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Tangible Evidence of a Job Well Done

Here's a peek into the Stanford locker room following Saturday's Big Game win. Enjoy.

 

Stanford 21, California 3

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

In a season marked by questions, inconsistency, and trepidation, the Cardinal discovered on Saturday afternoon in Berkeley that they still own the Golden Bears. This year's win should come as no surprise. Even considering a 7-1 advantage for Cal from 2002 to '09, Stanford has still thoroughly dominated this series over the past 52 years. Starting with a 20-7 win in 1962, Stanford holds a 32-19-1 record in Big Games over those five decades and change, and nothing we saw on Saturday indicated that any of that might change in the near or distant future.

Blogging With the Enemy: California Golden Bears

A year ago the Pac-12 Network seemed like a dream come true. Conference comissioner Larry Scott promised that every Pac-12 football and basketball game would be broadcast nationwide, and he delivered a contract that would funnel a quarter billion dollars to the conference's member schools each year.

The reality has been different. The Pac12-DirecTV impasse means that hundreds of thousands of Stanford fans -- myself included -- don't get to watch every game, and Big Game has inexplicably been moved to the middle of October. It is what it is.

This edition of Big Game probably comes at the perfect time for the Cardinal. After the disappointment of the Robbery at South Bend, there would normally be worries about an emotional hangover, so it's fortunate that the team has had the Axe to think about all week as they prepared to travel across the Bay to play the Cal Bears.

The Bears have had an up and down season, losing their season opener in disappointing fashion to Nevada, narrowly missing a huge road upset at Ohio State, and then crushing UCLA at home more recently. Cal hasn't beaten Stanford since 2009, when this year's seniors were freshmen, so I'm guessing they'll be even more motivated than usual to beat the Cardinal and reclaim the Axe.

To learn some more about the Bears, how their season has gone, and what they anticipate for the future, I contacted the good folks over at California Golden Blogs, and three of their experts were happy to answer a few questions. (You can click here to check out my responses to their questions. For even more, you can also check out Pacific Takes, where I helped out with a midseason look at the Cardinal.) Enjoy...

The Greatest Big Game Ever

The greatest Big Game? It was the 1990 edition, and it isn't even close. I was in the stands that evening (I wrote about my experience on this site two years ago), but today I won't let my words get in the way. Just watch. A quick note: YouTube is being a bit glitchy, so it's forcing the video to start half way through. Just pull the slider back and you'll get the full eleven minutes. It'll be worth your time, I promise. And watch closely. Careful observers will spot a redshirting freshman named Shaw on the sidelines, as well as the future mayor of Newark, Cory Booker. Enjoy.

Is Big Game Still a Big Game?

Oregon head coach Chip Kelly has created a national power in Eugene, and he's done it unconventionally. One of his more controversial characteristics is his refusal to acknowledge that the Civil War battle with Oregon State is anything more than just another game on the schedule. Kelly is fond of saying that Oregon has twelve rivalry games every year, and that each one carries equal weight. It's hard to argue with his results.

Considering Stanford's current run of success, which stretches back three seasons before this one and includes 35 wins, two BCS bowl games, three Heisman Trophy finalists, and 39 straight weeks in the AP top 25 (only Alabama, Boise State, LSU, Oklahoma, Oregon, and South Carolina can make that same claim), should David Shaw and the Cardinal adopt that same attitude? Instead of focusing on Cal, might it make more sense to take the schedule one game at a time and count the trophies, Axes and otherwise, in January? After all, it could be argued that the two biggest games on the Stanford schedule during this stretch have always been USC and Oregon. These Cardinal teams have been measured by their successes and failures against those two schools, not against Cal. So is Big Game still really a big game?

Stanford 31, California 28

It's hard to know where to start with this game. Big Game is usually either exhilarating, nerve-wracking, or depressing, but somehow Saturday's version seemed to have equal parts of each. Going into the game there was talk that the Cardinal might have trouble staying focused after losing the biggest game in program history a week before, but surely having the Cal Bears on the opposite sideline and the Axe marching around the stadium would keep them in the moment.

The Best Big Game Ever

It's hard for me to believe that this game took place more than twenty years ago, but the 1990 Big Game simply has to be the best in the history of the rivalry. (Last year I wrote about my experience at that game; take a read if you have the time.) If you were to ask a Cal grad, of course, you'd get a different -- and obvious -- answer, but that's part of what made this game so great. The Travesty of 1982 had only happened eight years earlier and was still a tangible part of Big Game's recent history. With that defeat as subtext, the improbable victory in the 1990 game was even sweeter.

The good folks at Stanford Football have just released a video recap of the 1990 game, and it's a must-watch. Enjoy.

The Axe

With the rise of Stanford Football on the field over the past two seasons, there has also come a rise in support and promotion from the athletic department, which has been nice. One of the coolest examples of this has been the stream of videos they've released, and I've featured a few of them here on this site. With Big Game only hours away, this clip about the Axe seems appropriate. Enjoy.

Blogging With the Enemy: California Golden Bears

 

There was a time not too long ago when the only the game that really mattered on the Stanford schedule was this one, the Big Game matchup with the California Golden Bears. Mainly this was because Stanford teams weren't good enough to have any higher aspirations. The best fans could hope for was a win over Cal and a year with the Axe. 

Things have changed. If a program is to have national expectations, every game must matter. Oregon coach Chip Kelly talks about this constantly as he downplays his school's rivalry with Oregon State and claims that they have eleven rivals every year with each game holding equal importance.

I'm not ready to go that far. Rivalry games like this are one of the things that make college football so much more compelling for me than the NFL ever could be. I'll always be more interested in this game than a Saturday spent watching Arizona State, for example. Saturday's game is obviously important for Stanford's BCS hopes, just as it was last year, but I'll never forget how good it felt to watch the Axe being returned in the closing seconds of last year's win.

So as we get ready to play this game, I thought it might help to take the temperature of the Cal Bears and their fans. I think it's safe to say that, in general, Stanford fans' dislike for Cal cannot begin to compare with the sheer hatred Cal fans harbor in their hearts for all things Cardinal, but the two gentlemen from California Golden Blogs (atomsareenough and TwistNHook) were more than civil as we talked about this. (When you're done reading their side of the interview here, please check out the answers that Scott Allen of Rule of Tree and I gave them over on their site. And if you've got the time, you can help Scott and me figure out some mysterious aliases like they have.) Anyway, read on...

Big Game Euphoria

[Photo Credits: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images & Marcio José Sanchez/AP Photo]