The 2010 team and why this Orange tastes a little bitter to me - Printable Version
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The 2010 team and why this Orange tastes a little bitter to me - baymeadows3408 - 01-02-2021
Tomorrow will be the 10-year anniversary of Stanford’s 40-12 victory over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. This looming anniversary has inspired me to write this post about the 2010 football season and Stanford’s Orange Bowl victory.
I think you can make the argument that the 2010 Stanford football team was the school’s best team on this side of World War II. Stanford had a 12-1 record and had players such as future NFL stars Andrew Luck, Richard Sherman, Michael Thomas, Doug Baldwin, David DeCastro, Coby Fleener, and an emerging Zach Ertz. Major contributors also included Stepfan Taylor (the school’s all-time leader by career rushing yards), Owen Marecic, Chris Owusu, Konrad Reuland, Chase Beeler, Jonathan Martin, Chase Thomas, Johnson Bademosi, Delano Howell, and Shayne Skov. The team had star power AND depth, and Jim Harbaugh had an excellent group of assistant coaches who could maximize that talent.
Stanford had concluded the 2009 season strongly, and I had high expectations going into the 2010 season. Although Stanford had lost Toby Gerhart to the NFL, I was confident that Stanford would have an excellent offense once again in 2010 with Andrew Luck taking snaps behind an offensive line that was returning four starters. Stepfan Taylor had also shown a lot of promise during his freshman season. I had some concerns about the defense, especially with the secondary that had been torched the previous year against opponents like Arizona, Cal, and Notre Dame.
After we had thoroughly beaten Notre Dame on the road in late September 2010, I truly became excited about the team and realized that our game against Oregon could have Pac-10 championship or even national championship implications, but because the game was only our second conference game and fifth overall I was disappointed about the outcome but not crestfallen. I had no way of knowing at the time that both Stanford and Oregon would go unbeaten for the remainder of the regular season, so I did not know just how high the stakes had been at Autzen.
Although I was a disappointed at the end of the regular season that our lone loss against Oregon had denied us not just a conference title but also a berth in the national championship game, getting to play in the Orange Bowl seemed amazing given how we had gone 1-11 just four years earlier and how Stanford had played in a top-level bowl only once in my life (2000 Rose Bowl).
Tyrod Taylor’s talent and several miscues on Stanford’s part (Drew Terrell’s poor decision to return a punt from his own four-yard line, Derek Hall catching a deflected pass in the end zone and taking a safety, and a blocked extra point) had caused Stanford to lead just 13-12 at halftime. Stanford forced a Virginia Tech three-and-out to start the second half and then scored a touchdown on their ensuing drive, but Whitaker missed another extra point. I was frustrated to be leading only by seven points despite having outplayed Virginia Tech.
My concerns were unfounded. An interception by Delano Howell, a 56-yard run by Stepfan Taylor, and a 41-yard touchdown pass to Coby Fleener blew the game open for Stanford, who scored touchdowns on its first four drives of the second half. Stanford went on to win 40-12 after shutting out the Hokies in the second half. Virginia Tech linebackers and defensive backs probably have recurring nightmares about Stanford’s tight ends, and Tyrod Taylor would probably cower in fear if you mentioned the name “Shayne Skov.” If you were to combine the first half of the 2010 Big Game or 2016 Rose Bowl and the second half of the 2011 Orange Bowl, you would have as close to a perfect game of football as possible.
Stanford ended the 2010-11 season ranked #4 in the AP and coaches’ polls and #5 in the Harris poll. Jeff Sagarin’s Predictor rating (one that takes margin of victory into account, unlike the ELO rating he used for BCS purposes) had Stanford as the #1 team in the country and would have made Stanford 3 ½-point favorites in a rematch against Oregon and 7 ½-point favorites over Auburn.
Auburn won a closely contested national championship game 22-19 over Oregon with a field goal on the final play. I have no way of proving this, but I think we would have beaten Auburn had we made it to the national championship game. Auburn had a lot of close calls during its undefeated season and I think our defense could have contained Cam Newton as well as Oregon’s did while our dynamic pro-style offense would have been hard for Auburn to stop. Apart from a closer-than-expected game against Arizona State, Stanford was a juggernaut in the last six games of the season.
And that’s why it’s that damned game against Oregon is so painful to think about in retrospect. I think 2010 is as close as we’ll ever come to winning a national championship. The 2015 team most likely would have made the playoff if they had not face planted in the season opener against Northwestern or had not lost to Oregon (have there ever been two intra-conference foes that hurt each other as much as Stanford and Oregon between 2009 and 2016?), but I would have preferred our chances against a dressed up 2010-11 Auburn team than having to win two playoff games and having to beat a team like the 2015-16 Alabama or Clemson squads.
The trend of players with remaining eligibility declaring for the NFL (the rational part of me understands why the players are doing this, but the emotional side does not have to like it), negative impact of the early signing date, and overall recent softness of West Coast football do not give me confidence that we will reach the heights we achieved in 2010-2015 ever again (but I would love to be proven wrong!). The stars had lined up nicely in 2010 to give us such a great combination of playing and coaching talent, but I must admit that I feel greedy and wish they had lined up perfectly and we had been prepared for that onside kick or Owusu hadn't fumbled after being concussed...
RE: The 2010 team and why this Orange tastes a little bitter to me - Hurlburt88 - 01-02-2021
That was a great season and a great bowl game! I still have it recorded and re-watch it occasionally. The only game I went to in person that season was in South Bend. What a great Saturday football experience!
RE: The 2010 team and why this Orange tastes a little bitter to me - baymeadows3408 - 01-02-2021
(01-02-2021, 10:26 AM)Hurlburt88 Wrote: That was a great season and a great bowl game! I still have it recorded and re-watch it occasionally. The only game I went to in person that season was in South Bend. What a great Saturday football experience!
The Owen Marecic game. Will college football ever see a player score an offensive touchdown and a defensive touchdown on consecutive plays from scrimmage ever again?
RE: The 2010 team and why this Orange tastes a little bitter to me - teejers1 - 01-02-2021
(01-02-2021, 08:46 AM)baymeadows3408 Wrote: Tomorrow will be the 10-year anniversary of Stanford’s 40-12 victory over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. This looming anniversary has inspired me to write this post about the 2010 football season and Stanford’s Orange Bowl victory.
I think you can make the argument that the 2010 Stanford football team was the school’s best team on this side of World War II. Stanford had a 12-1 record and had players such as future NFL stars Andrew Luck, Richard Sherman, Michael Thomas, Doug Baldwin, David DeCastro, Coby Fleener, and an emerging Zach Ertz. Major contributors also included Stepfan Taylor (the school’s all-time leader by career rushing yards), Owen Marecic, Chris Owusu, Konrad Reuland, Chase Beeler, Jonathan Martin, Chase Thomas, Johnson Bademosi, Delano Howell, and Shayne Skov. The team had star power AND depth, and Jim Harbaugh had an excellent group of assistant coaches who could maximize that talent.
Stanford had concluded the 2009 season strongly, and I had high expectations going into the 2010 season. Although Stanford had lost Toby Gerhart to the NFL, I was confident that Stanford would have an excellent offense once again in 2010 with Andrew Luck taking snaps behind an offensive line that was returning four starters. Stepfan Taylor had also shown a lot of promise during his freshman season. I had some concerns about the defense, especially with the secondary that had been torched the previous year against opponents like Arizona, Cal, and Notre Dame.
After we had thoroughly beaten Notre Dame on the road in late September 2010, I truly became excited about the team and realized that our game against Oregon could have Pac-10 championship or even national championship implications, but because the game was only our second conference game and fifth overall I was disappointed about the outcome but not crestfallen. I had no way of knowing at the time that both Stanford and Oregon would go unbeaten for the remainder of the regular season, so I did not know just how high the stakes had been at Autzen.
Although I was a disappointed at the end of the regular season that our lone loss against Oregon had denied us not just a conference title but also a berth in the national championship game, getting to play in the Orange Bowl seemed amazing given how we had gone 1-11 just four years earlier and how Stanford had played in a top-level bowl only once in my life (2000 Rose Bowl).
Tyrod Taylor’s talent and several miscues on Stanford’s part (Drew Terrell’s poor decision to return a punt from his own four-yard line, Derek Hall catching a deflected pass in the end zone and taking a safety, and a blocked extra point) had caused Stanford to lead just 13-12 at halftime. Stanford forced a Virginia Tech three-and-out to start the second half and then scored a touchdown on their ensuing drive, but Whitaker missed another extra point. I was frustrated to be leading only by seven points despite having outplayed Virginia Tech.
My concerns were unfounded. An interception by Delano Howell, a 56-yard run by Stepfan Taylor, and a 41-yard touchdown pass to Coby Fleener blew the game open for Stanford, who scored touchdowns on its first four drives of the second half. Stanford went on to win 40-12 after shutting out the Hokies in the second half. Virginia Tech linebackers and defensive backs probably have recurring nightmares about Stanford’s tight ends, and Tyrod Taylor would probably cower in fear if you mentioned the name “Shayne Skov.” If you were to combine the first half of the 2010 Big Game or 2016 Rose Bowl and the second half of the 2011 Orange Bowl, you would have as close to a perfect game of football as possible.
Stanford ended the 2010-11 season ranked #4 in the AP and coaches’ polls and #5 in the Harris poll. Jeff Sagarin’s Predictor rating (one that takes margin of victory into account, unlike the ELO rating he used for BCS purposes) had Stanford as the #1 team in the country and would have made Stanford 3 ½-point favorites in a rematch against Oregon and 7 ½-point favorites over Auburn.
Auburn won a closely contested national championship game 22-19 over Oregon with a field goal on the final play. I have no way of proving this, but I think we would have beaten Auburn had we made it to the national championship game. Auburn had a lot of close calls during its undefeated season and I think our defense could have contained Cam Newton as well as Oregon’s did while our dynamic pro-style offense would have been hard for Auburn to stop. Apart from a closer-than-expected game against Arizona State, Stanford was a juggernaut in the last six games of the season.
And that’s why it’s that damned game against Oregon is so painful to think about in retrospect. I think 2010 is as close as we’ll ever come to winning a national championship. The 2015 team most likely would have made the playoff if they had not face planted in the season opener against Northwestern or had not lost to Oregon (have there ever been two intra-conference foes that hurt each other as much as Stanford and Oregon between 2009 and 2016?), but I would have preferred our chances against a dressed up 2010-11 Auburn team than having to win two playoff games and having to beat a team like the 2015-16 Alabama or Clemson squads.
The trend of players with remaining eligibility declaring for the NFL (the rational part of me understands why the players are doing this, but the emotional side does not have to like it), negative impact of the early signing date, and overall recent softness of West Coast football do not give me confidence that we will reach the heights we achieved in 2010-2015 ever again (but I would love to be proven wrong!). The stars had lined up nicely in 2010 to give us such a great combination of playing and coaching talent, but I must admit that I feel greedy and wish they had lined up perfectly and we had been prepared for that onside kick or Owusu hadn't fumbled after being concussed...
1. Great recap; no doubt that Stanford team was the best one in my lifetime;
2. That Oregon game turned on a couple plays, imo, despite the final score. The first was the 1H onside kick - I maintain a desperation move by the Chipster who realized Stanford could not be stopped. The second was the horrendous offensive PI call on Stanford's first possession of 2H (?) that negated a long gain for a first down when Stanford was marching down the field. Instead, it was third and forever; and a punt. Between the onside kick and the O PI, Oregon seized momentum from a Stanford team that was dominating early. Stanford showed WAY more impressively in that game at Autzen than the stinker the next year at Stanford (imo). And both were very costly Ls from a national title chances perspective.
RE: The 2010 team and why this Orange tastes a little bitter to me - baymeadows3408 - 01-02-2021
(01-02-2021, 11:35 AM)teejers1 Wrote: That Oregon game turned on a couple plays, imo, despite the final score. The first was the 1H onside kick - I maintain a desperation move by the Chipster who realized Stanford could not be stopped. The second was the horrendous offensive PI call on Stanford's first possession of 2H (?) that negated a long gain for a first down when Stanford was marching down the field. Instead, it was third and forever; and a punt. Between the onside kick and the O PI, Oregon seized momentum from a Stanford team that was dominating early. Stanford showed WAY more impressively in that game at Autzen than the stinker the next year at Stanford (imo). And both were very costly Ls from a national title chances perspective.
Yeah, you can make the argument that you could totally change the outcome of the 2010 game by changing just 1-3 plays, but I don't think you can make that case for the 2011 game. Oregon controlled the 2011 game from the beginning. During the game I got annoyed with our coaching staff because I thought they got panicky and started to deviate from our normal routine of combining a power running game with play action passes, but I don't think it really mattered because we couldn't stop Oregon's offense. Of course, the disappointing 2010 and 2011 games made our 2012 victory over Oregon that much more satisfying, especially when you consider the defense's performance.
RE: The 2010 team and why this Orange tastes a little bitter to me - JohnR34231 - 01-02-2021
IIRC, what put the 2011 game out of reach was the offense's inability to do anything in Q3. The Ducks went into halftime with a one touchdown lead. then scored to open the 2nd half. Now the O had to respond. We couldn't move the ball, punted and Oregon fumbled the punt to give us another chance. We still couldn't do anything and had to punt again. Then the defense got one of their only stops in the half and we got the ball back deep in our own territory. We promptly fumbled the ball away, giving Oregon an easy score to go up by 3TD's. The offense finally got into gear, but it was too little too late.