Surprising Cardinal host unbeaten Bruins
The worst loss in college football history, as some have called it. An embarrassing event, the head coach said.
Fair enough. But for those who claimed Stanford’s September loss to UC Davis would mean the end of the Cardinal’s season, well, hang on for a minute or two.
Stanford, a national laughingstock following that loss, now boasts a three-game winning streak, all in Pac-10 games. Just three schools in the conference have longer win streaks right now, and they also happen to be the lone three teams ahead of Stanford in the standings.
“We got embarrassed and the bottom is a good thing to push off of,” head coach Walt Harris said of the Davis debacle. “What’s changed is our practice attitude and our practice competition.”
Every week since the stunning loss, Harris has fielded multiple questions on the game, even as his team started to rack up wins against conference opponents. The turnaround started with the Cardinal’s 24-21 win at Washington State. Stanford followed that up with wins at Arizona and against Arizona State, and at 4-2 a bowl game is a possibility, though it might be difficult with UCLA, USC, Oregon State, California and Notre Dame still left.
The Cardinal must win at least two of those games to become bowl eligible.
Even some of Stanford’s opponents are shocked by the surge.
“I am a little bit (surprised) but I think that’s a credit to their coaching staff and their players,” said Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, who opened the Pac-10 season with a win at Stanford and is the last coach to beat Harris this season. “Stanford didn’t seem at that time to be a team that would win those games.”
Clemens done, Dixon in
Bellotti has a headache of his own this week as star quarterback Kellen Clemens is done for the year after breaking an ankle in Saturday’s win against Arizona.
Clemens had surgery Monday and Bellotti and several players paid their senior leader a visit.
“He had so many guys in the hospital (Monday) night they had to tell them not to come any more,” Bellotti said.
“He will continue to be a part of our program. As soon as he gets back on the sidelines he’ll help coach our young quarterbacks and help our team. The difficult part is you learn the harsh realities of football. An injury can take away your ability to play.”
Clemens’ injury thrusts true sophomore Dennis Dixon into the spotlight. Dixon has played in a number of Oregon games this season as a backup and has performed admirably. But Bellotti acknowledged that Dixon will have a steeper learning curve now as the starter.
“We expect him to step right in,” Bellotti said. “He brings an electricity to the atmosphere because he can take the ball and do a lot of things with it.”
Dixon will have two weeks to prepare as the 7-1 Ducks have a bye this week. His backup will be Brady Leaf, younger brother of former WSU quarterback Ryan, and Bellotti said Leaf will probably see some playing time as well.
Notes
Arizona State coach Dirk Koetter spoke of some significant changes on his team after slipping to 3-4 with a loss to Stanford. Quarterback Sam Keller struggled with a hand injury, but Koetter expects him to start this week. … Cal coach Jeff Tedford called WSU’s offensive line the best he’s seen so far in 2005. … Arizona punter Danny Baugher, statistically the Pac-10’s best this season, went down with a season-ending knee injury Saturday. Head coach Mike Stoops said he’ll be replaced by kicker Nick Folk.