Bob Murphy

His vast knowledge and insight of Stanford University and its athletic history will provide a unique perspective to Cardinal fans.

THE CARDINAL LEADS THE BEAVERS 47-22-3

November 16, 2006

This series goes all the way back to 1919 when Stanford started a streak of nine straight wins over Oregon State, but that means nothing now!

What does mean something is the way the Cardinal played against Oregon State last year in a 20-17 hard-fought win in Corvallis. It was cold and rainy on that Reser Stadium turf, but Trent Edwards handled it in great fashion into the third quarter, completing 16 of 28 for 196 yards and two TDs to Justin McCullum. At that point he injured his thumb and T.C. Ostrander finished up nicely.

That victory gave the Cardinal their fifth win of the season with two games remaining. Nick Sanchez led the team with 7 tackles against the Beavers, and that was ironic. If the officials had called it properly, it was that same Nick Sanchez who made a clean interception late in the U.C. Davis game that would have won it for Stanford. The officials blew the call, the Aggies scored, upset the Cardinal 20-17, and here is what that meant. The victory over Oregon State should have been Stanford's 6th win of the season making them bowl eligible even before the final two games. On top of that, just one defensive stop in the UCLA game would have prevented a 30-27 overtime loss and given the Cardinal their sixth win even before meeting Cal and Notre Dame.

Speaking of Notre Dame, the Cardinal had that one in the bag, too with just 1:47 on the clock. That happened with T.C. Ostrander hitting Mark Bradford for a 76 yard gainer to the Notre Dame 4 yard line and then a nice toss to Matt Traverso for the go ahead TD. Like the UCLA difficulty, just one stop of "The Irish" anywhere along the way in that next 1:47 would have been a Stanford win and a big time "Bowl Game" with or without a win against Cal.

What should have been the sixth win in Corvallis would have been a Bowl clincher, and, considering the "Room Service" given to UCLA and Notre Dame, blew what could have been a wonderful 8-3 season, and "Big Bowl" game turned out to be a disappointing 5-6 and no place else to go.

But, all of these possibilities started with that win over the Beavers on November 12, just a year ago. And, last Saturday was November 11, and here is Oregon State again in that very same time frame. They are coming into that brand new Stanford Stadium with a monumental win over the Trojans and right on the edge of a bowl game of their own in this game with Stanford.

It was about five years ago when Mike Riley, a native of Corvallis and an outstanding football coach was a strong candidate for the job here at Stanford. As the writers would say, this game has a lot of "story lines" and it should be a really good one.

Our Stanford lads are coming out of the big win over Washington with a newfound confidence and feeling of excitement for this one. We hope to see you at the game, and bring some friends. With that wonderful win in Seattle last week, this is a great time to celebrate that fabulous new Stanford Stadium once again!

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