Last year, USC waltzed into Stanford Stadium as the favored team with national championship hopes and a top-five ranking. This year, the roles have been reversed, as Stanford travels to the Coliseum as the favorite with a top-five ranking and rekindled national championship dreams.
In order to avoid suffering the same fate as the Trojans did last year, Stanford enters recognizing that the rest of the nation — especially USC, given the results of the last four years — is out to get them.
“We just try and go into it with a target on our back, knowing that teams are gunning for us,” said sophomore offensive lineman Johnny Caspers. “It’s USC this week so we definitely need to keep our guard up because it’s a huge game.”
Caspers is a part of an offensive line coming off of one of its most dominant performances in recent memory, pounding Oregon on the line of scrimmage all night long. The Cardinal finished with 274 rushing yards on an astounding 66 carries, including a school-record 45 carries from senior running back Tyler Gaffney.
“It’s pretty exciting,” shared Caspers about running the ball as often as Stanford did. “Just getting to beat up other teams; it’s a lot of fun. You start seeing teams wear down so it’s pretty cool.”
USC enters the contest with a top-20 rushing defense nationwide that ranks second best in the Pac-12 behind Stanford. On average, the Trojans only surrender 113.5 yards per game on the ground. However, Oregon’s defense was similarly hyped before being bulldozed at the line of scrimmage by Stanford.
“I think we need to keep doing what we’re doing and definitely finish the game off,” Caspers said. “Get our blocks, sustain our blocks, strain against those guys, because they’re great athletes — just really punish them on the offensive line.”
Stanford showed an ability to consistently gain yardage on the ground against the Ducks, even in tough third-down situations. The Cardinal finished 14 for 21 on third-down thanks in large part to an offensive line that moved the Ducks defensive line yards back on each and every play. Nine of the 12 plays on Stanford’s first quarter touchdown drive were runs, including three third-down conversions on the ground, and seven of the eight plays on Stanford’s second quarter touchdown drive were runs as well. The Cardinal also moved the chains on third or fourth down by running the ball a remarkable 13 times on the night (nine times with 1-3 yards to go and four times with 4 yards or greater to go).
“When we get into the right situation, when we have the right play, when we have the right calls going, when we’re communicating, that’s when I think we’re at our best,” Caspers elaborated.
Stanford hopes to receive an offensive boost against the Trojans as junior wide receiver Devon Cajuste stands to return to normal action after dealing with a knee injury the past several weeks and playing only limited time against the Ducks.
“[He’s doing] much better this week,” said head coach David Shaw regarding Cajuste. “[He] just looks more comfortable, more fluid. Earlier in the week he practiced for half the practice, [Tuesday] he went the whole practice with no issues.”
The Cardinal is sure to face a raucous crowd as the Trojans ride a three-game winning streak into Saturday night’s contest, hoping to reestablish themselves as a national power in front of ESPN’s College GameDay and a national television audience. In order to prepare for the hostile environment, Shaw has adopted his usual strategy of playing the USC fight song during practice.
“We’re trying to get to the point where we [hear] it so much that we get used it,” Shaw said. “They play it more than anybody … When we play at Oregon we play their fight songs and crowd noise as well. So when we play USC we play their fight song over and over and over.”
Stanford faces off against USC Saturday night at 5 p.m. in the Coliseum.
Contact Michael Peterson at mrpeters ‘at’ stanford.edu.