other foolish things Corso will do on set. Let him know at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu or on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

 

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Jaffe: Second half, tight ends key Stanford victory https://stanforddaily.com/2011/10/17/jaffe-second-half-tight-ends-key-stanford-victory/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/10/17/jaffe-second-half-tight-ends-key-stanford-victory/#respond Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:41:35 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1050808 In this week's edition of Stat on the Back, I'll take a look at Stanford's 44-14 win over Washington State.

Number of the game: 2

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In this week’s edition of Stat on the Back, I’ll take a look at Stanford’s 44-14 win over Washington State.

Number of the game: 2

What it means: There are two halves in a football game, and Stanford only looked like itself for one of them.

Why it matters: The Cardinal has been a second-half team all season. Stanford has been good in the first half, but after halftime, the Cardinal takes things to another level. In six games, Stanford has outscored its opponents 30-0, 27-7, 21-0, 28-12, 21-0 and 34-7 after the break. That’s 161-26 in total.

And that’s absurd. Stanford’s second-half points alone would rank the team 72nd in the country in scoring, ahead of four Pac-12 teams. Meanwhile, the defense has given up just four scores in the second half all season, and only one of these was against the first-string defense. In general, the Cardinal has looked virtually unstoppable in second halves all season.

No game was a better example of the proverbial “tale of two halves” than Saturday’s matchup with Washington State. Stanford came out flat with an Andrew Luck interception on the second play of the game, and things did not get a whole lot better as the half wore on. The defense responded well, setting the offense up for an easy touchdown to go up by 10, but another turnover was too much for the defense to handle, and the Cougars got on the board to cut the lead to just three before halftime.

While a 10-7 score at the break might not seem like the end of the world (it wasn’t, as it turned out), the bigger issue was the look of the team. Stanford looked like it was uncomfortable and frustrated, and the homecoming crowd at Martin Stadium felt like it was spurring its Cougars on to a big upset. This was the worst half Stanford has played this year, and possibly the worst first half in the past two years.

But, again, there are two halves in a football game. After the break, Stanford went right back to being its dominant self, looking every bit like a national-title contender in all three phases of the game.

Other notable numbers:

10-for-16, 89, 0, 1: Luck’s first-half stat line says it all in terms of Stanford’s performance: 10-for-16 passing for just 89 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. His first pass was severely underthrown, leading to his third interception of the season and the first that did not come on a tipped ball. Although he completed 10 of his remaining 15 passes, he still appeared out of sync throughout the half, and his low yardage total speaks to his struggles. However, after the break…

13-for-20, 247, 4, 0: Now there’s the Luck we’ve come to know and worship. Completing 65 percent of his passes isn’t necessarily indicative of a great half (he’s completed over 73 percent for the season), but 247 yards and four touchdowns speak for themselves. Luck looked like the best player in the country, throwing darts all over the field. Why was he so successful? Well, he remembered who his best weapons are…

11, 216, 3: Stanford has great players at every position, and the running backs and receivers have performed admirably. But the Cardinal’s biggest advantage over every team on its schedule–and probably over almost any NFL team–is its trio of unguardable tight ends. You may have heard of them.

However, you didn’t hear much about them in the first half. Luck only threw to the tight ends a few times in the first 30 minutes, as the trio combined for just two catches (both by Zach Ertz), 12 yards and no touchdowns. But after the break, Luck went back to his bread and butter. His first three passes of the second half were a 9-yard completion to Coby Fleener, a 62-yard completion to Fleener and a 10-yard touchdown to Levine Toilolo. Another touchdown throw to Toilolo and a fourth-quarter score for Fleener gave Stanford’s tight ends three touchdowns to bring their season tally to 12. In all, nine of Luck’s 13 second-half completions went to tight ends, and the trio combined for 216 yards, more than the entire Washington State team.

10: Wide receiver Griff Whalen–primarily a third-down outlet in the past–was targeted on 10 of Luck’s 36 passes. Whalen broke out with a career-high 92 yards last week against Colorado, and he set another career high with seven catches against Washington State. Whalen has shown the ability to go downfield and make moves in space, as he has assumed the No. 1 receiver role, which was expected to be held by…

81: No. 81, Chris Owusu, was yet again forced to the sideline by a crunching hit. Free safety Casey Locker appeared to target Owusu on a helmet-to-helmet hit, leaving Stanford’s senior flat on his back for several moments. Head coach David Shaw was justifiably livid about the non-call, and he kept Owusu out of the rest of the game because of a possible concussion.

Before the year, it was a widely held opinion that Stanford would need Owusu to be a major factor in the offense to help replace Ryan Whalen and Doug Baldwin. Instead, he’s been inconsistent, having some nice games (14 catches for 182 yards in the first two games) but also disappearing at times (11 catches for 127 yards in four games since) and dropping too many balls, including one into the hands of a Colorado defender last week. Now Owusu is injured once again, and it remains to be seen if he will ever make it back to being the explosive weapon he was in 2009.

188, 7: The Cougars entered the game ranked 13th in the country in both yards and points. Stanford’s first-string defense held Wazzu to just 188 total yards and seven points before the Cougars’ late touchdown drive in garbage time. That’s over 300 yards and 30 points below Washington State’s season average, showing that the Stanford defense didn’t rack up such great stats simply by playing bad teams. Oh yeah, and the six sacks certainly didn’t hurt.

5: Thanks to the combination of Luck, the running game and this stingy defense, Stanford currently ranks fifth in the nation in both scoring offense and scoring defense. And the Cardinal hasn’t done too poorly on special teams either…

96: What’s better than a 38-14 win on the road? How about a 44-14 win on the road? On the final play of the game, true freshman Ty Montgomery spun through a hole and took a kickoff return 96 yards for a touchdown. It was the first big sign of explosiveness from the Stanford return game, and that single return bumped the Cardinal from 85th to ninth in the country in kickoff returns.

Even more important to stat nerds like me is that it kept a stunning streak alive. Stanford came into the game with eight consecutive wins by at least 25 points, dating back to last year. That streak is the longest in conference history, going all the way back to the Pacific Coast Conference almost 100 years ago. The streak looked to be over when Cougar backup quarterback Marshall Lobbestael ran for a touchdown to cut the lead to 24 with just 13 seconds left. But Montgomery had other ideas, and just like that, the streak is up to nine. Of course, the most important streak is even longer…

14: It’s been over a year since Stanford lost a football game, and the 14-game streak is a new school record. Next up to challenge the streak is Washington, a team that lost 41-0 at home the last time it squared off with the Cardinal.

8: In the first BCS standings of the season, Stanford came in at No. 8. Among undefeated teams, only Kansas State and Houston were ranked lower. The Cardinal is fifth in the Harris Poll, seventh in the coaches’ poll and eighth in the computers but could get a boost if it beats the Huskies, who snuck into the BCS standings at No. 25.

 

Jacob is busy worshipping his Andrew Luck shrine and sticking pins in his LaMichael James voodoo doll. Try to get through to him at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Luck even better than stats show https://stanforddaily.com/2011/10/10/jaffe-luck-even-better-than-stats-show/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/10/10/jaffe-luck-even-better-than-stats-show/#respond Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:40:35 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1050564 Another game, another rout for Stanford football. Here’s Stat on the Back’s take on this week’s numbers.

Number of the game: 12

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Another game, another rout for Stanford football. Here’s Stat on the Back’s take on this week’s numbers.

Number of the game: 12

What it means: If you’re going to learn the uniform number of one Stanford athlete, make it Stanford football’s No. 12. A guy you might have heard of named Andrew Luck tends to sport that number, and he tends to do so pretty well. Saturday’s 48-7 win against Colorado was just the latest example of what No. 12 can do.

Why it matters: Stanford played very well as a team on Saturday. The defense was as good as it’s been all year, the running game was strong late and the Cardinal had a big score on special teams early. But this game was all about No. 12. Luck had one of the best games of his exceptional Stanford career. He completed 79 percent of his passes for 370 yards and three touchdowns with just one interception.

However, contrary to most of this column, numbers can’t completely capture how good Luck was. The fact that he gets credit for an interception is a perfect example of how statistics can be misleading. That pass was as perfect as his touchdown throws, but Chris Owusu momentarily forgot how to catch the ball, popping it up in the air directly to Colorado defensive back Terrel Smith. Besides giving Luck an undeserved interception (his second of the year, both on passes off the hands of Owusu), this play also took a completion and yards away from Luck and erased a good scoring opportunity for the Cardinal.

But enough of the bad. There was so much more that went well for Stanford’s all-time winningest quarterback. Yep, the win was Luck’s 25th as a starting quarterback, passing Steve Stenstrom for the most in Stanford history.

If you want a sense of how good Luck was, just take a look at whom he threw the ball to. Once again the tight ends made an impact, as the three future NFL stars were among the top four receivers on the day, totaling eight catches for 156 yards. However, they were only three of the 11 players who caught a pass. Possession receiver Griff Whalen came into the game with 101 receiving yards and no touchdowns on the season, and he promptly caught four balls for 92 yards and his second career touchdown. Fullback Ryan Hewitt had two touchdown catches, more than Owen Marecic had in his entire Stanford career. Little-used Corey Gatewood caught his first pass since 2007. Luck even completed passes to three different running backs.

It wasn’t just about the breadth of Stanford’s weapons. Luck made all the throws: standing in the pocket, on the run, across his body, deep, short, over the middle and to the sidelines. He can really do it all. Oh, and by the way, he called his own plays, bludgeoning an outmatched Colorado defense into submission. The Buffaloes had no answer for him, and I don’t think there is one.

Other notable numbers:

3-for-9, 18: These are the passing numbers for Colorado in the second half. Though Stanford’s pass defense looked vulnerable in the first half, the Cardinal clamped down after the break. Colorado quarterback Tyler Hansen went 13-for-21 for 186 yards and a touchdown in the first half, but he had no answer to the Stanford defense after that. The Buffaloes could only manage 18 passing yards in the second half, and Hansen ended the Cardinal interception drought by lofting a ball directly into the hands of Stanford safety Michael Thomas. That gift helped the Cardinal pitch another second-half shutout.

2.2: Colorado’s poor rushing offense and Stanford’s stout rushing defense converged to perfection as the Buffaloes managed a measly 2.2 yards per carry on their way to just 60 rushing yards. And that’s including a 25-yard scramble by Hansen and several garbage-time runs by backups in the fourth quarter. After a subpar week, the Stanford run defense was back to its old self, moving back up to second in the country.

5, 65: One negative from the game (and there weren’t many in a 41-point win) was penalties. The Cardinal came in among the top third in the country in fewest penalties and penalty yards, but a few silly late hits put Stanford in tough situations. Five penalties for 65 yards were not costly in an easy victory like this, but in a close game they could become the difference.

50,360: For the second consecutive week, the listed attendance was 50,360. In other words, a sellout. Although there were definitely fewer people in the stands for the Colorado game than last week’s against UCLA, the fact that these games are even close to sellouts is a sign of major progress. One of the big knocks on Stanford last year was that even with such a successful team, fan support was shockingly low. Well, it appears fans have finally realized what an exciting and potentially great team Stanford is trotting out on a weekly basis. Student tickets are running out within hours, and you can’t spot too many empty seats (at least until Stanford is up by 41 in the fourth quarter). Oh, and Tiger Woods and John Elway stopped by as well. With the best games of the year (Oregon, Cal and Notre Dame) still upcoming, the best could be yet to come from the Stanford faithful.

13: Stanford has extended its win streak to 13 games, the longest active streak in the country. It also ties the school record, set from 1939-41.

With all these wins, many people are starting to think about national title chances. However, this year features a large number of teams with chances to go undefeated. LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma and Wisconsin are all ranked above Stanford in both major polls, and their strengths of schedule figure to be better than the Cardinal’s as well. So is Stanford sure to be left out of the national title race?

Consider this: after seven weeks, there are currently 13 undefeated teams in college football, and all are ranked in the top 25. Last year, after seven weeks there were 13 undefeated teams in college football, and all were ranked in the top 25. By the end of the year, the title game of Auburn vs. Oregon was obvious, and TCU was the only other unbeaten team.

Needless to say, there’s a lot of college football left to be played.

Jacob Jaffe is seething that he wasn’t invited to stand on the sideline with Elway and Woods. Cheer him up at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Luck and Fleener lead #1s https://stanforddaily.com/2011/10/03/jaffe-luck-and-fleener-lead-1s/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/10/03/jaffe-luck-and-fleener-lead-1s/#respond Mon, 03 Oct 2011 08:40:26 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1050337 In this week's Stat on the Back, I'll take a look at Stanford's 45-19 win over UCLA.

Number of the game: 1

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In this week’s Stat on the Back, I’ll take a look at Stanford’s 45-19 win over UCLA.

Number of the game: 1

What it means: It may be the loneliest number, but Stanford’s players didn’t seem to need anything more to make Catch of the Year 1A and Catch of the Year 1B.

How important was the number one? Consider this: on the first drive of the first quarter, the Stanford defense stopped UCLA on the one-yard line. Then, on Stanford’s first drive, the Cardinal used a one-handed catch by the No. 1 player in the country (and future No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft), Andrew Luck, and a one-handed catch by Coby Fleener (who is No. 1 in the nation in touchdowns by a tight end) to get the first points of the game.

Why it matters: Stanford was going to beat UCLA on Saturday, even if the Cardinal came out flat from its bye week. More importantly, though, Stanford needed some signature plays to get the fans in the game early and to bolster the team’s confidence.

It’s hard to do much better on those fronts than a goal-line stand on the first series of the game followed immediately by the aforementioned grabs by Luck and Fleener. The defense looked more pumped up than it had all year when it stuffed the Bruins four times from inside the five-yard line, and the crowd was louder than it had been all year when the referees overturned the call of incomplete on Luck’s catch.

And while no one on the team or coaching staff will admit to caring about it, Luck’s catch definitely helps his Heisman campaign. Don’t be surprised if you keep seeing his catch throughout the season, just like Cam Newton’s run through the LSU defense last year and Desmond Howard’s punt return and pose in 1991. Last year, it was all about Luck’s hits on Sean Cattouse and Shareece Wright. This year, it could be all about his one-handed catch.

Other notable numbers:

200: For the third straight week, Stanford broke the 200-yard mark both through the air and on the ground, led by efficient games from Luck (23-for-27 passing) and Stepfan Taylor (17 carries for 112 yards and two touchdowns). Of the 24 completions, 10 different players caught a pass. Head coach David Shaw preaches balance at least as much as Jim Harbaugh did, and he won’t be satisfied with a one-dimensional team, no matter how strong that dimension is. How’s Stanford doing balance-wise? The Cardinal ranks 31st in the nation in rushing and 32nd in passing. That’s a balanced offense. Stanford ranks seventh in scoring offense and sixth in scoring defense. That’s a balanced team.

141: Stanford allowed 141 rushing yards to UCLA. In the first three games of the season combined, the Cardinal gave up only 108 rushing yards. Was the run defense that bad? No. Was the run defense really that good for the first three weeks? No. Stanford held UCLA well below its season average on the ground, but there were still several gaping holes for Johnathan Franklin right up the middle. Most likely, Stanford won’t routinely give up over 140 rushing yards per game, but it also won’t hold many teams below 40. Most teams in the Pac-12 rely more heavily on the passing game, so the running numbers will probably end up halfway between these two numbers.

3: A big reason why Stanford had less success stopping the run was its inability to tackle Bruin rushers behind the line. The Cardinal had only three tackles for loss on Saturday after leading the nation with 31 in its first three games. Yet again, the UCLA offensive line was better than the other lines Stanford has faced, so it’s not surprising the numbers went down.

Still, every team in the country averages more than three tackles for loss, so the lack of big-play defense is somewhat worrisome. The defense is one of just three teams without an interception this year, so the big plays have to come from tackles behind the line. With the loss of Shayne Skov, Stanford will be without its best big-play defender for the rest of the year. The rest of the team needs to pick up the slack.

8: What makes three tackles for a loss not seem so bad? When your offense has allowed only eight tackles for a loss all season. The offensive line has shown some holes at times, but when you have the fewest negative plays of any team in the country, your line must be doing something right.

22: Stanford has gotten to the red zone 22 times this season. Every one of those times, the Cardinal has come away with points. That’s the best of any team in the country. When you don’t turn it over (one turnover all season, best in the country) and your kicker doesn’t miss (Jordan Williamson is 7-for-7), you become almost impossible to stop.

12: The winning streak continues.

 

Jacob Jaffe lives in a single, so he knows the true meaning of “one is the loneliest number.” Give him some love at jwjaffe@stanford.edu or publicly ask him out on Twitter @Jacob_Jaffe.

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Jaffe: Balance key to Stanford’s championship aspirations https://stanforddaily.com/2011/09/26/jaffe-balance-key-to-stanfords-championship-aspirations/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/09/26/jaffe-balance-key-to-stanfords-championship-aspirations/#respond Mon, 26 Sep 2011 08:45:22 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1050089 Stanford football had a bye this week, so "Stat on the Back" is going to take a look at the season so far.

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Stanford football had a bye this week, so “Stat on the Back” is going to take a look at the season so far.

Number of the season-to-date: 27

What it means: Stanford has allowed 27 points this season. No, not 27 points per game–27 total. That is the fewest points allowed by any team in the nation. Because the Cardinal has played only three games while most other teams have played four, Stanford is tied for fourth in scoring defense at nine points per game. But there isn’t a team in the country that would quibble with holding opponents to single digits on average.

Why it matters: Every team wants to have a good defense, and every team wants to stop its opponents from scoring. Duh. But on a team with a quarterback like Andrew Luck and weapons all over the place on offense, having a solid defense almost feels like icing on the cake.

For Stanford to achieve its goals this year (Pac-12 and national titles), though, the Cardinal cannot just be one-dimensional. The difference between the 2009 and 2010 seasons was the improvement of Stanford’s defense, and the Cardinal cannot hope to contend for any sort of title without a stingy defense.

Of course, it’s too early to know how good the defense really is, and obviously losing Shayne Skov for the year will hurt the team. But it is worth noting that Stanford’s three opponents thus far (San Jose State, Duke and Arizona) have all tallied season lows in points and yards against the Stanford defense. If this is a sign of things to come, it will make the offense’s job a lot easier, particularly in upcoming meetings with USC, Oregon and Notre Dame.

Other notable numbers:

9: Speaking of that offense, Stanford is ninth in the country in scoring. That makes the Cardinal one of only two teams, along with Wisconsin, to rank in the top 10 in scoring offense and scoring defense. An interesting note: the team that scores more points than its opponent has won every game this season. So this bodes well for Stanford.

28: With that great offense, you’d probably expect Luck to be the main reason for the Cardinal’s success. But even with the best player in the nation taking every meaningful offensive snap, Stanford is only 28th in the country in passing offense. Among the “better” passing teams: Troy, Middle Tennessee State, Bowling Green and Duke. Yep, Duke.

What’s wrong with the passing game? Apart from a couple rare miscues from Luck, nothing. Stanford isn’t trying to be among the country’s leaders in passing. Head coach David Shaw wants to see balance, and it’s tough to be much more balanced than Stanford has been. The Cardinal has run the ball 109 times, passed 92 times and gotten at least 140 rushing yards and 230 passing yards in every game. That’s tough to stop.

0: As stated before, Stanford’s defense has played well. But through three games, the Cardinal has come up with exactly zero interceptions. That’s right, Luck has thrown more picks than Stanford’s opponents. Only five other teams have yet to pick off an opponent: Akron, Kansas, Oregon State, Rice and Utah State. Combined record of those five against FBS teams: 2-10.

There are two ways to look at this. On the one hand, the defense has been unable to come up with a turnover in the secondary despite playing two of its weakest opponents, and eventually this lack of big-play ability will come back to haunt the Cardinal against better teams. On the other hand, Stanford has been able to play dominant defense without needing a game-changing interception to stop teams, so eventually the bounces will go the Cardinal’s way.

In general, interceptions are not really Stanford’s game. The team relies more on its pass rush and forcing opponents to throw underneath to avoid big plays. Still, the 2010 Stanford defense picked off 18 passes, which was tied for 19th in the country and second in the conference. At some point this year, the Cardinal will likely need a momentum changer, and it will be interesting to see if someone will step up and get it.

1: There are 22 undefeated teams remaining, but only one in the Pac-12. Yep, we’re still in September, but Stanford is the only Pac-12 team that has not lost. At first glance, this might look promising for Stanford’s future, but keep in mind that most of these losses have come in nonconference games. These losses hurt Stanford’s strength of schedule, which wasn’t necessarily high anyway. Stanford’s future is in its own hands, but you just never know when a situation like 2004, when Auburn went undefeated but was left out of the BCS National Championship Game, will make strength of schedule a big deal.

24: You probably know by now that Stanford has won 11 straight games. But the Cardinal hasn’t just won; it has dominated. In eight of the past nine games, Stanford has won by at least 24 points. In all eight of those blowout wins, Stanford beat the Vegas spread.

This streak could continue for the next several weeks, as three of the Cardinal’s next four opponents (UCLA, Colorado and Washington State) were picked to be the three worst teams in the conference in the preseason media poll. The fourth, Washington, lost 41-0 to Stanford at home last year.

In other words, don’t be surprised if a month from today, Stanford’s closest game is still the 37-10 win over Arizona.

 

Always the pessimist, Jacob Jaffe won’t be surprised if a week from today no one has emailed him about his observations. Surprise him at jwjaffe “at” stanford.edu.

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