McCaffrey leads Stanford’s 45-16 Rose Bowl romp over Iowa

Iowa and Stanford have both been around for just as long as anyone in college football, since before the 20th century and in those parts of three centuries that they have been playing the game, they have never once played one another.

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong). Iowa put together a solid drive and then Beathard threw a late out that defensive back Quenton Meeks undercut, picked and returned 66 yards for a 21-0 lead.

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) – The first time Christian McCaffrey touched the ball in the 102nd Rose Bowl, he took it 75 yards for a spectacular touchdown.

The Rose Bowl 2016 game takes place on Friday with a huge match up between the Stanford Cardinal and Iowa Hawkeyes.

But McCaffrey and the Cardinal still began the new year with the Pac-12 champions’ most coveted postseason trophy – and the brightest of futures. Beathard completed 61.4 percent of his passes for 2,570 yards with 15 touchdowns and four interceptions in guiding an offense that thrived with physicality and by limiting mistakes…. the Hawkeyes unleashed three running backs, in addition to Beathard, who tucked and ran 87 times himself for 270 yards and six touchdowns…. senior Jordan Canzeri led the way with 976 yards and 12 touchdowns, while LeShun Daniels (609 yards, 8 TDs) and Akrum Wadley (463 yards, 7 TDs) combined for 15 touchdowns…. We’re going to go through many different years with this four-team playoff.

His total of 368 all-purpose yards (rushing, receiving and return) broke the mark held by Wisconsin’s Jared Abbrederis; he also became the first player in the game’s long history to gain at least 100 yards rushing and receiving. McCaffrey finished second behind Derrick Henry of Alabama in the Heisman voting, but left no doubt about his brilliance with one of the most dynamic performances in the Rose Bowl’s lengthy history. “So I think it’s just icing on the cake for us”. They scored a lot of points against those lousy defenses, but they got scored on a lot, too.

The world was wide awake to see McCaffrey in Pasadena – and he scored 11 seconds in.

“I wouldn’t say I was in shock, (but) it was like, ‘Dang, already?'” Stanford left tackle Kyle Murphy said. With all the Heisman stuff, he felt really snubbed.

But McCaffrey is a better all-around player and had the better individual season. The task of slowing down McCaffrey will fall heavily on Jewell and Fisher, the top two tacklers on an Iowa defense yielding just 114.9 yards rushing per game.

The tone was set early Friday during No. 6 Stanford’s 45-16 demolition of No. 5 Iowa in the Rose Bowl.

With a powerful offensive line and a sturdy defense, they also ruined the first Rose Bowl in 25 years for the Hawkeyes (12-2), who followed up their remarkable 12-0 regular season with two postseason losses. Somewhat surprisingly, college football public bettors are split 50/50 on which team will cover in today’s Rose Bowl. “I’ve run out on the field in a couple of big games before – there’s still nothing like running out on the field in the Rose Bowl”. “It’s going to be a good competition for us”. One of those scores came on a demoralizing 63-yard punt return that proved why Iowa was so concerned with his elusiveness coming into this matchup.

Stanford even got creative – or cruel, depending on your perspective.

The Cardinal led 35-0 at halftime and 38-3 after three quarters.

The play has a name: Hawkeye.

Iowa avoided a shutout on Marshall Koehn’s 39-yard field goal late in the third quarter, prompting huge cheers and a confetti shower from the Hawkeyes’ band.

It was a great pass by Beathard, but an even better catch and 36-yard sprint by VandeBerg.