It used to be that Stanford Football was something that existed for only three hours on eleven Saturday afternoons each fall, then disappeared a few days before Thanksgiving. Just as our team was fading into irrelevance, we'd look towards the traditional football schools across the nation in places like Ann Arbor and Tuscaloosa and South Bend and wonder what it would be like to follow a team whose grip extended year round.
Continue reading "Stanford Football and the Sword of Damocles" »
I have to admit that I'm starting to wonder about the relevance of these grades. After all, if you were to take a high school senior out of calculus and slip her into an algebra class, shouldn't she be expected to get an A? That's kind of like what's going on with the Cardinal.
But even though there hasn't been much competition yet, it's still worth our time to take a closer look at each unit and how things went on last Saturday. So here we go...
Think back to the Orange Bowl last January. On the surface it was just another dominant win for Stanford, a farewell game for Jim Harbaugh, and another great night for Andrew Luck. Beyond that, though, it was the night that Shayne Skov rose to prominence on the national scene. Those of us who had been following the Cardinal throughout the season certainly weren't surprised by Skov's performance, but even we were impressed. Here's what I wrote about him that night:
Stanford's defensive star (and GMC's Orange Bowl MVP) was sophomore linebacker Shayne Skov. Rocking a vicious mohawk and enough eye black to make Alice Cooper proud, Skov was flying around the field all night long, whether covering tight ends down field, stuffing running backs at the line, or pulling down Taylor in the backfield. It was the best game of his young career, and I'm certain it will earn him several preseason mentions on various All-PAC-12 and even All-America lists.
When Luck announced a few days later that he would be returning for another year, the expectations for this season instantly skyrocketed and fans around Cardinal nation began counting the days until this season would begin. We talked about Heisman Trophies, All-America honors, Rose Bowls, and even national championships. The sky was the limit.
But imagine what it must've been like for Skov. Even as he and his teammates were still celebrating that win over Virginia Tech, his excitement certainly must have drawfed anyone's who was watching in the stands or on television. I certainly have no experience in this area, so I hesitate to speculate how an elite athlete might feel in moments like that one, but I have to imagine that Skov knew he had arrived.
