No.7 Stanford beats No.24 USC for Pac-12 title
USC had no answer for McCaffrey and the Cardinal kept feeding him the ball, watching him run through not only USC’s defense but also to the top of Heisman voting.
Newly appointed USC Trojans coach Clay Helton cleaned house a day after a 41-22 loss to Stanford in the Pac-12 championship game.
It was part of McCaffery’s record night of 461 total yards, in which he threw for a touchdown, ran for one, and caught a touchdown pass. The fact that he will probably lose the Heisman Trophy to Alabama running back Derrick Henry is regional bias of college football at its ugliest. The numbers are gaudy.
Kevin Hogan played just like he needed to.
“I was just praying I’d get it to him”, McCaffrey said.
“They knew all they had to do was do their job”, Helton said of the Trojans’ attitude at the break. “It’s an extremely exciting feat for me, I couldn’t do it without my teammates”. I don’t know if you take that into consideration or not, but that’s a huge honor.
Throughout the game, yelling and profanities emanating from the USC coaches booth could be heard throughout the press box as McCaffrey stutter-stepped to mid-range gains or blazed his way to the end zone. They played their first five games without a healthy coach who was eventually fired, in late October they were 3-3 with an interim coach, by the end of autumn they had lost two centers and two starting linebackers… the place was a mess.
With the Trojans threatening, Hogan found McCaffrey wide open between the linebackers and the safeties. The man had so many all-purpose yards that he was on a mission to show why he shold win the Heisman. The conference is sending a record 10 teams to bowl games, and five different members broke into the top 10 over the course of the season.
“There is nobody in the nation doing what he’s doing”, Stanford coach David Shaw told reporters after the game.
“It’s not even close”, Shaw said.
Stanford also fumbled on two fourth-quarter center-snap exchanges.
The Trojans suddenly were leading 16-13 on a 27-yard touchdown by Ronald Jones II.
But then Stanford took control.
Stanford regained the lead ag 20-16 on Hogan’s 7-yard run after McCaffrey’s 67-yard reception.
USC quarterback Cody Kessler, who was 22 for 37 for 187 yards and a touchdown, ran 12 yards for a touchdown that made the score 27-22 after a two-point attempt failed early in the fourth quarter. Lineman Solomon Thomas scooped up the ball and returned it for a touchdown. He rushed for 207 yards, marking the fifth time this season he reached at least the 150-yard mark on the ground.
USC’s Davis’ 99-yard effort was wasted. JuJu Smith-Schuster set a career-high 11 receptions in a single game, that marks a championship record.
USC just could not keep up with or stop Stanford.
On the first play of the second quarter, McCaffrey split out to the left, took a pitch from Hogan on a reverse and then pitched it back to the wide-open quarterback for a touchdown. “They had a flawless play call for their defense”. The Sugar Bowl’s desire to match the SEC with the Big XII, similar to the Rose Bowl’s tie in where they match up the Pac-12 and B1G Ten when possible, drove this decision.
The conference championship did not disappoint.
The Trojans, who persevered through the firing of Steve Sarkisian to make an improbable run to the South division title, had been aiming for their first Rose Bowl appearance in seven years. How hard is that?
“I thought we had a good chance, and then we had that critical error in pass protection”, Helton said. “Once again, we’re not in charge of that. If they don’t, we’ll go to Pasadena and have a great time”. The question is should there be an eight team playoff?
“I hate to say it, but us being a second-half team is our weakness”, he said.