19. Stanford
The similarities are remarkable. Both have cannons for arms, both excelled
at football and baseball at
Stanford. Both are
unusually
big for quarterbacks. But while John Elway has gone on to a
Hall of Fame career with the Denver Broncos, Chad
Hutchinson is just entering his second season as a starter with
the Cardinal.
"That's who I want to be compared to," the
6'5",
230-pound junior says of Elway. "Who
wouldn't want to be? That's some pretty good company—but
I've got a long way to
go."
Hutchinson and Stanford both took huge strides last season.
After a 2-5 start, the Cardinal finished with a five-game
winning streak that culminated in a
38-0 waxing of
Michigan State in the
Sun Bowl. Hutchinson completed 22 of 28 passes for
226 yards against the Spartans and was named the game's MVP, as
Stanford became the only
Pac-10 school to win a bowl game last season. (Elway, by the
way, never led the Cardinal to a bowl
game.)
"There's no question that a good quarterback makes a
big
difference," says third-year coach
Tyrone Willingham. "But our
offensive line also started to put things together around the
seventh
game."
Stanford had been so dismal at the outset, however, that
even
with its late-season turnaround, it finished last in the
Pac-10 in
total offense, scoring and rushing. The slow-to-mature
offensive line
allowed a conference-high
43 sacks. "It was tough," says
Hutchinson, who in the off-season pitched Stanford to the
College
World Series with his
97-mph fastball. "We took our lumps
together, and we're better because of it. We should get off
to a better start. It's up to the offense, because we know
our defense is going to be
solid."
Six starters return from the Pac-10's third-ranked defense,
including senior
all-conference end Kailee Wong, second in the league with 12
sacks, and senior inside linebacker Jon Haskins, who led
the team in tackles. Says Willingham, "One thing that
people are still overlooking is that Stanford plays
defense."
Although the Cardinal has two tough nonconference games—at
North Carolina on
Sept. 13 and at home against
Notre Dame
three weeks later—the team
doesn't face
Pac-10 favorite
Washington, thus substantially increasing Stanford's odds of
playing in the Rose Bowl. Hutchinson,
for one, and Willingham, for another, are ready for a run at
the Rose.
—Paul Gutierrez
|
TELLING STAT
|
|
25 Years since the Cardinal's last Rose Bowl appearance, a
13-12 victory over Michigan in
1972. |
| TWO GAMES TO WATCH |
|
OCT. 4 VS.
NOTRE
DAME
Irish
quarterback Ron Powlus will test an inexperienced Stanford
secondary.
NOV. 22 VS.
CALIFORNIA
The centennial of the Big Game should follow the recent
trend—two of the last three meetings have been decided by
five points or
less.
|
|
RETURNING
LEADERS
|
| Passing | Chad Hutchinson, Jr. | 190 comp., 312
att., 2,134 yds., 10
TDs |
| Rushing | Mike Mitchell, Sr. | 809 yds., 4
TDs |
| Receiving | Damon Dunn, Sr. | 35 catches, 452
yds., 2
TDs
|
| Tackles | ILB Jon Haskins, Sr. |
100 |
| Interceptions | FS Tim Smith, Jr. |
4 |
Top 20 | The Master List | Conference Rankings | Lower Divisions
|
