While Stanford appears to have fallen short of the playoff, Saturday’s win guarantees Stanford a trip to the Los Angeles area for next month’s Rose Bowl Game. That was pretty cool.
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But as the players and coaches celebrated on the Levi’s Stadium field, the door slammed shut: Clemson outlasted North Carolina in the final game of the day to seemingly seal the semifinal pairings.
Who do you think will win this game, HollywoodLifers?
While Hogan needs to be good, the real star of the team is Christian McCaffrey who has shot into Heisman contention.
McCaffrey ended the game with 461 all-purpose yards.
“We have to limit the explosive plays”, Shaw said. The game that will haunt Stanford is the November 14 home loss to Oregon. On the next play, Hogan rumbled in from the 7-yard line for a touchdown that put Stanford back on top, 20-16. Now that’s a high-powered offense.
This is quite a comment on the state of USC football that going 5-3 earns you the head-coaching position.
Therefore, my suggestion for USC is to play exactly like Stanford. Down by 5-points with everything on the line for both teams. USC linebacker Su’a Cravens said.
USC was on an emotional high in the days leading to the game, but was plagued by another slow start. He had over 100 receiving yards and over 100 return yards. “I didn’t know until five minutes before I walked up here”.
Stanford Cardinal scored 36.9 points compared to allowed 23.2 points with point differential of 13.7. USC is making its first appearance in the game. Kevin Hogan has a chance to go out in a big way as he needs a great game to increase Stanford’s chances. Our guys kept fighting the whole game.
Scott said despite complaints from Pac-12 coaches and fans about playing too many night games, there has been only an 8 percent increase from the previous TV deal. They’ve met 93 times, with USC winning 60, Stanford 30 and three times a tie at the end. This game is much closer than I expected per those numbers. That certainly favors Stanford.
With that in mind, I’m going to go with Stanford. McCaffrey had 120 kickoff return yards as well as a big punt return while the Cardinal also blocked an extra point that later forced USC into a failed two-point conversion. USC might have stumbled onto its next outstanding coach in Helton, who rejuvenated this particular team and reestablished the identity of this entire program.
The Trojans have a cool hand at the controls with fifth-year senior QB Cody Kessler, and two big play threats with WR Juju Schuster-Smith and CB-KR Adoree Jackson.
Late in the third quarter, with the Cardinal nursing a 20-16 lead, Martinez barreled past a running back trying to block and nailed Kessler.
Ryan Kelapire: This is a tough game to predict, to be honest. Shaw called these squads the only true power teams in the conference and the battle in the trenches will go a long way toward determining the victor. With 6:35 left in the fourth Hogan found a wide open McCaffrey for a 28-yard touchdown.
But nothing – circumstances or otherwise – has been normal about this USC season.
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The only thing McCaffrey couldn’t pull off was an upset in one of the other conference championship games that could have sent the Cardinal to the playoff. Last week against Notre Dame, he broke Reggie Bush’s record of 2890 all-purpose yards during his 2005 Heisman campaign.
