For at least the past three or four games I've found myself watching the game within the game. No matter the score, I pay careful attention to the offense, and each time they cross midfield there's a small part of me that's disappointed. Any touchdown from Bryce Love will be less than fifty yards. I'm spoiled.
Against UCLA I had to wait long after the game was decided, but not on Saturday against Arizona State. On 1st and 10 from the Stanford 39, K.J. Costello handed the ball to Love who waited a split second in the backfield to allow guard Nick Wilson to pull around from the right side, then broke into the massive hole on the left side of the line and sprinted toward the sideline. Sun Devil defensive back Chad Adams appeared to have an angle that would at least allow him to push Love out of bounds, but Love put on the afterburners and all Adams was able to do was get a hand on Love's shoulder, briefly pushing him off balance. It looked for a moment like that might be enough, that Love might lose his balance and fall out of bounds, but it only took a couple strides for our future Heisman Runner-Up to get back on the beam and sprint the remaining ten yards into the end zone for the 59-yard touchdown and an unimaginable SEVENTH-straight game with a run of fifty yards or more.
What we're seeing with Bryce Love makes absolutely no sense, and there would be more craziness later on, but the other story in this game was sophomore quarterback K.J. Costello. With Keller Chryst on the sideline in street clothes after what's been widely assumed to be a concussion suffered against UCLA the previous week, Costello drew the starting assignment and immediately showed he was deserving. On Stanford's second possession of the game, Costello completed five passes in a row to four different receivers, the last being a 31-yard pass over the middle to tight end Dalton Schultz. (If there's one thing I'd like to see more of in the Stanford offense, it's an increased use of the tight ends. Kaden Smith, Scooter Harrington, Colby Parkinson, and Schultz combined for 10 catches for 142 yards and three touchdowns in the opener against Rice, but in the next three games combined they totaled just 11 receptions for 87 yards and two scores. Against Arizona State only Schultz and Smith were involved, but they had four catches for 68 yards, a step in the right direction.) Schultz fumbled at the ASU 7 yard line while trying to extend the play, but as good as the offense looked on that possession, it was hard to be upset about that.
The Arizona State offense found a bit of rhythm on their second possession, helped out by a 49-yard run from Kyle Williams to get into Stanford territory for the first time at the 46. From there it was a combination of short passes from quarterback Manny Wilkins and hard running from tailbacks Demario Richard and Kalen Ballage that allowed the Devils to earn a 1st and goal at the 10. But two negative plays -- a four-yard loss on a running play and an eight-yard sack split between Eric Cotton and Harrison Phillips -- forced ASU to settle for a 32-yard field goal from Brandon Ruíz, and the score was 7-3 Stanford.
After a couple three-and-outs from both sides, the Arizona State offense took over at their own 16 just seventeen seconds into the second quarter. On 2nd and 3 Wilkins felt a heavy rush from the Stanford defensive front, and linebacker Bobby Okereke, who was playing one of the finest games of his Stanford career, was able to get a hand on Wilkins's pass, deflecting it into the waiting arms of safety Justin Reid at the ASU 39.
The Cardinal wasted little time in converting this gift into points. After a four-yard loss on screen to Connor Wedington, Costello went back to Love. Setting up in the shotgun, Costello handed the ball to Love, who jumped out quickly towards the left side of the line. Schultz had already cleaned one defender out of the play, and now left tackle Walker Little (who will be doing a lot of this over the next three seasons) cleared the way by erasing another defensive lineman, paving the way for Love to get outside. He wasn't touched until he got to the 25, but he shook out of that tackle attempt easily before coasting into the end zone with a 43-yard touchdown.
Yes, it's getting ridiculous, but it would get more ridiculouser soon enough.
That 14-3 lead combined with Love's dominant performance might have made it look like the Cardinal was about to run and hide, but the Sun Devils had found something that would work against the Stanford defense, and they began to exploit it on the ensuing drive. Instead of his usual heavy helping of wide receiver screens, Wilkins began running one read option after another, opting almost exclusively to hand the ball to his tailback. Demario Richard pounded the ball into the middle of the Stanford defense time and time again, carrying eight times for 48 yards on the series, including the final three yards on a touchdown run out of the wildcat.
With the lead cut to 14-10, the Stanford offense went back to what was working. Love ran for 39 yards on the first play of the series, then 15 more just a few plays later, and suddenly the Cardinal was knocking at the door once more. Instead of handing the ball to Love again, Costello dropped back to pass and looked towards J.J. Arcega-Whiteside. There was nothing particularly complicated about the play. Guarded by 5'10" cornerback Kobe Williams, the 6'3" Arcega-Whiteside ran out towards the left corner of the end zone, and Costello flipped the ball in his direction. The bigger man won, and the Cardinal lead was back to eleven at 21-10.
After trading scores, a touchdown for ASU and a field goal for Stanford, the two teams headed to the locker room with the score Stanford 24, Arizona State 17.
The second half started slowly, with two three and outs for the Sun Devils and one for the Cardinal, but when the Stanford offense took the field for its second possession of the half, it was time for more Bryce Love. After two runs and two passes moved the ball close to midfield, Stanford had a 2nd and 2 at its own 41. Love lined up deep in the backfield behind his fullback and took a toss from Costello. He had to sidestep a diving tackle attempt behind the line of scrimmage, but once avoiding that he looked at an enormous hole on the right side of the line. He immediately dropped into fifth gear and took off into the great wide open for his third touchdown of the day, this one good for 59 yards and enough to push him over 1,000 yards for the season.
With the score 31-17, the only drama remaining centered on Bryce Love. Having already established himself as the nation's leading rusher and one of the handful of backs in college football history to amass a thousand yards in his team's first five games, Love was leaving greatness behind and heading into history. That final touchdown put his numbers at 14 carries for 227 yards, a preposterous total built largely on explosive runs of 61, 43, 39, and 59 yards. With the game relatively close and more than a quarter and half to play, Christian McCaffrey's single-game Stanford record of 284 yards was squarely in Love's sights.
Stanford's final possession of the game came after the Sun Devils scored a touchdown with 8:02 to play to make the score 31-24. While this may have been cause for some concern, I think most Stanford fans were focused on Love and his pursuit of the record. A nine-yard gain on 2nd and 8 raised his total to 249, and then 31 more on the next play pushed him to 280. Love secured the record with an 11-yard run a few plays later, and finally capped off his historic night with seven more yards to bring his total to a Stanford-record 301 yards on 25 carries, becoming just the ninth player in conference history to reach that total. (Stanford's Jet Toner would chip in a field goal to cap the scoring on a 34-24 Cardinal victory.)
It was only ten months ago that I was naming Christian McCaffrey as the greatest player in the history of Stanford football, but now it seems like the best running back just might be Bryce Love. He's rewriting the Stanford record book and putting up numbers that are so stratospheric that he'll certainly earn an invitation to the New York ceremony where he'll likely watch an undeserving player walk away with the trophy that should rightfully belong to him.
That doesn't really matter, though. What matters is that for the third time in the past eight years, the best football player in America is wearing Cardinal and White. Don't bother telling the sportswriters, because their minds are already made up, but tell everyone else you know. The Bryce Love Show is airing weekly, and it shouldn't be missed.
