Stanford ends USC's dynasty with upset victory
By Mark Schlabach
ESPN.com
Before Jim Harbaugh had even coached a game at Stanford, he had declared Southern California the greatest team in college football history.
Even after the Cardinal, a 41-point underdog, pulled off perhaps the greatest upset in NCAA history with a 24-23 win over the No. 2 Trojans at the Coliseum on Saturday night, Harbaugh wasn't backing off his lofty assessment of USC.
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| Jim Harbaugh can claim one of the all-time upsets in college football history. |
"[My comments] were absolutely heartfelt," Harbaugh said Sunday. "It's a team that has won and won and experienced winning and winning and winning. I think everybody would agree that's a football dynasty."
The Trojans are a football dynasty no more, thanks to the smart kids from Stanford, which just last week posted the third-highest graduation success rate among Division I-A football teams. Finally, after going 1-11 in 2006 and winning only 16 games the previous five seasons combined, the kids from the Farm also proved they can play football, too. "So many times in all of these guys' lives, they are told that they can't do something," Harbaugh said. "They are told, 'No, you're not big enough, you're not fast enough, you're not strong enough, you've got too many players hurt this week, you can't possibly think or expect that you can beat USC.' And they hear that hundreds and thousands of times, and this football team yesterday said, 'Yes.' As a team, they said, 'Yes, we can win.' It was about the team, the team, the team, the team."
Stanford's improbable victory was about more than a team. It was about a cast of unlikely heroes who upset a roster filled with future NFL stars. "It feels like a movie," said Cardinal receiver
Mark Bradford, who caught the game-winning touchdown pass on fourth-and-goal with 49 seconds to play. "We go to hotels on Friday nights, and we watch a movie. This feels like Disney really happened to us."
Not even Hollywood could have come up with a script this good, though. Stanford quarterback
Tavita Pritchard made his first career start against the Trojans. He had been forced into the lineup after starter
T.C. Ostrander suffered unexplained seizures last weekend. Pritchard's father and uncle played football at Washington State (the uncle, Jack Thompson, was known as the "Throwin' Samoan" while playing quarterback there), but the Cougars didn't want him. Pritchard had attempted only three passes in a college game before playing the Trojans. "He had a bounce in his step all week long," Harbaugh said. "He was anxious to play and he locked in. He was excited about it. He looked it right in the eye. He had faith and hope and went out and competed."
Pritchard, a sophomore from Tacoma, Wash., did more than compete. He was the Cardinal's calming voice in the huddle and leader on the game-winning drive. "I'd been waiting my whole life for that opportunity," Pritchard said. "I'd been groomed to be a quarterback from a mental standpoint as much as a physical one. I've always taken pride in being able to handle pressure." Bradford, a senior from Los Angeles, played against USC with a heavy heart. He had dedicated the game to his late father, Mark Bradford, who died of a massive heart attack Sept. 23. Bradford returned home Tuesday to bury his father. Four days later, he was back home again playing the team he had grown up watching. Bradford said his father rooted for the Trojans and had wanted him to attend USC.
"I was thinking about how magical it was," Bradford said. "I had all these thoughts going through my head. I was thinking about my dad [when I jumped to catch the touchdown]. I dedicated the game to him and if you dedicate a game to someone, you have to win it." Ironically, a USC timeout put Bradford in position to win the game.
The Cardinal trailed 23-17 when USC quarterback
John David Booty threw the third of his four interceptions with 2:50 to go. Stanford took over at the USC 45 and picked up three first downs, the last one coming on Pritchard's 20-yard pass to sophomore
Richard Sherman to the 9. The Trojans spent a timeout with 1:38 left, then Pritchard ran for 4 yards to the 5 on a designed keeper. On second down, the Cardinal sent three receivers to the right and one to the left. Pritchard tried to throw to
Evan Moore, a 6-foot-7 Stanford basketball player and one of the tallest receivers in the country. But the pass was incomplete, and then Pritchard again missed Moore on third down. Stanford called a timeout to set up its fourth-down play with 54 seconds to go. Harbaugh decided to run the same play the Cardinal had run on second down, which is simply called "Special."
The Cardinal took the field, but then the Trojans called timeout. At that point, Harbaugh elected to move Bradford from the trio of receivers on the right side to try to isolate him on the left. The personnel change caused some confusion, and Stanford was penalized 5 yards for breaking the huddle with 12 players, which moved it back to the USC 10. The penalty might have been a blessing, though.
When Pritchard climbed under center and surveyed the USC defense, he saw the Trojans overloaded their defense to the right side to smother Moore. That meant Bradford had single coverage to the left. Pritchard lofted a pass to the back left corner of the end zone, and Bradford outleaped USC's Mozique McCurtis for the game-winning touchdown. "I was like, 'You can't single-cover Mark,'" Pritchard said. "He's an amazing athlete. Honestly, I think the penalty helped us out. It gave us a little more room to work and gave me more room to see him."
USC got the football back at its 40 with 39 seconds to play. Four plays later, Stanford's Bo McNally intercepted Booty again. Pritchard then took took a knee and the celebration began. "It's just so crazy," Bradford said. "It's going to be something I can tell my kids and grandkids about. It's like a dream." A dream the Cardinal still haven't awakened from. "I didn't want to go to sleep last night because I felt like I was going to wake up to the hotel bed-check call," Pritchard said.
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All we have to do now is hope LSU loses, Cal becomes #1, and then beat those bears down too. Just remember, you heard it here first.
