They said they couldn’t do it without Gerhart. They said they couldn’t do it without Harbaugh. They said they couldn’t do it without Luck. Now in the absence of these Stanford legends, the Cardinal have achieved something that they couldn’t in the era of Luck, Gerhart and Harbaugh; win a Pac-12 Title and Rose Bowl berth.
Now, what exactly does this mean for the Cardinal? It’s simple. The Cardinal are again a nationally established football program.Many pre-season analysts had expected that Stanford would fold without the presence of Andrew Luck and find themselves again as a middle-of-the-pack Pac-12 team. However after a shocking upset of the second ranked USC Trojans at The Farm, the Cardinal showed the country that they weren’t going anywhere. Stanford continued its success throughout the year, upsetting the first ranked Oregon Ducks at Autzen, effectively destroying their National Championship and Rose Bowl bids.
How did the Cardinal manage to do this? The same way they have over the past four years; with hard-nosed smash-mouth football. Some expected the Cardinal to have to make drastic changes now that they didn’t have the safety net of Andrew Luck to fall upon, but Stanford’s identity has remained the same ground-and-pound, grind-it-out football.
However to say the Cardinal haven’t made any changes at all would be foolish. One of the biggest points of interest after last year’s heart-breaking Fiesta Bowl loss was David Shaw’s play calling and ultimate decision to let the clock run out and have Jordan Williamson, who struggled early in the game, kick a lengthy last second field goal. While Shaw was berated by some of the Stanford faithful for his conservative tendencies, Shaw’s new-found bold nature has led Stanford to replace Josh Nunes with Kevin Hogan and incorporate more gutsy calls in big games which ultimately led the Cardinal to marquee victories over Oregon and USC. Shaw’s call to bring in Kevin Hogan as the starter has perhaps done more to add to the Cardinal than anything he has done during his time at The Farm. Hogan’s ability to get out of the pocket spreads out defenses and gives the Cardinal offense an entirely new look to throw at surprised defenses.
If the Cardinal can capture a W over a streaky 8-5 Wisconsin team, it would be their first Rose Bowl victory since 1972 and their second BCS Bowl victory in the past three years. Moving forward, the Cardinal will lose only six starters from their 2012 squad. Key players like Ben Gardner and Trent Murphy will be continuing their defensive dominance for another year, while Freshman Kevin Hogan will have three more years to shine. Combined with last year’s impressive recruiting class, the future looks bright for the Cardinal.
Sure, they will be losing Stepfan Taylor, Shayne Skov and Chase Thomas, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the Cardinal is that they can’t be counted out of anything. The Cardinal were four points and a questionable call away from an undisputed #1 BCS ranking this year and have came through in the tightest games. As we look forward to the future of the Cardinal program, many things will likely change, but one thing’s for sure: they aren’t going anywhere. The Cardinal have proved themselves to be an established program and won’t be falling from the top of the BCS rankings any time soon.
