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The 102nd Rose Bowl: Stanford 45, Iowa 16

PASADENA, Calif. (GMC) -- Even a week later, it's all kind of hard to believe. At the time? Like a dream come true. After fighting long lines and belligerent security guards to get into the stadium, I walked through Tunnel 3 and into Nirvana, otherwise known as the Rose Bowl, the most beautiful stage in college football. Soon enough the Iowa band was putting the finishing touches on the National Anthem, the B-2 Stealth Bomber was soaring overhead, and the teams were lining up for the opening kickoff. 

As always, the Cardinal received the kick, and while there was some disappointment that Christian McCaffrey didn't get an opportunity for a return, that disappointment wouldn't last long. Fans were still standing and cheering loudly as Kevin Hogan settled into the shotgun a few yards behind his massive offensive line, with McCaffrey poised to his right, waiting to make history.

We'll never know if this play was a designed in response to some of the comments we'd heard from the Hawkeyes during the week prior to the game, with some players claiming not to know who he was, but what happened next served as an introduction. Not politely knocking to meet a new neighbor, but violently kicking in the door.

Pac12 Championship Game: Stanford 41, USC 22

Here's what you do. Fire up the flux capacitor and take a trip back to Palo Alto in the spring of 1991. You'll be able to find me in any of a number of places -- playing softball on the intramural fields, shooting hoops on the courts behind Sterling Quad, or sitting in front of a computer terminal pounding out a paper in LOTS. When you get to me, ask me to sit down, and do your best to explain that a time will come when Stanford will play in three Rose Bowls in four years. You had better bring proof, because there's no way I'll ever believe you.

Even in 2015, sitting in front of another computer as I pound out this recap, I'm having a hard time believing what we've been watching over the past several years. In fact, I'm having a hard time believing what we saw last night as Stanford clinched that third Rose Bowl bid in four years with a dominant win over USC in the Pac-12 Championship game.

Stanford 38, Notre Dame 36

Have you recovered yet? Have you allowed yourself to accept that what you saw actually happened? In one of the best games you'll ever see between two of the best teams in America, the Stanford Cardinal and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish battled all night long and into the final seconds of the game to produce an instant classic. Earlier this week I wrote that this rivalry seemed a bit manufactured, but today I can't imagine ever thinking that. 

Stanford 35, Cal 22

It might not have been the game most anticipated, but it ended the way almost everyone expected, with Stanford players carrying the Axe off the field in celebration for the sixth year in a row. As David Shaw said afterwards, "There's no one in the program who's lost the Axe."

Stanford 42, Colorado 10

At this point in Kevin Hogan's four-year Stanford career, the records and milestones are beginning to fall like dominos. It's appropriate, then, that he broke Andrew Luck's school record for wins as a starting quarterback in Boulder, Colorado. It was in Boulder three years ago that Hogan burst onto the scene and claimed the quarterback job in Stanford's 48-0 win over Colorado. He didn't start that game, so that victory isn't counted in his total, but he's started and won 32 games since then, the most recent coming on Saturday.

Stanford 30, Washington State 28

When I'm watching Stanford play, I'm just like any fan, except for one thing. Throughout the game there's a small corner of my brain that's always working on the recap. As a game winds through its peaks and valleys, the mood in that corner changes along with the fortunes of the Cardinal, and possible ledes and through-lines materialize and are discarded as needed. Unlike any game in the five-year history of this site, Saturday night's nail-biter between Stanford and Washington State created more mental rewrites than I could ever have imagined.

Stanford 31, Washington 14

When the Cardinal took the field late Saturday night against the Washington Huskies for yet another in what seems to be an endless stream of night games, they did so with the confidence of a team that knows it is among the best in the country. The offense had led the way to five straight wins featuring escalating point totals in each contest, and on this game's opening drive, Kevin Hogan and company picked up right where they had left off.

Stanford 55, Arizona 17

There's no sense trying to come up with a clever lede for this story -- the Stanford offense is back.

Stanford 42, Oregon State 24

The game began with deep concern about quarterback Kevin Hogan and the status of his injured left ankle. He had sat out most of the previous week's practice in hopes of being healthy for this critical road game, and reporters monitored his every move as he took warm-ups before the game, returned to the locker room for treatment, emerged with his ankle wrapped, and was pronounced ready for action. Cardinal fans exhaled for the first time in a week (though there would be even bigger injury concerns later), and the game was finally underway.

Things couldn't have started out better for the Cardinal offense, which featured running back Christian McCaffrey on an opening drive that would give the Beavers a good notion of what the rest of the game would bring. Christian the Lion rumbled with authority, taking the ball on the first five official plays of the series (there was a pass interference play that erased an attempt to Michael Rector) for a total of 35 yards. After a nice 12-yard pass to Devon Cajuste converted a 3rd and 4, McCaffrey rushed for five more yards before giving way to the touchdown machine, Remound Wright, who plunged in from a yard out to give his Cardinal a 7-0 lead.

Stanford 31, Central Florida 7

If you were sleeping on the other side of the country and couldn't watch Saturday night's game between Stanford and Central Florida, the sound that woke you up just before midnight was the collective exhale of Nerd Nation as the Cardinal showed that yes, everything just might be okay.