By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com May 1, 2023
One morning, earlier this week, I dreamed that I had purchased a house. It was located in or near the downtown of a small city, possibly in the South. The neighborhood was notable for handsome two- or three-story buildings with red-brick facades. Some of the sidewalks were built from similar red bricks.
In the dream, one night — possibly but not necessarily my first night in the new house — I went to sleep on a couch in a room off of the kitchen. The following morning, I discovered that there were people in the building. But more than that: There was a public business being run in the kitchen!
Somehow, I had bought a house that hosted an active coffee shop. People would come in from early morning through relatively late at night for coffee, tea, cocoa and snacks. They would sit at a bar in the kitchen, which like other rooms in the house featured wonderful light, and converse with one another, or with the baristas, and read and work on their computers.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Feb. 29, 2023
One of the best movies that I’ve watched recently was Michael Clayton, the 2007 drama starring George Clooney that straddles the territory of corporate thriller, legal drama and character study.
Clooney is the title character, an attorney at a prominent New York law firm who specializes in estate law but truly earns his keep as a fixer who keeps bad situations from becoming worse ones. The divorced Clayton is struggling with personal issues — his relationship with his young son and ex-wife aren’t great, and his drug-addled brother has left the attorney cleaning up and covering costs on an expensive restaurant venture that went belly up long before it started to pay for itself. Moreover, Clayton’s firm is rumored to be in merger talks with another legal establishment. That’s made plenty of workers anxious about their long-term job security, not least among them Clayton, whose value as an employee isn’t reflected by traditional metrics such as billable hours.
In the midst of this, one of the firm’s biggest cash cows — defending agriculture giant U-North in a long-running class-action lawsuit over an allegedly deadly chemical product — threatens to explode when the lead attorney, Arthur Edens (the late great Tom Wilkinson), starts acting bizarrely during a deposition.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Jan. 27, 2024
On Nov. 22, 1985, the Stanford women’s basketball team traveled to nearby San Jose to tip off the 1985–86 season with a two-day tournament. The Cardinal had finished the previous season on an 11-game skid, compiling a 9-19 tally for their second straight losing campaign. But the team had changed coaches, so there was at least a glimmer of hope for the future.
The team’s new leader was named Tara VanDerveer. A 32-year-old Indiana University graduate, VanDerveer had amassed a 152-51 record over seven seasons as head coach at first the University of Idaho and then Ohio State University. The Boston native had claimed at least a share of the Big 10 title in her final three seasons for the Buckeyes, leading the squad to the Elite Eight of the 1985 NCAA tournament. But the Ohio State athletic department was reluctant to pay for the equipment VanDerveer wanted, including sneakers and even basketballs in numbers she felt were necessary for an entire season of practice and play. And so VanDerveer, who grew up in Upstate New York, had interviewed for other jobs and been hired by Andy Geiger, then the athletic director on the Farm.
In her first game at Stanford, VanDerveer’s team claimed a 68-65 victory over Hawaii. The squad lost three of its next four games before seeming to find its stride with a seven-game victory streak bridging December and January. But the team faltered as 1986 wore on, losing 11 in a row over a month-long stretch that lasted into late February. Two victories in March weren’t enough to salvage the season, which ended on March 8 with a 75-59 home loss to Arizona. Final record: 13-15, including a 1-7 mark in Stanford’s sole season in the Pac-West conference.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Jan. 5, 2024
A year ago, I tweeted the following note about Stanford’s men’s basketball team:
5-9 Stanford is losing by 16 points to 2-13 Cal.
I have nothing personal against Jerod Haase, but he has not made this program into an NCAA team, and at this point I don’t know why the school would bring him back for an eighth season. #GoStanford#NCAAmbb
— Matt Milliken | masks on for safety | mostly @HOME (@memomoment) January 7, 2023
Suffice to say that I don’t have the ear of Bernard Muir, who has served as Stanford’s athletics director since the summer of 2012. Jerod Haase indeed came back for his eight year as men’s basketball head coach for the Cardinal.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 30, 2023
In my quick-and-dirty 2023 Stanford football preview, I predicted that the Cardinal might compile a 4-8 record, “with Hawaii, Sacramento State, Colorado and Cal being the four likeliest victims and Arizona and Washington State the most vulnerable clubs among the middling-strength opponents.”
I turned out to be overly optimistic. The Farm gridders finished with their third straight 3-9 season, matching their 2-7 Pac-12 Conference record in 2021 and besting their 1-8 league mark in 2022. The Cardinal’s victims were Hawaii, Colorado and WSU. The team played Sac State close but ultimately sustained an embarrassing 30-23 home loss to the Football Championship Subdivision squad in the Stanford Stadium opener. Later in the year, Cal overcame Stanford on the Farm in an ultimately successful Bears effort to qualify for a bowl game. (Indeed, the Cardinal lost all seven of its home games, in what my research suggests is the worst home showing in any season of Stanford football.)
Some of my predictions held up fairly well. To wit:
In week two, the team will travel to Los Angeles to play conference-title contenders USC and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams, who could lead the most prolific offense on the West Coast if not the nation. In week three, Stanford faces Sacramento State. A home game against an FCS foe would normally be an automatic win, but the Cardinal is in a fragile state, and the Hornets will be highly motivated to snatch a win from their former head coach. The week four home game against Arizona, which went 5-7 last year, is also winnable but even more of a challenge than Sacramento State. On Sept. 30, the Cardinal finishes its home stand against Oregon, which could face USC in the conference title game.
USC had the nation’s fourth-most-prolific scoring offense. The Cardinal was in a fragile state, and the Hornets were indeed motivated to beat Stanford’s new head coach, former Sac State leader Troy Taylor. Stanford was highly competitive in a 21-20 loss to Arizona, which went on to finish third in the league with a 9-3 record, including six straight wins to close out the regular season. (The Wildcats benefited from changing quarterbacks — a move they made at Stanford after their original starter was injured.) Oregon will play in the league title game, although they will face Washington, not USC.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 29, 2023
Notre Dame’s Audric Estime rushed for 238 yards and four scores as the visiting Fighting Irish stomped Stanford, 56-23.
The Irish used a three-touchdown second quarter and 381 rushing yards on the night to fend off their briefly feisty Cardinal hosts. Stanford had a 13-7 lead at the end of the first quarter and held a 16-14 lead for about five minutes in the second period after senior kicker Joshua Karty hit a season-long 56-yard field goal. But the visitors in white jerseys, gold helmets and gold pants scored 48 points in a row to turn what had been a relatively close game into an embarrassing rout.
Notre Dame overcame four turnovers to improve to 9-3. In doing so, they consigned Stanford to a third-straight 3-9 season record in head coach Troy Taylor’s first season on the Farm — a season in which the Cardinal lost all seven games it played at Stanford Stadium.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 22, 2023
Is the glass half full or half empty?
That’s the question a lot of Stanford football fans might be asking themselves as the program concludes another losing season. This is the fourth sub-.500 campaign in five years, with the only exception being 2020’s weird Covid-19 edition.
Stanford is obviously not a good outfit this year. But should fans be encouraged about the future?
My best answer to this question is that we won’t know the answer until a few weeks — or perhaps a few months — into the 2024 next season. But there are certainly some tea leaves that we can examine for clues.
If you’re looking for reasons to hope, you can point to developing receivers such as Elic Ayomanor, Tiger Bachmeier and tight end Sam Roush; apparently strong recruiting by head coach Troy Taylor and his staff; Taylor’s willingness to utilize the player transfer portal in a way that former head coach David Shaw either could not or would not; and the fact that the 2023 roster was depleted by numerous departing players as well as mounting injuries.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 21, 2023
Fernando Mendoza passed for 294 yards and three touchdowns and Jaydn Ott ran for 166 yards and a score to lead the Cal football team to a 27-15 Big Game win over Stanford on the Farm on Saturday.
The Golden Bears offense converted four of five fourth downs while the Cal defense held the Cardinal to just five third-down conversions on 16 opportunities. The outcome marked the first time the Bears have won Big Game three or more times in a row since they racked up a five-game streak from 2002 through 2006.
Cal bumped its record to 5-6 (3-5 Pac-12) and can qualify for a postseason berth by beating UCLA in the Rose Bowl next weekend. The Cardinal dropped to 3-8 (2-7) in their last-ever Pac-12 football contest but still can avoid a three-season streak of 3-9 finishes by defeating visiting Notre Dame next weekend in the team’s 2023 finale.
• Mitch Leigber, safety. The junior recorded a career- and team-high nine tackles while making his sixth career start and first start at safety. The Laguna Hills, Calif., native had started at running back four times in 2022 and at nickel back against Washington State in the previous game.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 17, 2023
Damien Martinez ran for four touchdowns to lead the 12th-ranked Oregon State football team to a 62-17 stomping of Stanford on Saturday night in Reser Stadium in Corvallis.
Stanford surrendered more than 60 points for the first time since Arizona State recorded a 65-24 victory in 2002. The Cardinal defense let up 598 yards, the most since Cal rolled up 636 yards in the 2021 Big Game. But the unit was hardly the only one to have a letdown in the Pacific Northwest last weekend. The offense committed four turnovers, with quarterback Ashton Daniels throwing three interceptions and quarterback Justin Lamson adding another.
OSU moved to 8-2 (5-2 in the Pac-12) to set up a showdown tomorrow afternoon with 10-0 Washington on Senior Day in the last football game that Reser Stadium will host in the current configuration of the Pac-12. The Cardinal fell to 3-7 (2-6) and were eliminated from bowl eligibility.
The Beavers held a 34-10 lead at the half. Any hope of Stanford pulling off another Colorado-style comeback died in the third quarter, as each of the Cardinal’s first two possessions ended with a pick.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 8, 2023
With the dissolution of the Pac-12 Conference, old rivals are scattering to the winds. USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington will play in the Big 10 beginning in 2024. The Arizona schools, Colorado and Utah are headed for the Big 12. Stanford and Cal have joined the Atlantic Coast Conference. Only two teams seem set to continue next year under the Pac-12 (or Pac-X) banner: Oregon State and Washington State, which occupy the league’s smallest media markets and have arguably had the least success in football.
Stanford’s Pac-12 football farewell tour has been something of a horror show, largely defined by a 46-point loss to USC and losses of 36 and 35 points to Oregon and UCLA, respectively. True, there was a narrow one-point home loss to Arizona and a competitive nine-point home defeat against Washington. But through two months, the Cardinal’s only circuit victory had come over one of the league’s two most recent additions, Colorado. Given the disastrous defeat to lower-division opponent Sacramento State — a game virtually everyone had circled as a sure win for the Cardinal ahead of the season — the results added up to a dreadful record.
That changed at least somewhat on a wet, cool November night on the Palouse. Stanford’s 10-7 win snapped WSU’s six-game series winning streak. The victory also maintained a path to bowl eligibility for the 3-6 Cardinal, who could get to six wins by sweeping Oregon State on the road and Cal and Notre Dame at home.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 7, 2023
The Stanford football team fought through offensive struggles to secure a 10-7 road win over Washington State on a cool and rainy night on the Palouse on Saturday.
In a game in which both teams combined for just 462 yards of total offense, the Cardinal got the better of the Cougars by capitalizing on a Cam Ward interception with a game-tying Justin Lamson touchdown run in the third quarter. Later, after Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels threw an interception, the Cardinal defense held the hosts to an unsuccessful field-goal try from 43 yards. Stanford responded with a 31-yard Joshua Karty field goal that proved to be the winning points in a hard-fought 10-7 victory.
The Cardinal upped its record to 3-6 overall (2-5 Pac-12) and retain an outside shot at bowl eligibility, which will require a sweep of the team’s three remaining games. Meanwhile, WSU’s free fall continues, as the Cougars (4-5, 1-5) have not recorded a victory since Sept. 23.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 4, 2023
Am I crazy, or was Saturday night’s 42-33 loss to No. 5 Washington the most encouraging Stanford football loss in years?
Looking back over recent campaigns, the Cardinal register is riddled with two types of defeats: Losses of two or more scores, usually but not exclusively to good or great teams, and close losses, typically to mediocre or bad teams and almost never to good teams.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 2, 2023
In a game full of scoring, the outcome of No. 5 Washington’s game at Stanford on Saturday night came down to a fourth-quarter trick play dialed up by Troy Taylor, the Cardinal football head coach and offensive play caller.
On fourth down and two, the Cardinal needed to reach the home 30-yard line to keep its offense on the field and preserve a chance to erase a 35-33 deficit with three minutes and 23 seconds in the fourth quarter. Operating under center in a tight formation, sophomore quarterback Ashton Daniels took the snap and pitched the ball to Tiger Bachmeier, who was standing behind him and to his left. The freshman receiver ran several steps to the right and planted his feet while facing an oncoming defender.
Little-used receiver Jayson Raines had set the edge on the right side of the line. As soon as the ball was snapped, ignoring and ignored by pass rushers, Raines began running a curl route toward the right sideline. Now, approaching the home 35-yard line, the junior turned back toward Bachmeier, who had thrown a weak pass. Raines reached down to corral the ball, but it dribbled off of his hands and onto the turf for an incompletion and a turnover on downs.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Oct. 25, 2023
Saturday night’s loss to UCLA was about as hard a come-down as Stanford fans could have imagined. In Boulder, in the second half and overtime, everything seemed to go right for the Cardinal. Last weekend at Stanford Stadium, through 60 minutes, nothing seemed to work for head coach Troy Taylor’s club.
Yays
• Tiger Bachmeier, wide receiver. The freshman’s 20-yard receiving touchdown, his first in an NCAA game, represented the Cardinal’s only points against the Bruins. Bachmeier was tied for the game’s lead with eight receptions and had the second-most receiving yards of any player, with 75. The Lake Elsinore, Calif., resident has quietly become the Cardinal’s No. 2 target on the year, with 20 receptions, and his 220 receiving yards trail just two other teammates. Observers believe that Bachmeier could have a very bright future. With star receiving tight end Benjamin Yurosek temporarily sidelined with an injury, look for Bachmeier to play an increasingly large role in the aerial attack.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Oct. 24, 2023
At the break of Saturday night’s Pac-12 football game at Stanford Stadium, noted Cardinal football fan and GoMightyCard.com founder Hank Waddles tweeted the following:
UCLA 21, Stanford 0 at the half. Feels like an eight-point lead for the Cardinal, TBH.
UCLA 21, Stanford 0 at the half.
Feels like an eight-point lead for the Cardinal, TBH.
Waddles was referring, of course, to Stanford’s epic double-overtime comeback victory just eight days previously in a game against Colorado, which had seen the visiting Cardinal trail 29-0 at intermission.
On Saturday night on the Farm, however, there was no magic to be had. Bruins head coach Chip Kelly made none of the dubious fourth-down calls or other questionable decisions that Colorado’s Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders had done. Indeed, Kelly had no need to do much that seemed risky. His Bruins club boasts a stellar defense and an overall talent level that is superior to the Buffaloes — and also to the Cardinal. The powder blue and light-gold bears of Southern California allowed only one touchdown the entire game and generally stifled Stanford’s offense while earning a 42-7 victory.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Oct. 21, 2023
The magnitude of Stanford’s 46-43 comeback win over Colorado on Friday, Oct. 13, did not begin to sink in until the morning after. The Cardinal trailed 29-0 at halftime and looked thoroughly inept.
But. They. Won.
When Jim Harbaugh took over as head football coach at Stanford in 2007 following a dismal 1-11 campaign, the team took its lumps in what turned out to be a 4-8 season. But Harbaugh had a signature game in an Oct. 6 road tilt at second-ranked USC, wherein Stanford mounted a legendary 24-23 upset win to give the coach his first conference victory. In the annals of college football history, one of the few outcomes to rival that 2007 Cardinal win was Stanford’s shocking 36-31 victory at No. 2 Notre Dame in 1990.
Troy Taylor is at the helm now, trying to repair a program reeling from consecutive 3-9 seasons. The Cardinal’s 46-43 come-from-behind double-overtime victory in Boulder is another momentous result. It was the biggest comeback win for Stanford, the biggest blown lead for the Buffaloes and the fourth-largest comeback win in Pac-12 history. Moreover, it was the biggest comeback from a halftime deficit in conference annals. And, in a nice parallel with Harbaugh’s initial Cardinal season, this triumph gave Taylor his first win over a league opponent.
Stanford has takenitslumps this year and faces the prospect of more pain ahead with UCLA, Washington and Notre Dame among the list of upcoming opponents. But come what may, this Cardinal team and its fans will forever treasure our memories of an epic Colorado comeback.
Yays
• Elic Ayomanor, wide receiver: Part 1. Ayomanor’s second catch came midway through the third quarter. He took a short pass, turned upfield and ran 97 yards for a touchdown. That made the score 29-12 in favor of the host Buffaloes after a failed two-point try. The only longer reception in Stanford’s 129 years of football was a 98-yard touchdown pass thrown by Joe Borchard to Troy Walters against UCLA in 1999.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Oct. 14, 2023
Stanford’s embattled football team used a record-setting performance by receiver Elic Ayomanor to mount the biggest comeback in team history with a 46-43 double-overtime road win over Colorado.
The Cardinal fell behind 29-0 at intermission after gaining just 114 total yards — a full 210 yards fewer than the hosts. Nearly the only thing that went wrong for Colorado was missing a 46-yard field-goal try late in the first half. Otherwise, the Buffaloes scored touchdowns on each of their first four possessions.
Everything seemed to change after the break, however. Stanford scored on all eight of its final drives. Ayomanor, a sophomore, was the biggest contributor with 15 catches for three touchdowns and a school-record 294 yards. The offensive explosion, which included three third-quarter touchdowns for 17 points, came after a moribund Cardinal offense had scored just three field goals over the seven quarters spanning the end of the Arizona game through halftime on Friday at Folsom Field.
Can head coach Troy Taylor’s club summon more of the magic that we saw early on against the Ducks? If so, a second and — dare to dream? — possibly a third win might be on the table. If not, well, I’m already on record as saying that this could be a long season.
Yays
• Joshua Karty, placekicker. After his two misses in a one-point decision against Arizona, Karty came out and hit field goals of 37 and 53 yards on the two opening drives against Oregon. (By contrast, his Oregon Ducks counterpart, Camden Lewis, missed a 38-yarder on his only attempt.) Karty, a Burlington, N.C., native, has made 39 of 46 attempts in his career (84.8 percent) and 19 of 31 since the start of 2022 (93.5 percent). Entering this weekend’s games, no one at the top level of football had kicked more than Karty’s 11 field goals. Of the four other players with that many made kicks, only Alabama’s Will Reichard (11 of 11, 100 percent) and UNLV’s Jose Pizano (11 of 12, 91.7 percent) had a higher conversion rate. Two other players have, like Karty, connected on 11 of 13 attempts from the field (84.6 percent).
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Oct. 7, 2023
For around 20 minutes last Saturday, Stanford faithful began to wonder whether their new football head coach, Troy Taylor, had found the formula to turn around the Cardinal’s 1-3 season.
They started wondering whether a balanced ball-control offense could play keepaway from a potent Oregon scoring attack. They started wondering whether defensive coordinator Bobby April’s unit could continue to stifle the No. 9 Ducks on third down. Some may have even started wondering whether the Cardinal’s alternative uniforms — black pants, black helmets and black jerseys with red numbers — might help conjure up a major upset at Stanford Stadium.
The seeds of hope were planted on the team’s first drive, as an offense mainly led by sophomore quarterback Ashton Daniels converted three third downs and a fourth down for a 15-play, 46-yard possession that spanned seven minutes and 42 seconds — the Cardinal’s longest series this season by number of plays and by time. Sure, that drive only resulted in three points when senior placekicker Joshua Karty nailed a 37-yard field goal, but…
Hope, that fragile yet potent emotion, was nurtured when the Cardinal defense forced an Oregon three-and-out. The ensuing Stanford series went for 51 yards on 13 plays and lasted six minutes even. It resulted in another stellar Karty kick, this time from 53 yards out. Not only did the play give the hosts a 6-0 lead on the first snap of the second quarter, it helped erase the memory of a pair of missed 51-yard attempts from Karty in the previous game, a 21-20 loss to Arizona.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Sept. 30, 2023
It’s hard to know what to make of Stanford’s 21-20 home loss to Arizona. A one-point loss to a mediocre Football Bowl Subdivision team seems more respectable than a seven-point loss to even a very good Football Championship Subdivision squad. Indeed, given the thinness of Stanford’s defense, letting up only 21 points is a modest accomplishment. However, the Cardinal offense has been maddeningly inconsistent, and scoring just 20 points at home is not a formula for winning football.
Yays
• Tiger Bachmeier, wide receiver. The freshman could be a star in the making. He set career highs last weekend with four catches for 93 yards, the latter of which led all receivers in the game, and made a fantastic 35-yard catch on the run while closely guarded by a defensive back. The Lake Elsinore, Calif., native entered the game with four receptions for 12 yards.
• Sedrick Irvin, running back. Irvin is another freshman who made a big impression on Saturday. He entered the game with five runs for 21 yards, including four rushes for 22 yards (and a 20-yard long) at USC. On his first touch against Arizona, in his first collegiate start, Irvin shook off five defenders for a 45-yard run that set up the first points of the game. Irvin later scored his first touchdown. He finished the day with 10 runs for a team-high 66 yards, plus a five-yard catch.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Sept. 30, 2023
Stanford football dropped a 21-20 decision to visiting Arizona on Saturday night as the Troy Taylor coaching era continued to have a rocky start.
The challenges will only get more difficult going forward for the Cardinal, which fell to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the Pac-12. Of the remaining eight opponents on Stanford’s schedule, five are ranked in the top 25, while two others — Colorado and UCLA — got enough votes in the most recent Associated Press poll to rank among the top 30 teams in the nation. (All of the opponents except Cal placed in the top 25 the previous week.)
Arizona, now 3-1 after winning its conference opener, rallied behind backup quarterback Noah Fifita for a go-ahead touchdown and then used a combination of defense and offense to keep Stanford out of the end zone in the one-point decision. The Wildcats also benefited from a pair of misfires from an unlikely source. The Cardinal’s best player, senior placekicker Joshua Karty, pushed a pair of 51-yard field-goal attempts wide right by perhaps five combined feet. The two straight misses broke a streak of 26 consecutive made field goals dating back to the start of the 2022 season.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Sept. 19, 2023
Sacramento State 30, Stanford 23. That was a tough outcome for Cardinal boosters.
Yes, Sac State is a good team — but they’re a Football Championship Subdivision team. FCS squads are supposed to lose when they go up against Football Bowl Subdivision teams such as the Cardinal.
Bottom line: We may be in for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, looong, loooooooooooooooooong season.
Yays
• Elic Ayomanor, wide receiver. The sophomore from Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada, had a career night and paced the Cardinal with four catches for 89 yards and a 51-yard touchdown. Those were all personal bests and team highs in Saturday’s game. Over the first two games, Ayomanor had four catches for 38 yards.
By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Sept. 18, 2023
Kaiden Bennett racked up 379 total yards and two touchdowns Saturday night to lift Football Championship Subdivision power Sacramento State (3-0) to a 30-23 upset victory over Stanford.
In falling to 1-2 against a lower-division team, the Cardinal instantly sparked debate on the social-media platform X about whether this was the team’s worst loss of the 21st century and whether this is the worst Stanford team of fans’ lifetimes. The only comparable defeat in recent times was a 20-17 home loss to UC Davis, a new member of Division I-AA (now FCS). That outcome denied then-new Stanford coach Walt Harris bowl eligibility in his first season, when the team recorded a 5-6 record.
The better question may be whether new coach Troy Taylor, now guiding Stanford in his second stint as a head coach after helping lead Sac State to prominence, will be able to exceed the 1-11 record that Harris’s second and final Stanford club recorded in 2006. All of Stanford’s opponents in the remaining nine games, which include potent clubs such as Oregon, Colorado, Washington, Oregon State and Notre Dame, will have more talented rosters than the Hornets.
MEMwrites 
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