The Cardinal offense flexed its muscles first with McCaffrey’s scoring reception, then on a more traditional drive of eight plays and 74 yards, culminating in Hogan’s perfectly sold option-keeper score of eight yards.
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The Hawkeyes went on to post a season for the ages, going 12-0 before losing in the Big Ten title game. And he did it for a Stanford team that played one of the toughest schedules in the country while playing only FBS opponents.
Stanford had Christian McCaffrey and Iowa didn’t.
In Kevin Hogan’s final game as quarterback, the No. 6 Stanford Cardinal (12-2) were dominant in their 45-16 Rose Bowl victory over the No. 5 Iowa Hawkeyes (12-2) on Friday evening.
McCaffrey was sublime in his Rose Bowl debut, breaking the all-purpose yards record set by Wisconsin’s Jared Abbrederis in 2012.
Heisman Trophy victor Derrick Henry with Alabama Head Football Coach Nick Saban when Henry was presented the Heisman Trophy.
Just minutes into the second quarter, McCaffrey ran back a punt 63 yards for a touchdown, making him just the third player in college football history to score via pass, rush, reception, kick return and punt return in the same season.
“We had a lot of mistakes and that’s something you can’t have against a great team like Stanford”, Canzeri said. “The stats and numbers speak for it”.
Stanford led 35-0 at halftime and 38-3 after three quarters against a team that had lost only one game and had a highly ranked run defense.
Iowa’s offense went three and out on three of their first four drives of the game; the lone drive that didn’t end with a punt in that sequence ended with a pick-six on a horribly thrown pass on third down. He also became the first player ever to rack up more than 100 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving in a Rose Bowl – and he even became the single-season rushing leader in Stanford history with 2,109 yards on the ground. It’s getting weird in the #RoseBowl now on ESPN! Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard threw for 65 yards, 10 less than Hogan threw on the game’s first play.
“That more of a question for someone else”, Shaw said.
“We felt like we didn’t do our best that year”, Hogan said at Tuesday’s media day event. “Then we look at it again and say, ‘Gosh, that could be really good'”. The defense and special teams will take a battering for this game, which is completely understandable – you could make a Godfather-length supercut of all the missed tackles and bad angles Iowa defenders took in this game. Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott put on an absolute clinic against the Irish, rushing for 149 yards and four touchdowns on 27 carries. The Stanford defense recorded 7 sacks and stopped the potent Hawkeyes running attack to just 48 yards.
“It feels awesome, ” he said. Stanford was just a better football team than Iowa on New Year’s Day; sometimes, it’s that simple.
“It’s unexpected”, said Tanner Allen who watched the game from the moment it started. When his coach nudged him, he responded, “It feels great to be Rose Bowl champs”.
And maybe a little bit of laziness and ignorance on the part of the voters, a sufficient amount of whom never bothered to educate themselves about the kid everybody on the West Coast was raving about.
I will stand behind Christian McCaffrey being the best player in the nation and he deserved the Heisman Trophy.
Meeks should know as he’s tried to follow the lead of the team’s Heisman hopeful but on the defensive side of the ball. “He’s leading by example and showing guys how to work and push themselves because that’s what great players do”.
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Stanford began its dominance on the first play from scrimmage.
