Stanford will play against TCU in the 25th anniversary of the Alamo Bowl. The Alamo Bowl is currently the most prestigious Pac-12 Bowl outside of the New Year’s Six.
How Did We Get Here?
Despite opening the season 1-2 (with only a win against the hapless Rice Owls), Stanford regained its footing and rattled off eight wins in its last nine regular season games. Stanford capped off the season with upset wins over #11 Washington and #14 Notre Dame.
Even playing on a sprained ankle for much of the season, Bryce Love had arguably the best season of a runningback ever. He broke Christian McCaffrey’s single-game rushing yard record with 301 yards against Arizona State, and is currently only 46 yards away from McCaffrey’s single-season rushing yard record; he also currently leads the power five in rushing yards (1,973). Should he play in the Alamo Bowl, he almost certainly will break McCaffrey’s single-season rushing record in the bowl game.
Coming into the the Pac-12 Championship, Stanford was ranked ahead of Washington (by virtue of beating Washington earlier in the season). Despite Washington not even playing this past week and Stanford keeping the game against USC close (and possibly only losing the close game because of poor officiating), the CFP still opted to leapfrog Washington over Stanford for the Pac-12’s second and final New Year’s Six Bowl, leaving Stanford to the Alamo Bowl.
Who Will Stanford Play?
Although this will be Stanford’s first appearance in the Alamo Bowl, TCU is no stranger to the bowl. At the Alamo Bowl two years ago, TCU made the biggest comeback in bowl history against Oregon. After returning from halftime down 31-0, TCU defeated Oregon, 47-41, in triple overtime.
Perhaps the most compelling match-up in this year’s Alamo Bowl will be an unstoppable force against an immovable object. Stanford’s 6 yards/rush presently ranks 4th in all of FBS, while TCU’s defense only allows 3.2 yards/rush, ranking its rush defense 8th in all of FBS.
On the other side of the ball, TCU will be led by quarterback Kenny Hill, who last year moved into third-place for TCU’s all-time single-season passing leaders.
How Can I Watch?
The game is on December 28th at 6 PM Pacific Time on ESPN. Or, if you plan to pack up your bags to visit the Alamodome, it will be at 8 PM local time in San Antonio.
Comments
This is probably the best match-up we could have expected
given the way the season went. We have never played at the Alamo Bowl, and given our shaky start to the season and our four losses, this is a pretty good spot to end up in. I will be interested to see the Vegas spread when it comes out.
By Jeff Tarnungus on 12.03.17 12:24pm
My instinct is that the point spread will be very close...
…I don’t expect either team to be favored by more than two or so points, and TCU should have a little bit of "home cooking" reflected in the line (not as much as if it were a "true" home-field advantage, but they should get a little advantage due to how close the bowl is to TCU and how easily their fans will be able to travel to it).
By Matt Vassar on 12.03.17 9:35pm
Sure enough...
Sure enough, TCU opens as a 2.5-point favorite. I’d hazard to guess that if it were on a truly neutral field, TCU would’ve opened -1.5 or -1.
By Matt Vassar on 12.04.17 12:16pm
I think Love will play in the Alamo Bowl
But he will probably leave for the NFL after this season. I have to imagine he still wants to set the single season Stanford rushing record and break 2000 yards. He needs 27 yards to reach 2000 and 47 to break McCaffrey’s 2015 record. He should have that by the end of the first half.
TCU’s rushing defense is actually pretty good (4th in the nation); but their impressive statistics were amassed largely against Big 12 teams that do not emphasize rushing very much. Oklahoma is the most prodigious rushing team in the Big-12 and ranks 27th nationally. Then come Kansas State at #42 and OK State at #48. If our O-line is performing well and Walker Little is back and healthy, I like our chances to pound the ball forward in grinding TOP-style football.
By Jeff Tarnungus on 12.03.17 12:51pm
Love May Need A Marquee Game To Solidify His Draft Stock......
…given his injuries this year and his PAC 12 After Dark performances. Everything considered, this is a pretty good match-up to get.
Having said that, any NFL coach who has watched Love play through his injury has got to be impressed with what Love brings – beyond his ridiculous highlight reel runs in the first half of the season.
I think the fact that Love was not used in the pass game at all this year raises questions among NFL folks – who don’t see him as a between the tackles runner. McCaffrey was advertised similarly as being able to run between the tackles in the NFL and has had a hard time doing it (3.5 yards per carry….though he has picked it up considerably in the past 3 games). Having said that, Jonathan Stewart is averaging 3.2 yards per carry so perhaps the Carolina O-Line is just not delivering. There was a similar concern about Gerhart being able to catch the ball……..which he put to rest by pointing out that he was a center fielder on the the Stanford baseball team!
By hoyaparanoia on 12.03.17 1:38pm
I think there’s already plenty of tape on healthy Love to nfl scouts
I hope Bryce is seriously considering sitting this one out if his draft consultations indicate first/second round status. Mccaffrey has paved the way for skipping the bowl without any hard feelings from the team and nfl. Or at the very least get stanford to pay his injury insurance from that $3mn Alamo payout. I’ve felt bad seeing him limp around for a month, if he gets injured in the bowl game like Chryst I would feel horribly. Honestly who cares if we lose Alamo bowl, let’s see what speights and scarlet can do. If they can’t make plays in Shaw’s run up the middle first second down / we bow to no one style, then it’s better to know that now and give Shaw an entire off-season to hire somebody or figure out how to adjust for next year. Bryce has covered a multitude of play calling deficiencies this year which will get exposed once hes in the nfl. we sure could use a head start on next seasons preparation since Shaw teams always take 2-3 games to get up to speed. Let’s get to the rose bowl next year before Chip Kelly is fully up and running.
By nerdnationfan on 12.05.17 5:03am
I heard from a fairly reliable source
that there is more than a 50% chance that Love will return next year to finish his degree in Human Biology. If this is the case, his participation in the bowl game would depend more on the state of his ankle than on any draft considerations. Let’s see what he says after the Heisman ceremony.
By Jeff Tarnungus on 12.05.17 6:02am
i certainly respect his desire to finish his pre-med courses and go to med school
and as a hum bio major he has undoubtedly looked into CTE risks. if he comes back I just hope shaw has a plan for reducing every unnecessary sub-concussive hit he takes in practice next year. On game day as a RB he’s already getting tackled or blocking bigger LB’s or DL’s on 25+ plays. all those hits add up.
By nerdnationfan on 12.05.17 7:00am
I think
we are living through the last years of the sport as we know it, really. The rules are going to change, bigly (not tweaks), and they probably have to change in a major way for the sport to continue.
I do not think that Shaw will treat Love any differently from anyone else in practice if he returns, however, until the rules are changed, which is more like a 5-15 year horizon.
By Brendan Ross on 12.05.17 2:13pm
Though Love sat out most of the drills this fall?
I thought I read that coming into Fall camp, Love was not carrying the ball much in contact drills.
By Blackjoy on 12.05.17 4:25pm
Interesting
Wasnt aware of that.
By Brendan Ross on 12.05.17 4:29pm
May come sooner than 5-15 years
The Monday night football game yesterday with the lb injuring his back on a routine tackle and not being able to move his legs on the field. what a sobering and depressing scene for the nfl, and then more targeting penalties in the game after that.
And the commissioner goodell wants lifetime medical insurance for himself and his family in his new compensation package when the players who risk life and limb and brain on the field don’t get that? Wow.
Here’s a thought. All NCAA football players get free medical insurance for life for any sports related injuries. If you won’t pay them, at least be responsible for any medical needs after they graduate. Although with cte I dunno if any kind of treatment will help.
By nerdnationfan on 12.05.17 5:29pm
Love will stay
.. never hear McCaffrey say he wants to be a pediatrician
By SD2DS on 12.03.17 2:04pm
Med schools have banned ex-NFL players? That’s terrible.
By Cardinal&Orange on 12.03.17 9:32pm
So thinking out loud about 'what-if'
If WSU would have won the North and lost to USC in the P12 CG, Stanford could have been in a NY6 game.
I base this on us getting penalized for losing the P12 CG and dropping from #12 to #13 in the Committee’s final rankings instead of finishing the year winning 8 of our last 9 including 2 of the last 3 against Top 10 teams.
Washington moved up two spots to #11 and goes to the Fiesta Bowl to face Penn State.
A Love/Barkley match up would have been interesting.
Or we could have just could have executed better and beat USC.
By Cardinal-in-TX on 12.03.17 2:20pm
This Is Entirely Plausible...
…based on how things played out for Washington. Having said that, in a year without the Rose Bowl, whether we play #9 Penn State in the Fiesta or #15 TCU in the Alamo is about the same to me (I know, NY6 and all)…………………..but only because we got a good bowl draw. It could have been much much worse and then I would be more upset. Surprised that we were able to hold at #13. Best 4 loss team in the country!
By hoyaparanoia on 12.03.17 3:13pm
9 points shy
plus 3, of being 11-1. It’s a close thing, this football, at least the way Stanford plays it. I would like to see a return to the 25 point beatdowns we used to get when A. Luck ran the O (of course, he had pretty good D, too; not to disparage Horrible Harry – we just needed his two twin brothers this year).
By jafco99 on 12.06.17 3:06pm
In that scenario, I’m thinking WSU is in the NY6 (and we’re still out)
The difference between that scenario and the current scenario is one of records: Stanford right now is 9-4, whereas UW is 10-2. Yes, Stanford won the head-to-head, but also has two more losses and one fewer win.
In your hypothetical scenario, WSU would be 10-3, while Stanford and UW would each be 9-3. Put another way: not only does WSU have the better record, but it also would’ve won the head-to-head against both Stanford and UW. By virtue of that, I think WSU would be in while Stanford/UW would be on the outside looking in.
By Matt Vassar on 12.03.17 3:24pm
That's my thinking, as well
Wazzu would have been in the NY6 in that scenario. If we hadn’t lost to SDSU and had been sitting at 10-3 after the Pac-12 championship game, we might have had a shot. At #13, we were not far away.
By Jeff Tarnungus on 12.04.17 12:07am
Hey y'all
Just wanted to pop in and say hello from the TCU side. I love (see what I did there) this matchup and think the run game of the Cardinal matched up against a Gary Patterson defense that emphasizes stopping it will be fascinating to watch. I have family ties to Stanford Athletics, so I have watched just about every game you have played the last few seasons and feel like this should be a really fun, really exciting game.
In fact, I was at the Rose Bowl watching Stanford dominate the night before I went to the last Alamo Bowl TCU played in.
Also, San Antonio is a GREAT city, the food is unbelievable, and the bowl itself is a good experience. I encourage you to come down to Texas if you can.
Looking forward to a fun couple of weeks leading up to the game and interacting with your community. Happy Holidays!
By Melissa B. Triebwasser on 12.03.17 7:20pm
Thank You For Your Texas Hospitality
I know from experience it is sincere and heartfelt. Won’t make the game but have relatives in San Antonio and all you say is true.
I think it is a great match-up, with two teams that fell short in their respective conference championships battling it out.
TCU has a great football tradition. Looking forward to the game!
By hoyaparanoia on 12.03.17 7:41pm
Great to have you, Melissa!
I love your campus! And Heim BBQ! And, you’re right; this is going to be an incredible game!
Go Frogs! (Well, maybe "Go Frogs" AFTER 2018…)
By Matt Vassar on 12.03.17 8:23pm
TX Christian versus the team of Love and of Chryst
A match made in heaven (if you believe in that sort of thing).
Though in the end Stanford will win, because Meeks shall inherit the Earth.
By Cardinal&Orange on 12.03.17 9:45pm
If only St. Brown had come here, the puns would have been innumerable.
By hpaskov on 12.04.17 12:01am
Osiris St. Brown Did!
So we have a saint and an Egyptian god of the the underworld working on behalf of the Cardinal.
By hoyaparanoia on 12.04.17 11:24am