While many the Mountaineers' shocking win over the Wolverines in the "Big House" the greatest upset in college football history, some argue that Stanford's win over USC five weeks later was a greater upset.
The Cardinal entered the game with a 1-3 record under first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh, the former NFL quarterback who had spent the previous three seasons at the University of San Diego, another FCS program where Harbuagh lead the Toreros to back-to-back 11-1 seasons before taking the job at Stanford.
Harbaugh's work was cut out for him in trying to bringing Stanford back to prominence as the Cardinal had gone 14-40 over the previous five seasons, including a 1-11 season in 2006.
Signs pointed to another long season for the Cardinal as they went 1-3 in September, losing their three games by a combined score of 141-51.
It appeared that things were going to get worse as the Sunday before USC game, starting quarterback TC Ostrander suffered a seizure, forcing Harbaugh to start redshirt sophomore Tavin Pritchard, who had only completed three passes in his college career and had only Richard Sherman(Yes, that Richard Sherman) as one of his targets at wide receiver.
 |
| Future NFL defensive back Richard Sherman played wide receiver for the Cardinal in their 2007 upset over USC, catching three passes for 45 yards. |
It seemed certain that the Cardinal were going to drop to 1-4 as they traveled south to Los Angeles to take on the #2 USC Trojans in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliesum.
The Trojans had became the preeminent program in America as seventh-year head coach Pete Carroll had directed USC to back-to-back national championships in 2003 + 2004(the one in 2004 was vacated) and within a eyelash of another national title in 2005 if not for Texas quarterback Vince Young's performance in the National Championship Game.
The Trojans were hoping to get back to the BCS National Championship Game after blowing their chance the year before when all they had to do was knock off crosstown rival UCLA in the regular season finale to clinch a spot in the title game, only to be upset by the Bruins 13-9, dropping the Trojans to the Rose Bowl where they defeated Michigan 32-18.
USC entered the 2007 season as the #1 team in the preseason polls with senior quarterback John David Booty as a potential Heisman Trophy candidate on a squad which Carroll said was the "most competitive team we've ever had".
The Trojans entered their game with the Cardinal undefeated but ranked #2 in the AP poll after defeating the University of Washington 27-24 the previous week.
Still, with the fact that the Trojans were playing in front of their home crowd at the Coliseum, a place where they hadn't lost in 35 straight home games, and had defeated the Cardinal in their previous five meetings by a combined score of 197-87, the Trojans were 41-point favorites to defeat Stanford and remain undefeated.
Little did anyone know that the Cardinal would stand toe-to-toe with the Trojans and begin the "Curse of the #2" for the 2007 season.
After both teams punted on their opening possessions of the game, the Cardinal drove from their 26-yard-line to the USC 46-yard-line until the drive stalled, forcing Stanford to punt the ball back to the Trojans, who took over at their 20-yard-line after a touchback.
USC would get on the scoreboard with a 35-yard field goal by David Buehler, which was set up by a 56-yard pass from Booty to tight end Fred Davis, to give the Trojans a 3-0 lead with 6:25 left in the first quarter.
The game would turn into a punting contest until the second quarter when the Trojans put together a eight-play, 64-yard touchdown drive which had Booty completing passes of 12 and 31 yards to Patrick Turner, leading to an one-yard touchdown run by Chauncey Washington to increase the USC lead to 9-0.
However, Stanford defensive end Pannel Egboh would block the extra point, keeping the score at 9-0 with 7:15 left in the second quarter.
That blocked extra point would come back to haunt the Trojans later in the game.
 |
| In his first career start, Stanford quarterback Tavin Prtichard only completed 11 of 30 passes for 149 yards and ran for 27 more on 14 carries. |
The USC defense would force another Stanford punt to give their offense the ball back at their 48-yard-line with just over five minutes left in the first half with a excellent chance to increase their lead.
It took the Trojans eight plays to drive to the Stanford nine-yard-line where they had a 1st-and-goal with 1:34 to go before halftime.
After three plays gained eight yards, the Trojans faced a 4th-and-goal at the one-yard-line when Carroll called timeout with 11 seconds left to decide whether or not to go for the touchdown.
Carroll ulimateley decided to go for the touchdown, but the gamble backfired as Stanford cornerback Nick Sanchez and free safety Bo McNally would stop Washington for no gain, keeping the deficit at nine points, as the USC Trojans went into the locker room with a chorus of boos from the home crowd even though they were ahead 9-0.
If Carroll and his team were nervous just by the fact they only had a nine-point halftime lead, it would only get worse during the halftime break when Booty found he had a broken finger on his throwing hand after his hand hit a teammate's helmet after throwing a pass in the second quarter.
Booty asked to remain in the game to which Carroll complied, hoping that the senior quarterback could lead the Trojans out of troubled water as the second half began.
After both teams went three-and-out on their first possessions of the second half, the Trojans took over at their 19-yard-line.
The broken finger didn't seem to effect Booty as he completed a 10-yard pass to Davis to set up a 3rd-and-2 at the USC 27-yard-line when Booty was picked off by Stanford strong safety Austin Yancy, who made his first career interception a memorable one, as he returned the pick 31 yards for a touchdown to give Stanford its first points of the game and cut the USC lead to 9-7 just 3:08 into the second half.
The Trojans began their ensuing drive at their 37-yard-line but three plays later turned the ball over again when Stanford linebacker Clinton Snyder knocked the ball loose from Davis after a 13-yard completion which was recovered by Sanchez to give the Cardinal offense the ball at their 42-yard-line.
But the Stanford offense, who had only 37 yards of total offense and made three 1st downs up to this point, went three-and-out, punting the ball back to the Trojans, who took over at their 13-yard-line.
It seemed that the Trojans offense had gotten back on track as they drove to the Stanford 42-yard-line until Booty was sacked for eight-yard-loss by Egboh which was followed by the Trojans' third consecutive turnover as Booty was intercepted by Sanchez at the Stanford 22-yard-line.
However, Stanford would give the ball right back to USC as Bradford was intercepted on a deep pass on the second play of the drive by USC free safety Taylor Mays at the Trojans' 18-yard-line.
The Trojans would convert the interception into points as Booty connected with Davis for a 63-yard touchdown to push USC's lead back up to nine points, 16-7 with 2:54 left in the third quarter.
Following the touchdown, Stanford would take over at its 25-yard-line when it put together its best drive of the game, an nine-play, 75-yard drive which saw Pritchard complete passes of 15 and 36 yards to Mark Bradford, setting up Anthony Kimble's one-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter to cut the USC lead back down to two points at 16-14.
The Trojans would respond with a nine-play, 86-yard touchdown drive which culminated with a 46-yard touchdown pass from Booty to Ronald Johnson to push the lead back up to nine points, 23-14 with 11:04 remaining in the fourth quarter.
 |
| John David Booty would throw for 364 yards on 24-of-40 passing and two touchdowns, but also would be intercepted four times in the second half. |
Stanford would respond with a 12-play, 61-yard drive which ended with a 26-yard field goal by Derek Belch to make it a one-touchdown game at 23-17 with 5:43 left in the game.
After Belch kicked the ensuing kickoff out of bounds, the Trojans took over at their 35-yard-line with a chance to put together a drive that would ice the game and escape with the victory.
The Trojans would pick up a 1st down when Booty completed a four-yard pass to Patrick Turner on 3rd-and-3 from their 42-yard-line, but the Trojans would go backwards when Booty was sacked for a nine-yard loss on 1st down.
Then after a pass to Desmond Reed picked zero yards, Booty would throw his third interception of the game as fifth-year cornerback Wopamo Osaisai picked off a Booty pass and returned it 18 yards to give the Stanford offense the ball at the USC 45-yard-line with 2:50 left and a chance to take the lead with a touchdown.
After an incomplete pass intended for Sherman on 1st down, the Cardinal would pick a 1st down on the nest play when USC strong safety Kevin Ellison was called for pass interference, giving Stanford a 1st down at the Trojans' 30-yard-line.
This was followed by a four-yard run by Jeremy Stewart and then a seven-yard scramble by Pritchard to give Stanford another 1st down at the USC 19-yard-line with 2:02 to go.
But Pritchard would throw three straight incomplete passes that along with a 10-yard holding penalty on right tackle Chris Minnelli, led to a do-or-die 4th & 20 at the USC 29-yard-line.
That is when Prtichard found Sherman over the middle for a 20-yard completion to give Stanford a 1st-and-goal at the nine-yard-line with 1:38 to go.
Carroll challenged the spot in hopes that replay would show that Sherman was shot of the 1st down marker, but to no avail.
Pritchard would run for four yards on 1st down, then throw two straight incomplete passes to set up another 4th down do-or-die scenario for the Cardinal with 54 seconds left.
After both timeouts called timeout to set up what they were going to do on the 4th down play, the Cardinal lined up with 12 men in the huddle, drawing a five-yard substitution infraction penalty that pushed them back to the 10-yard-line.
Finally after the timeouts and the penalty, Pritchard took the snap, dropped back and fired a pass toward the left side of the end zone, intended for Bradford.
Bradford jumped up to catch the ball, then landed with his left foot inbounds and control of the ball for the shocking touchdown, which tied the game at 23 with 49 seconds left.
Now it was time for the extra point, which wasn't guaranteed as USC had one blocked in the first half.
But Belch's extra point would sail through the uprights to give Stanford its first lead of the game at 24-23.
Following Ronald Johnson's 25-yard return and 15-yard face mask penalty on Stanford's Ben Landner, the Trojans had the ball at their 40-yard-line with 39 seconds left and a chance to escape humiliation of losing to a 41-point underdog if they could get into field goal range and kick the winning field goal.
But after Egboh sacked Booty on 1st down, the Trojans were forced to spike the ball on 2nd down, which was followed by an incomplete pass on 4th down.
USC hoped for its own miracle on 4th-and-17, but Booty was picked off for the fourth time in the game, this time by Bo McNally with 13 seconds left.
Pritchard come on to take a knee and the Cardinal, six-touchdown underdogs, had stunned the college football world with a 24-23 win over #2 USC, which ended the Trojans' 35-game home winning streak.
USC's loss would be start of the "Curse of the #2" as the Trojans would be the first of six teams who entered the game ranked #2 in the AP poll, only to lose the following week, with five of those six losses coming to an unranked team, the last being West Virginia losing to four-touchdown underdog Pittsburgh in the last week of the regular season.
The shocking loss would prove costly for the Trojans as they finished the regular season 10-2 amidst a gaggle of two-loss teams who were hoping to be selected to play in the BCS National Championship Game against one-loss Ohio State.
But because the Trojans lost to a 41-point underdog, took them out of the running to be chosen to play for a national championship as the nod went to two-loss LSU, whose two losses were both triple overtime losses.
USC had to settle for another trip to the Rose Bowl where they defeated the Illinois Fighing Illini 49-17 to finish the season 11-2 and ranked #3 in the final polls.
 |
| Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh gets the Gatorade shower after leading the Cardinal to a 24-23 win over 41-point favorite USC. |
As for the Cardinal, they would win only two more games the rest of the season to finish the season 4-8, but their historic upset over USC would be the launching pad in Harbaugh's rebuilding of the Stanford football program.
Two years later, the Cardinal would go 8-4 in the regular season, including a 55-21 thrashing of the Trojans in the LA Coliseum where Harbaugh went for a two-point conversion in the 4th quarter, even though his team was up 48-21, which lead to Carroll saying to Harbaugh "What's your deal?" at midfield after the game.
The Cardinal would then drop only one game the following season as they finished #4 after a 12-1 season which ended with a 40-12 win over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl.
Following that win in the Orange Bowl, Harbaugh left Stanford to become head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, where his rivalry with Carroll would continue as the former USC head coach had left the year before to become the Seattle Seahawks head coach.
As for Stanford, Harbaugh's offensive coordinator during his four-year run in Palo Alto, David Shaw, would become the team's head coach and would build on the foundation laid down by Harbaugh as Stanford would go 73-22 from 2011-17 and would win three conference championships and appear in three Rose Bowls, winning two out of three.
But Stanford fans believe that win as a six-touchdown underdog over USC in October of 2007 was the turning point in their football program's fortunes.
No comments:
Post a Comment