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FARMED OUT: Teevens.
Gonzalesphoto.com |
This year's 4-7 record
is the same as last season’s. But if the 2003
football season was a roller-coaster ride, 2004 started
with a promise that degenerated into a humiliating mess
and cost head coach Buddy Teevens his job.
Teevens was brought down by a set of disappointing numbers:
10-23 in three seasons on the Farm. “Unfortunately,
it’s a win-loss business, and I didn’t win
enough ballgames,” Teevens said at a November
29 press conference. Athletics director Ted Leland,
PhD ’83, had praise for Teevens, noting that the
coach was a “fabulous educator” who “gave
it his best shot.”
Defensive tackle Julian Jenkins, ’06, who was
recruited by Teevens, echoed those sentiments. “He
treated us like men,” Jenkins said. “He
taught us that if you make a mistake, you go back and
look at that mistake and see what it means to you—so
a coach won’t have to tell you the next time.”
In Teevens’s final game on November 20, Stanford
lost to No. 4 Cal 41-6, but the numbers that really
told the story were seven personal fouls amid 14 penalties
called on the Cardinal (with Cal taking five and 12,
respectively). In one egregiously rough play in the
fourth quarter, redshirt senior cornerback Leigh Torrence
ignored a fair-catch signal and leveled Golden Bear
punt returner Tim Mixon as he waited for the ball. “This
isn’t football we’re watching,” said
kzsu announcer Andy Aymeloglu, ’04, in the final
minutes. “This is a bunch of angry players just
trying to beat each other up.”
Although Stanford was pegged to finish ninth in the
Pac-10 at the start of the season, the 11 seniors on
the team had high hopes in the autumn. In the opening
home games, the Cardinal defense held a consistent line
while redshirt sophomore quarterback Trent Edwards performed
confidently against San Jose State and Brigham Young
University. Edwards connected with sophomore receiver
Evan Moore for two touchdowns in a 43-3 win over the
Spartans, and junior cornerback T.J. Rushing returned
a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown in a 37-10 win against
the Cougars.
The Cardinal lost to No. 1 University of Southern California,
after leading at one point 28-17, and players were proud
of hanging tough with the top team. “People know
we’re for real, that this is no joke,” Moore
said after the three-point loss to the Trojans.
Stanford regressed, however, in its turnover- and penalty-laden
win over Washington, 27-13, which Teevens called the
“ugliest game” he’d ever seen. A 23-15
nationally televised loss to Notre Dame followed, and
seniors who had played in the Seattle Bowl under Fighting
Irish coach Tyrone Willingham were confounded by dropped
passes and missed opportunities. A pattern was beginning
to emerge: the Cardinal would take a convincing half-time
lead, then all but disappear in a lackluster second-half
performance.
The Cardinal’s first road victory came in a 23-17
defeat of Washington State. But Edwards took a hard
hit in the second quarter, resulting in a shoulder injury
that sidelined him briefly. He was reinjured in the
second quarter of the Cardinal’s 16-13 loss to
Oregon on October 23, and watched as redshirt freshman
T.C. Ostrander completed 18 of 29 attempts for 236 yards,
including one touchdown pass for the Reunion Homecoming
crowd. A 49-yard, game-tying field goal attempt by kicker
Michael Sgroi, a redshirt junior, came up short of the
crossbar.
Stanford suffered a 21-0 blowout at UCLA and dropped
to 4-4, 2-3 Pac-10. Although the defense played with
characteristic fortitude, the offense never quite got
in the game, with only 83 rushing yards in 33 attempts.
The following weekend, the Cardinal lost 34-31 to No.
23 Arizona State. It also lost Edwards for the remainder
of the season.
The 24-19 home loss to Oregon State on November 13 shattered
all hopes of a bowl invitation. At the 107th Big Game,
as a sellout crowd of 72,981 watched from Memorial Stadium
and an additional 1,000 onlookers clung to the grass
on Tightwad Hill, the Cardinal came apart. The frustration
of yet another losing season had taken its toll.
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