Go Mighty Card

Is This Rock Bottom?

The First Rock Bottom

We know the idea of "rock bottom." It is the place from which nothing can get worse, and, ideally, the beginning of a return to normalcy. Perhaps a gambler spends away his child's college fund, or a family going through difficult times begins sleeping in their car.

Personal tragedies like those examples and the status of a football program are two very different subjects, but there is one thing that both have in common. We never really know where rock bottom is until we've gained enough perspective to look back from a higher perch. The gambler, for example, no doubt had several dark moments earlier on that he might've hoped were his bottom, and so it is with Stanford football.

As the Cardinal closed out the 2021 season with seven straight defeats, the 52-7 loss to Utah seemed like rock bottom, but it could also be argued that the 41-11 loss to Cal two games later was even worse. Surely the program could sink no lower. As we sat there licking our wounds after Big Game and then sat there still as the team lost to Notre Dame a week later, it was difficult to imagine things getting any worse.

But then this year began and things did just that. The 1-3 start with consecutive losses to USC, Washington, and Oregon was bad, but the devastating and wholly unexpected loss to Oregon State made things even worse. It certainly felt like the bottomest rock bottom we'd seen, and when the Cardinal rebounded with a rejuvenating upset victory over Notre Dame in South Bend and then another (less impressive) win over Arizona State it felt like things were better. We looked back at those four straight losses and knew the worst was behind us. Right?

Utah 20, Stanford 17 (2OT)

A friend of mine who hadn't been able to watch Stanford's double-overtime defeat at the hands of the Utah Utes asked me if the game had been exciting. I'm not sure anyone -- not even a Utah fan excited by the victory -- would describe what happened on Saturday afternoon at Stanford Stadium as "exciting." It was a battle between two teams with dominant defenses and inconsistent offenses. Utah won the game, but it would be more accurate to say that they survived.

Blogging With the Enemy: Utah Utes

When a season is going like this -- five wins and four losses -- every game remaining on the schedule becomes the most important game of the year. While the natural tendency is to look ahead and think about running the table and finishing 8-4 with the possibility of a ninth win in a second-tier bowl game, it makes much more sense to take things one game at a time. Enter the Utah Utes.

You remember the Utes. The Cardinal was 5-0 and dreaming national championship dreams when everything came crashing down in one afternoon in Utah. Yes, Stanford still ended up winning the Pac-12 championship and heading to the Rose Bowl, but that Utah loss changed everything.

Normally you might wonder if the Stanford players might be heading into this afternoon's game with revenge on their minds, but I wouldn't think that's the case. Instead of trying to undo what happened a year ago, they'll be focused on stopping the hard running of Devontae Booker and slowing down the pass rush of a group that leads the nation in sacks. If they can do that -- and I believe they will -- the Cardinal will come away with a 20-16 victory.

But that's my opinion. For a look at what the other side is thinking, here's Steve Bartle from the Utah sports website, Light the U. (You can also check out my answers to his Stanford questions over at their site.) Anyway, read on and enlighten yourself...

2014 Schedule Breakdown and Predictions

Back by popular demand -- or, more accurately, by one person's demand -- is GMC's yearly schedule breakdown. Why wait for the games to be played when you can just read on? As usual, I'll give you my thoughts on each game along with the likelihood of a Cardinal victory, but just for fun I've also assigned a different 80s movie to each matchup. It promises to be entertaining...

August 30 vs. UC Davis
Movie: The Sure Thing
Quote: "I hope you appreciate the magnitude of your impending good fortune."

I don't know the real reason why UC Davis is on the schedule this year, but it might just be to remind Stanford fans how far the program has come. It was nine years ago that Davis somehow beat Stanford, 20-17, in a game that was surely brought up in the halls of the Stanford athletic department as some voices pushed to drop the football program down to Division II. In less than a decade, Stanford football has gone from being one of the worst teams in the country to one of the nation's elite. 

As devastating and shocking as that 2005 loss was, I can't imagine that anyone connected with the 2014 Cardinal is thinking about revenge. No one on the team was even out of middle school at that point, and this team has goals much larger than righting a nine-year-old wrong. This game isn't about revenge, it's about finishing without any major injuries.

I can't imagine that we'll see much from the starters after half time, but while they're in there it'll be interesting to see how the offensive line plays and what the running back rotation looks like. In the second half we should get a look at some of the younger players, including Christian McCaffrey, and the second- and third-string quarterbacks. It'll be fun.

Expected Outcome: This is a sure thing. 100% chance of Stanford victory.

Utah 27, Stanford 21

It takes weeks and months and years before a team can begin thinking about a national championship, but it takes only sixty minutes for all of that to come crashing down.

Blogging With the Enemy: Utah Utes

In the fall of 1989, just four days after the Loma Prieta earthquake rocked the Bay Area, I stood in the stands at Stanford Stadium watching the Cardinal take on the Utah Utes. I hadn't been able to convince any of my friends to come with me, which wasn't surprising since it was raining and the not-so-mighty Card were in the middle of a rather dismal 3-8 season. I was marginally interested in watching Utah's quarterback, future NFLer Scott Mitchell, but mainly I wanted to go to a game wearing a raincoat; I thought that would somehow elevate my fan status, as if I were earning a merit badge of some sort.

Stanford lost to Utah 27-24 that day, and in the end I didn't even feel like a better fan than I had been the week before.

The Cardinal and the Utes have matched up twice since that rainy afternoon, splitting games played in 1995 and '96. (Stanford also owns a big 57-0 win over Utah Agriculture in 1904, which has nothing to do with anything. I just like to think about a team of farmers coming to The Farm to play a game of football, then going home to what is now Utah State.)

Anyway, all of those previous matchups were obviously before Utah's inclusion in the Pac-12, so this is the first time that these two teams will square off as conference rivals. The addition of Utah made perfect sense; aside from Boise State, the Utes had been the only non-Pac-10 school west of Texas playing consistent quality football for the past decade. Now we get to see them up close.

To help us get a better idea of what to expect from these newcomers, I got in touch with Sean Reynolds of the Utah blog, Block U, and he dropped some serious knowledge. (You can also head over to his site to read my responses to his questions about the Cardinal.) Read on...

Pac-12 Summer Preview: Utah Utes

Even though the season won't kick off until early September, I thought it would be fun to take a look around the conference for a quick preview of the other eleven teams -- in no particular order. We'll get more in depth during the week before the Cardinal plays each team, but for now we've got a quick overview of how the team looks at this point as seen through the eyes of a blogger who knows that team best. Enjoy.

Utah Utes (Pac-12 South)
Head Coach: Kyle Whittingham (58-20)
2010: (10-3, 7-1, 2nd in Mountain West)
Did not play Stanford

For most of us, it's been hard getting used to saying "Pac-12" instead of "Pac-10," but the new era has dawned, and it brings us the Utah Utes and the Colorado Buffaloes. Both teams had long been rumored as potential Pac-10 expansion candidates, so it's nice to finally have them aboard.

Utah isn't on Stanford's schedule this season, unless the two teams end up meeting in the conference championship game, but it's a good idea to get to know them a bit before the season starts. Here's what you already know. Over the past three years the Utes have compiled one of the best records in Division I football, going 33-6, but their success has always been questioned as it's come largely at the hands of undermanned teams from the Mountain West Conference. In 2008 they finished the regular season as the only undefeated team in nation at 12-0, but the BCS denied them a spot in the championship game. But instead of hanging their heads, the Utes simply showed up at the Sugar Bowl and crushed Alabama, 31-17. They had the best record in the land, a marquee victory over a highly-ranked traditional power, but they didn't have the national championship to go along with it.

In 2009 and 2010 the Utes were leapfrogged by TCU in the Mountain West, but they still enter the Pac-12 as a team to be reckoned with. Utah has the reputation of being a hard-nosed team that plays hard on every down, and their arrival in the Pac-12 will likely result in an uptick in recruiting. Oh, and here's the coolest thing -- the pre-camp depth chart distributed at Media Day lists something called a Stud Linebacker. Tough enough for you?

If you're looking to read up on Utah football, your first and last stop should be Block U. I reached out to them a little bit ago, writer Sean Reynolds fired back some answers to my questions. Take a look...