“Very proud of our kids and the season that they’ve had”, said Trojans head coach Clay Helton.
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The Pac-12, meanwhile, is the only Power 5 conference that plays nine conference games and stages a title game.
His school-record 461 all-purpose yards enabled him to break Barry Sanders’ single-season record for all-purpose yards and carried the Cardinal to a 41-22 victory over No. 20 USC in the Pac-12 championship game at Levi’s Stadium.
“I mean what doesn’t he do is what you could ask me”, OLB Su’a Cravens said about McCaffrey. He touched the ball 44 times last night, and the Cardinal move him all around the field.
SANTA CLARA Give USC’s defensive players a chance to elect the Heisman trophy victor and they’ll produce a landslide. Still, he’ll get invited to NY and deserves the award.
He also threw one of Stanford’s two passing touchdowns of the night, which was his second of the season. By the end of the quarter Stanford was fourth and short going for it, getting the first down with less than a minute left.
Oh, and then there was McCaffrey, who rushed for 208 yards, caught four passes for 105 yards, had 151 yards in punt/kick returns and threw an 11-yard touchdown pass. Other than that, he did not do much. McCaffrey had a great season. Peter Gustin sacked Hogan giving the Trojans back the ball. Kessler led a 15-play drive in the closing minutes of the half to lead to a 40-yard field goal by Alex Wood that cut Stanford’s lead to 13-3.
“It’s a huge honor, it really is”, McCaffrey said of breaking Sanders’ record. “To be honest, I’m excited about playing in the Rose Bowl”.
While the committee claims to take strength of schedule into strong consideration, there’s no evidence that it has penalized teams for their scheduling practices in its two years of existence. Jones had a big 27-yard touchdown run that gave the Trojans the lead momentarily. And his 67-yard reception in the third quarter was the pivotal play of the game.
Cal reached its first postseason game since 2011, drawing Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl on December 29 in Fort Worth, Texas. His defense has been roundly criticized by USC’s demanding fans this season when it struggled against prolific offenses despite its wealth of five-star talent. Quarterback Kevin Hogan went 9-for-12 for 144 yards and a touchdown, and running back Remound Wright added 24 more rush yards on 8 carries. Not that even in September, there’s nothing riding on any given play in any given college football game. Our guys kept fighting the whole game. “We have a lot of young guys”.
The Cardinal are 11-2 after winning the Pac-12 Championship. LeMichael James previously held he record with 288 yards. The Sugar Bowl’s desire to match the SEC with the Big XII, similar to the Rose Bowl’s tie in where they match up the Pac-12 and B1G Ten when possible, drove this decision.
“To David’s point, if this is the consolation prize, what a deal it is for both of us”.
Said USC wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster: “The dude did his thing”. He put the football in good spots and found Christian McCaffrey when he was open. “I look forward to having a tremendous bowl game with a bunch of unbelievable seniors”. McCaffrey ran for 93 yards in the first period.
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As if that wasn’t enough, the Trojans also came into Saturday’s title game with a trip to the Rose Bowl on the line.
