Stanford Legend and friend Michael Dotterer sent a text one hour before tonight's Orange Bowl game, reading "GO CARDINAL," so I gave him a call. Dotterer, one of only 24 decorated two sport athletes in Stanford's Hall of Fame, asked me to predict the score of the game. "40 to 10, Cardinal," was my response.
Stanford won 40 to 12, under a 4-touchdown performance by Quarterback Andrew Luck.
As I write this, Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh's accepting the Orange Bowl trophy. "Hairball," as some Cal Old Blues call him, deserves it. Also, really, and all kidding aside, let's tip our hats to the Stanford Athletics program, which, in an age when athletes as often wind up in a police report as that do on a stats sheet, have produced a number of true student-athletes, who've performed amazingly of late.
Stanford's Women's Basketball Team halts UCONN's 90-game win streak last week. Stanford Football goes 12 wins and 1 loss and wins the Orange Bowl, just four years after a 1 and 11 season, a coach named Buddy Teavens, and constant Big Game losses to Cal.
Jim Harbaugh, for all of his quirks and fits, turned around the Stanford Cardinal Football program.
Harbaugh Should Stay Put
Yes, Harbaugh's talked about as an NFL head coaching candidate, as well as a replacement for Michigan Head Coach Rich Rodriquez. But Jim Harbaugh should keep his tail on the farm.
And here's why.
For all of his success this year, the question I have is if he can get Stanford to 12 and 1, why not stick around and aim directly for a BCS National Championship? In other words, right now, this Stanford Football season was a fluke.
Yep. A fluke.
No one, not even Stanford, expected this kind of performance from The Cardinal. It seemed Stanford was blowing opponents out almost every week, and for the most part those margins of victory were unexpected. That element of shock at how good Stanford Football was remained to the Big Game, until the most lopsided win in Big Game history 48 to 14 made even Cal fans like myself realize this Cardinal squad was something special.
But look, the year before the Cardinal was 8 and 4, and Cal walked into Stanford Stadium, and walked out with a major Big Game win. So, it was a good year for Stanford, but not a great year like this one.
But can they sustain it? To me, this will be the fluke season (there's that word again), unless Jim Harbaugh sets his mind to 2011 on the farm.
If Jim's as good a coach as he thinks he is, he'll come back and coach another year, setting his sights on a BCS National Championship for the Stanford Cardinal.
Stay tuned.
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