National Football League stars react to Christian McCaffrey Rose Bowl performance

With a fourth-year starting quarterback in Hogan making his third start in the Rose Bowl, Shaw felt comfortable giving it a shot once his team opened a comfortable lead over an Iowa team that followed a 12-0 regular season with losses in its final two games of the year.

As a result, McCaffrey was named the Rose Bowl’s offensive player of the game.

Kelly’s four touchdown passes and Treadwell’s three touchdown catches tied Sugar Bowl records. A few hundred yards later, Stanford’s sophomore star had smashed the oldest bowl game’s record for all-purpose yards while leading the Cardinal to a blowout win over Iowa.

Stanford barely missed out on the College Football Playoff, and Christian McCaffrey nearly won the Heisman Trophy. There were no surprises, nothing that the Pac-12 hadn’t seen from McCaffrey all year. Hogan threw for 223 yards and three touchdowns in his career finale and his third Rose Bowl start. “We didn’t talk about it too much, but we played so well this year and enjoyed the process so much that we tried not to talk about this being the last game, but the guys wanted to go out with a bang, and they did”. “We’ve got a bunch of fighters on this team that will never give up”.

“Just being able to play with a group of guys this year”.

But this one was all about McCaffrey. “We didn’t get anything going until the end and at that point it was too little way too late”. From five yards out, Hogan handed the ball off to McCaffrey and he scored six more points. Hogan’s throw to McCaffrey was the second-longest TD pass in Rose Bowl history and the longest play given up all season by the stingy Iowa defense. While yellow-and-black colors dominated the crowd of 94,268 on hand, it was the Cardinal-clad fans who did most of the celebrating, enjoying a rare game that wasn’t close involving a Stanford team. “I don’t know if it’s a good representation of their team for the year but it’s rough”.

“I knew what play they were going to run, ” Meeks said.

Now there’s just one more question left for him to ask as the calendar turns to 2016: What’s next for the country’s best player? “It lit a fire under him, although he’s already the hardest-working man and most motivated man”.

He would also break the school’s record for rushing yards in a single season, ending with 2,019 yards rushing on the season to surpass Toby Gerhart’s 2009 total of 1,871.

The son of former National Football League wide receiver Ed McCaffrey set a Rose Bowl record with 368 all-purpose yards and became the first player in the game’s history to compile at least 100 yards rushing and receiving.

Stanford and Iowa, both finishing 12-2, were the top two teams outside the College Football Playoff field.

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

Oklahoma State (10-3) lost its final three games after 10 straight wins. “We had ample opportunity after that to play”. Friday’s game was just another chapter in Iowa’s book of Rose Bowl heartache.

McCaffery and Stanford struck again on the next possession, with McCaffery amassing 65 rushing and receiving yards ahead of Hogan’s eight-yard touchdown run. The game was out of reach at halftime with Stanford being up 35-0. Less than a minute into the second quarter, he put the Cardinal up 28-0 with a punt return.

Hogan bent down as if he had fumbled the handoff to running back Christian McCaffrey, who helped the production by falling on the grass.

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

The play has a name: Hawkeye. Iowa’s offense was finally showing life when quarterback C.J. Beathard fired an ill-advised pass to the right sideline.