Versatile QB Edwards makes the difference for revived Stanford

PULLMAN – Three weeks ago, there was no Division I-A program lower than Stanford.

A loss at home to Division I-AA UC Davis will do that, but to be fair, the Cardinal were missing quarterback Trent Edwards.

Go ahead and ask Washington State how much Edwards means to Stanford.

The senior shredded the Cougars, completing 19 of 28 passes (68 percent) for 257 yards and three touchdowns while leading the Cardinal in rushing with 92 yards on 12 attempts in Stanford’s 24-21 win.

“Trent Edwards is a pretty good football player,” WSU head coach Bill Doba said. “We knew it going in. He threw the ball well, scrambled well, ran the quarterback draw on us. We had a guy assigned to him and he still made us miss.”

Against UC Davis, Edwards threw four passes before leaving with a injured throwing hand, then came back in Stanford’s Pac-10 opener, throwing two interceptions and being sacked four times by the Ducks in a 44-20 home loss.

Saturday afternoon, it was evident from the start that Edwards felt good against the Cougars.

He completed nine of his first 10 passes, including a 17-yard touchdown pass to Mark Bradford on a corner route.

Edwards threw two other touchdowns, one to Justin McCullum and another to Bradford, and just missed a fourth touchdown pass early in the third quarter when Bradford beat Cougars corner Alex Teems on a post corner but lost an easy touchdown pass in the sun. After that, Stanford settled for a field goal, which Michael Sgroi missed from 38 yards out.

Then there was Edwards’ rushing, which really killed Washington State.

“The game plan was a little different,” Edwards said. “They played a little more Cover 2 Man and Cover 0 Bracket where the middle was open, so they told me if your first receiver wasn’t open, take off and run.”

It wasn’t only scrambling, as with a three-point lead and the ball with just over two minutes remaining the Cardinal faced a third-and-8 at their own 22.

On a designated quarterback draw, Edwards picked up 17 yards for a first down, denying the Cougars possession and valuable field position.

“We’ve had it in our package, we just haven’t had a chance to get to it because we’ve been putting out fires in other areas,” Stanford head coach Walt Harris said. “Those were very well blocked by our offensive line and our backs, and Trent did a good job.”

“(Edwards) can take a lot of hits,” WSU defensive tackle Aaron Johnson said. “We expected him (to run), but I don’t think we expected him to run this much.”

He had to compete with junior T.C. Ostrander for the starting job after making nine starts for the Cardinal last year, during which he was average, completing 54.6 percent of his passes for nine touchdowns while throwing 11 picks.

Harris named Edwards the starter Aug. 28, and Ostrander played himself out of any quarterback controversy with a dreadful performance in relief of Edwards against UC Davis.

It’s the second straight season Edwards led the Cardinal to a win in Martin Stadium, but in last year’s 23-17 win he wasn’t as sharp, completing 15 of 31 passes for 202 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

He also hopes Stanford doesn’t follow this win like they did last year’s win in Pullman.

“It’s huge, but I sat here last year in this exact same place after our fourth win of the year against Washington State,” Edwards said. “Then we didn’t win the rest of the season on. So it’s a relief, it’s great to get a win, but there’s a lot of season left.”