Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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GAME PREVIEW: STANFORD BY LOU SOMOGYI MCCAFFREY: THE SON ALSO RISES Twenty-five years ago, one of the greatest upsets in Notre Dame Sta- dium occurred when 1-3 Stanford, which lost at San Jose State the pre- vious week, shocked college foot- ball with a 36-31 victory versus the No. 1-ranked Fighting Irish. It ended Notre Dame's 19-game winning streak at home and was only the second loss overall in 29 games. Helping lead the Cardinal charge was 6-5, 215-pound senior wide re- ceiver Ed McCaffrey, who caught six passes for 111 yards while also adding a two-point conversion. He would go on to play 13 years in the NFL, win three Super Bowl rings and earn Pro Bowl honors as one of quarterback John Elway's top targets with the Den- ver Broncos. Don't look now, but on the silver an- niversary of that 1990 game, Ed's son Christian is now a feature performer at Stanford, and the sequel might be even more dangerous to the Fighting Irish defense. Behind a veteran offensive line and quarterback, the 6-1, 201-pound sopho- more McCaffrey ranked seventh na- tionally in rushing during Stanford's 8-2 start, accumulating 1,354 yards at a clip of 5.86 yards per carry. He and the Cardinal entered the sea- son inauspiciously with 66 yards on the ground in the 16-6 loss at North- western Sept. 5. The next week, his 20 carries against Central Florida (which started 0-10) netted only 58 yards (2.9 per carry). Starting with the 41-31 win at USC Sept. 19, McCaffrey eclipsed 100 rush- ing yards in eight straight contests (averaging 153.8 yards per contest) entering the game versus archrival California Nov. 21. In consecutive wins from Sept. 25 through Oct. 13, McCaffrey rushed for 206 yards in a 42-24 victory at Or- egon State, 156 yards and 9.2 yards per carry in a 55-17 win versus Arizona, and 243 yards, 9.7 yards per carry and four touchdowns in a 56-35 triumph over UCLA. Furthermore, his 2,418 all-purpose yards were the best in the Football Bowl Subdivision by more than 300 yards, and he was on pace to break Barry Sanders' 1988 single-season record of 3,250 for all-purpose yards TOP STOrylineS Sophomore Christian McCaffrey led the nation in all-purpose yards with an average of 241.8 per game through Nov. 14. PHOTO BY STANFORDPHOTO.COM