The Stanford Football team has put together a ton of top-10 moments so far this offseason, debuting them week after week amid the coronavirus pandemic shutdown of all sports. They’ve been excellently crafted and are a great look back at some top moments in Cardinal football history.
The latest video counts down the top 10 quarterback performances under head coach David Shaw. They went as follows:
T10 - Kevin Hogan @ Washington State
October 31, 2025
Hogan had 14 carries for 112 yards, two touchdowns and completed 10-of-19 passes for 86 yards in the 30-28 victory over the Cougars.
T10 - K.J. Costello vs Notre Dame
November 25, 2025
Costello finished this game completing 14-of-22 passes for 176 yards and four passing touchdowns. The Cardinal cruised to a 38-20 victory over the No. 8 ranked Fighting Irish.
9 - Josh Nunes vs Arizona
October 6, 2025
Nunes blasted the Wildcats secondary for 360 yards on just 21 completions and two touchdowns but more importantly, he ran for three scores on just seven carries in the 54-48 overtime victory.
8 - Davis Mills @ Washington State
November 16, 2025
The first to appear in a game the Cardinal lost, Mills threw for 504 yards and three scores but was still outdone by the Cougars in a 49-22 loss. Mills averaged a whopping 15.3 yards per completion, though.
7 - Kevin Hogan vs Iowa
2016 Rose Bowl, January 1, 2026
Hogan tossed 12-of-21 passes for 233 yards and three scores with another rushing touchdown to boot, capping an incredible 12-2 season that almost saw the Cardinal enter the College Football Playoff.
6 - Andrew Luck vs Notre Dame
November 26, 2025
Luck completed 20-of-30 for 233 yards and four passing touchdowns as the Cardinal ousted Notre Dame, 28-14.
5 - K.J. Costello @ UCLA
November 24, 2025
Costello aired it out for 344 yards and five touchdowns on 23-of-37 passing. Behind those five passing scores, Stanford toppled UCLA 49-42 in a shootout.
4 - Andrew Luck vs Oklahoma State
2012 Fiesta Bowl, January 2, 2026
So this one didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but Luck put the world on notice of his downfield passing ability and his accuracy (as if they didn’t already know). He completed 27-of-31 passes for 347 yards and two scores but Stanford lost in overtime to the Cowboys, 41-38.
3 - Kevin Hogan vs Notre Dame
November 15, 2025
Hogan was on fire this night, rallying his team past Notre Dame, 38-36 behind 17-of-21 passing for 269 yards and four touchdowns. Stanford QBs have definitely had Notre Dame’s number.
2 - K.J. Costello @ Oregon
September 22, 2025
Costello led the Cardinal to an overtime victory over the Ducks. He completed 19-of-26 passes for 327 yards and three scores as Stanford came-from-behind to win it in overtime, 38-31.
1 - Andrew Luck @ USC
October 29, 2025
Luck torched USC’s vaunted secondary for 330 yards and three scores as well as a rushing touchdown but more importantly, outscored the Trojans in the overtime periods, 22-14, en route to the 56-48 triple-overtime win. It’s still one of the best games of the past decade.
Here’s the full video of the top 10 performances from a quarterback in the David Shaw era.
Comments
Hogan @UCLA 2014 deserves a mention
The guy was just in the zone, surgically demolishing that UCLA defense in the first half. He had like 1 incompletion (which was a drop by the receiver) and seemingly untacklable on broken play scrambles.
Otherwise though, the above is a great list. 1 thing that struck me was the sheer number of senior season performances. Hogan in his senior year and luck in his senior year is the exact reward for running a pro-style system because they can be mini-OCs out there changing stuff on the field. Makes the transitions tough for the system, but if Mills shows the same progression then we can expect great things next year.
By layman on 05.23.20 11:32am
Hogan @ UCLA in 2014 came to mind here too
Kind of an echo? Can’t complain about the list of 10, but there was an aspect of the 2014 season, 8-5, that put too much blame on Hogan for the 5-5 stretch. After that season ended, Graham Shuler, the starting center wrote about how the dismal stretch had all been on the TWU.
In the 2nd game, USC visiting, Hogan outplayed Cody Kessler, but key mistakes by his receivers, untimely penalties on the TWU, and early examples of untimely toreador choreography by the TWU, cost Stanford that game, 13-10. After that, offensive struggles seemed to fall on Hogan and Shaw despite the quixotic lack of TWU effectiveness.
After falling to 5-5, by a blowout loss at Autzen, the TWU allegedly had a come-to-whozit meeting to get back in touch with their responsibilities. Well, whozit must’ve helped, as the Cardinal blitzed Cal, UCLA, and Maryland, to get to 8-5.
Of course, it was good to come back to life at Cal’s Memorial Stadium, in the Big Game, 38-14, against a struggling Bears team, as Hogan outplayed Jared Goff.
However, that win didn’t diminish the surprise trouncing of #9 UCLA in Pasadena in the final league game. Stanford won 31-10 with a 2nd-half dominance. Hogan used the ground game for ball control and then ate the Bruins secondary’s lunch for key yardage.
After a mostly ragged season, the TWU had found its "A" game and Hogan repaid them by channeling Andrew Luck, with his arm and legs. Hogan was 16-19 for 264 yards, but should’ve been 18-19, except for 2 early in-the-hands drops by his top 2 receivers. Stanford won time of possession by 15 minutes over UCLA. That was game was a tour de force QB performance behind a TWU that had found itself—against a top-10 opponent. Hogan had looked good in 2012, 2013, and 2015 but he never looked better than in the 2014 UCLA game. If the TWU hadn’t slumped, Stanford had a better QB than their support had allowed to show.
Stanford went on to trounce hapless Maryland in the Foster Farms Bowl at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
By Candid One on 05.23.20 8:17pm
Don't forget how the TWU built on the finish to that season and carried over their good work into 2015
First-game loss at Northwestern, morning kickoffs PT have always given us trouble and Shaw mismanaged the pregame so our team was out there literally more asleep than awake, and later on Oregon which was a combination of a bad matchup for our defense and that unit having their worst game of the year. We won all the rest. You can argue whether we deserved the playoff, but my real wish is for a crack at Ohio State in that Rose Bowl. The Fiesta should have been Notre Dame and Iowa, giving the Rose the Cardinal and tOSU.
By Crafter Artisan on 05.26.20 8:21pm
Davis Mills in 2019 against No. 15 Washington
was better than most of the games on this list. It’s not all about stats. (21-30, 293 yards and a TD, 26 yards rushing)
By atg_commish on 05.29.20 11:02pm