Aside from the obvious -- turning the program around ten years ago -- the most significant and lasting impact Jim Harbaugh has had on Stanford football can still be felt whenever the Cardinal faces the USC Trojans. The matchup hardly mattered before Harbaugh arrived, but it didn't take long for that to change. USC was a national power a decade ago, but instead of bowing down to Pete Carroll and the Trojans, Harbaugh recognized the benefits of targeting the top team in the conference.
Soon after he was hired and long before he coached his first game, Harbaugh went against coaching protocol and said that he knew Carroll was on his way back the NFL, a rather transparent attempt to impact USC's recruiting. At Pac-10 Media Day a few months later, Harbaugh continued poking the bear by saying, "There is no question in my mind that USC is the best team in the country and may be the best team in the history of college football." That hyperbole added another layer to what happened that fall, when Stanford arrived at the Coliseum as 41-point underdogs to the top-ranked Trojans and emerged with a 24-23 win that was then the greatest upset in NCAA history.
All of that served as prologue to the 2009 game and what would be the peak of the animosity between the two head coaches when Harbaugh famously decided to go for a two-point conversion with the Cardinal up 48-21. Although he told reporters after the game that he just wanted to keep some momentum going, we learned the truth a few years later when it was revealed he had told people on the sideline that "I wanna put 50 on these motherfuckers."
This is how a rivalry is born, and this is why last week's 17-3 Stanford win over USC matters so much. The Cardinal entered the game coming off a comfortable win over San Diego State that really didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Sure, it was nice to get revenge for last season's loss to the Aztecs, but a loss to the Trojans would've undone all those good vibrations and cast the entire season into doubt.
It became clear almost immediately that it would be a good day for the Cardinal. Since the sun rose in the East on Saturday morning, Stanford took the ball to start the game but quickly found themselves facing 3rd and 9 from their own 18, which was less than ideal. It wasn't long ago that a 3rd and long from this spot on the field would've been an automatic run, but things are different now. For the first time since Kevin Hogan left, David Shaw appears to have confidence in his quarterback, as evidenced by the play calling in situations like this.
So instead of handing the ball to Bryce Love, quarterback K.J. Costello dropped back to pass and found tight end Kaden Smith running a seam route up the middle of the field. It was an easy pitch and catch, Smith came down with the 22-yard reception, and the Cardinal was in business. Two plays later Love bounced a run out to the left for 28 yards, and eventually the offense earned a 1st and goal at the 6.
The play was a simple one, a handoff to Love heading towards the left side of the line. The Trojans did a nice job shutting that down, however, so Love quickly skipped outside, took advantage of a nice block by Kaden Smith (Smith would later say he was more proud of that block than any of his receptions), and outran a couple defenders into the corner of the end zone for his first touchdown of the season and a 7-0 Stanford lead.
It was just so easy. Things wouldn't always flow like that for the Cardinal on this Saturday afternoon, but this opening eight-play, 83-yard drive against a solid Trojan defense showed how good the Stanford offense will be this season.
The USC offense had scored 43 points the week before against UNLV. Their eighteen-year-old freshman quarterback, JT Daniels, had thrown for 282 yards, running back Aca'Cedric Ware had gained a hundred yards on just ten carries, and freshman phenom wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown had debuted with 7 receptions for 98 yards. The Trojans looked to be just as potent as the Cardinal, and their first drive seemed designed to prove that point. Or at least to try to prove that point. Ware took the ball on the first three plays for modest gains that produced a 1st down, then Daniels dropped back for his first pass and found Michael Pittman, Jr., to move the sticks again. A false start and three straight incompletions killed the drive at the USC 45.
The final play of that drive was significant, and its ripples would be felt through the rest of the game. In an obvious passing situation on 3rd and 15, Daniels dropped back into the pocket but had little time to survey his options. Daniels will one day be an all-conference caliber quarterback, but this year he'll be facing defensive schemes unlike what he was seeing last fall against teams like St. John Bosco and Long Beach Poly. On this particular play the confusion came from an exotic linebacker blitz. Coordinator Lance Anderson didn't just send an extra rusher, he had his linebackers run a stunt, swapping positions and looping around each other as they crashed into the line, confusing both Daniels and his blockers. Daniels was able to get the ball away just as Joey Alfieri plowed into him, but the ball fell incomplete. (In fact, Frank Buncom IV very nearly intercepted it.)
There was a short term effect (Daniels would miss the next series), but the long term impact was far greater. The Stanford front would pressure Daniels throughout the evening, and the young quarterback would never look comfortable.
At this point it still felt like the game (like most games this season, to be honest) would be a shootout. I had said several times that all the Stanford defense would need to do on most Saturdays was come up with a handful of stops. So while the USC arsenal still seemed a bit frightening, that first stop meant a lot. The second one would mean even more. The Trojans got the ball back quickly after a Stanford three and out, and even with their starting quarterback in the medical tent, they were still able to mount another drive. Backup Matt Fink (that's Matt Fink, not Rat Fink) didn't do much more than hand the ball to his running backs, but they were still able to nibble their way into Stanford territory before kicker Chase McGrath missed a 53-yard field goal. The Cardinal had dodged a bullet.
After two punts by Stanford and one by USC, the Trojans got the ball back on their own 35 with 2:57 to play in the first half and a chance to erase their frustrations. It felt like a pivotal drive. As well as the Stanford defense had played, a Trojan touchdown would give USC all the momentum heading into the locker room. Perhaps sensing that very thing, Daniels came out firing, completing three passes for 25 yards and suddenly the Trojans were in business at the Stanford 40 with almost a minute and a half to work with.
On 3rd and 2 the Stanford front stuffed running back Stephen Carr for no gain, and the prudent option for USC seemed to be to send in the punting unit -- but head coach Clay Helton opted against prudence. What happened next would be the most important play of the game.
The Trojans decide to try to pass for the 1st down (and consider that for a moment -- it was widely believed that the Stanford defensive line would be the team's Achille's Heal this season, but Helton didn't believe he could run in this situation) and Daniels was immediately besieged. Banking on confusion rather than brutality, the Cardinal showed blitz but rushed only four. Alfieri had started with his hand on the ground on the outside edge, but he looped around into the middle and got to Daniels untouched. He stripped the ball out, Bobby Okereke recovered, and the narrative surrounding the Stanford defense was flipped on its head.
Costello wasted no time in taking advantage of the gift his defense had given. Starting at his own 49, he first hit Smith on another seam route for 26 yards, then J.J. Arcega-Whiteside for nine, followed by Colby Parkinson for 7, and it was 1st and goal for the Cardinal. Everyone in the world knew what was coming next, so it was no surprise when Costello floated a ball out towards the side of the end zone, giving it enough air to allow Parkinson to box out his (smaller) defender. The result was also expected. Touchdown, Stanford.
The second half began with a field goal for USC to cut the lead, then a field goal for Stanford to open it back up to 17-3, and then there were eight consecutive punts. While that admittedly sounds a bit boring, it was actually quite remarkable. Conventional wisdom held that the Stanford defense would have to hold on for dear life in most games, and that the Stanford offense would have to outscore its opponents if the team hoped to have any success. Suddenly, however, the Stanford defense was controlling the game. I don't want to suggest that we've reached 2012 level dominance, but after that field goal to open the half, USC's possessions looked like this: 8 plays for 37 yards, 3 plays for 7, 5 plays for 22, and 3 plays for -1.
It wasn't until deep in the fourth quarter that USC mounted anything close to a threat. Opening at their own 21 with 4:50 to play in a game they trailed by two touchdowns, it was clear that this would be the Trojans' last chance. A big 35-yard completion to Tyler Vaughns pushed the ball to the Stanford 33, and then Daniels bounced back from a 10-yard sack by Casey Toohill (who probably played the best game of his Stanford career) by finding Amon-Ra St. Brown for 28 yards to the Stanford 15.
It certainly wasn't impossible. With two and a half minutes to play, the Trojans could certainly get a quick touchdown and follow that with an onside kick to make things interesting. It wasn't impossible.
And then it was. Daniels dropped back to pass and fell into every quarterback's worst habit. He locked onto his receiver on the left side of the field, drawing two extra defenders into the area. Defensive back Malik Antoine was able to make up a lost step, leap into the air, and make the game-sealing interception in the end zone. After a Stanford three and out burned 1:44, Antoine would come up with another interception -- that was two on two consecutive passes -- and the game was over.
There were some interesting peripheral stories -- Bryce Love quietly gained 136 yards, for instance -- but the headline has to be the Stanford defense. And here's the good news -- they're going to get even better. It promises to be an entertaining autumn on the Farm.
