But as close as Stanford has come to earning a playoff bid or a BCS title slot, Shaw’s team always sat at the doorstep.
Advertisement
The Cardinal defeated the USC Trojans, 41-22. “If not, we’ll go to Pasadena and have a great time”.
The Trojans have gallantly excavated their season and won the full-time coaching job for Clay Helton. They rebounded from a tumultuous situation with Steve Sarkisian and fought their way back into the PAC-12 title game when nobody gave them a chance. USC finished with 453 all-purpose yards as a team in the game.
Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan also was quietly effective, passing for a touchdown, running for another and catching a touchdown pass from McCaffrey, who ran for 155 yards in the first half as the Cardinal held the ball for more than 21 minutes. In his first two games McCaffrey only had 124 yards on the ground.
“I will take my time and due diligence to get the best coaches in to reach our goal of winning a national championship”, Helton said. “He’s just a special guy”. “I pray he wins the Heisman”.
After the confetti is swept up and College Football Playoffs are decided, the big question will still remain – should Christian McCaffrey be your 2015 Heisman Trophy victor?
When Stanford linebacker Blake Martinez knocked the ball out of the hand of USC quarterback Cody Kessler while getting a sack, Cardinal defensive end Solomon Thomas picked up the fumble and ran 42 yards for a touchdown that increased Stanford’s lead to 27-16.
The MVP of the night, continued to amaze the fans with his performance today. The USC Trojans fell to Christian McCaffrey and the Cardinal 41-22 in Levi Stadium to take the Pac-12 championship and advance to the Rose Bowl.
As it stands, the new record for the most all-purpose yards in a single season is now 3,496. He’d accumulated 922 yards on kick returns, and 38 yards on punt returns. “To be honest, I’m excited about playing in the Rose Bowl”. He will still have one more game to add to his total. McCaffrey then threw to a wide-open Hogan for his second TD pass of the season. Wood missed the extra point.
Trojans running back Justin Davis, who rushed for 99 yards, said the Trojans might have been too keyed up. This is the first the Trojans have led all game.
Houston (12-1) jumped to a 17-0 lead with the help of two turnovers by Temple, with one capped by a 47-yard touchdown run by Ward. That setup a 7-yard touchdown by Hogan giving the Cardinals back the lead 20-16.
“We have nothing to prove to anybody”, coach David Shaw told reporters. “You know JuJu, we know he’s not one hundred percent”. Not that even in September, there’s nothing riding on any given play in any given college football game.
“I hate to say it, but us being a second-half team is our weakness”, he said. Our guys kept fighting the whole game. “But our defense bailed us out”.
The Trojans were only 4-11 (36%) on third down and it came mainly from the first half.
Hogan was 3-for-6 for 11 yards. Until USC can catch up to OR or Stanford, a ton of work remains.
But, he said, “I would love to go”.
Helton said he didn’t wait until after the bowl game to begin reshaping Sarkisian’s former staff because “I wanted to give them the best opportunity to move forward with their career”.
Advertisement
“The stats alone for McCaffrey is enough to increase his votes for the Heisman”.
