Stanford bowls over USC for the Pac-12 championship

“I can’t talk enough about the O-line and the holes, especially in the first half”.

On Saturday at Levi’s Stadium, the Trojans – for the most part – lived up to their word.

Stanford’s fate, and the conference’s, was probably sealed when the Cardinal couldn’t conclude what looked like the game winning drive at Northwestern, back on the opening Saturday morning of the season; had they scored, with 1 win, they would likely have been in instead of Oklahoma, even given that the Big XII was owed one after a year ago.

Cardinal Claim Conference, and today we find out who plays who for the Championship, and where 10 Pac-12 teams are headed for the post-season.

USC athletic director Pat Haden announced that Helton had signed a multi-year contract as the Trojans official head coach prior to the Pac-12 title game.

McCaffrey finished the game with 461 all-purpose yards and three total touchdowns, as Stanford beat USC 41-22.

“He’s a mismatch nightmare”, Helton said.

Throughout the game, yelling and profanities emanating from the USC coaches’ booth in the press box could be heard as McCaffrey stutter-stepped to mid-range gains, broke free for wide-open pass receptions and blazed his way toward the end zone.

McCaffrey, a sophomore running back, rushed for 207 yards on 32 carries, ran for a touchdown, threw a touchdown pass, caught a touchdown pass, and had a 31-yard punt return.

“What doesn’t he do?”

Helton, when asked directly, declined to say whether he had spoken with two popular former assistant coaches, Ed Orgeron and Clancy Pendergast, about a return to USC.

Said more broadly, McCaffrey was unstoppable. “I pray he wins the Heisman”.

He plans to hire an offensive coordinator who will call plays, allowing Helton to be “a head football coach and a CEO of a football team”, he said. “It’s not even a debate”. Kevin Hogan then found McCaffrey open in the middle of the field and he ran with for a 67-yard reception down to the USC 7.

“I think I was just able to – I was put in a bunch of situations to be successful, I think”, McCaffrey said.

The Trojans took their first lead at 16-13 when running back Ronald Jones scored on a 27-yard run with?5:28?left in the third quarter. The Cardinal running back will finish this season (minus a bowl game) with 1,000 more yards than any other player in the FBS.

“We were all fired up that he came here”, Davis said. “We were too fired up”. It could have been 20-0 but for a strong goal-line stand.

Helton was hired as an assistant at USC by Lane Kiffin six years ago, working as the quarterbacks coach before becoming the Trojans’ offensive coordinator in 2013. Kessler led a 15-play drive in the closing minutes of the half to lead to a 40-yard field goal by Alex Wood that cut Stanford’s lead to 13-3. It took McCaffrey 13 games to set his record, where Sanders only had 11, and he’ll have a bowl game to further it.

ST. THOMAS 38, WABASH 7: In St. Paul, Minnesota, Mason Zurek had the only Wabash touchdown – from 4 yards out – but it was after the Little Giants had fallen behind by 38 points in the quarterfinals of the NCAA’s Division III quarterfinals. We knew that if we wanted to win the game, we were going to have to run the ball efficiently, and those guys were unbelievable.