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Sept. 7, 1997
Stanford Prepares for North Carolina
THE CARDINAL: Stanford ran its winning streak to six games after a season-opening 28-12 victory over San Jose State on Saturday ... The Cardinal, which finished the 1996 season by winning its final five games, is currently tied with Penn State and Tennessee for the nation's longest winning streak at six ... Stanford and North Carolina meet for the first time this Saturday in Chapel Hill ... The Cardinal last played a team ranked in the top-10 on October 26 last year in a home game against Arizona State ... The fourth ranked Sun Devils won that game 41-9 ... Stanford and North Carolina will meet again at Stanford on September 19, 1998.
TYRONE WILLINGHAM: In two-plus years as Stanford's head football coach, Tyrone Willingham has led the Cardinal to consecutive bowl games and an overall record of 15-9-1 ... He is only the third coach in Stanford history to lead the Cardinal to bowl games in each of his first two years on The Farm (the other two are Tiny Thornhill in 1933 and '34 and Bill Walsh in 1977 and '78) ... Named the 1995 Pac-10 Coach of the Year, Willingham was chosen as a candidate for the Bear Bryant Award by one pre-season magazine and was named the Best Coach in the Pac-10 by another.
HOMECOMING: Saturday's game at North Carolina will mark a homecoming of sorts for Cardinal head coach Tyrone Willingham ... Willingham was born on December 30, 1953 in Kinston, North Carolina and graduated from Jacksonville High School in Jacksonville, North Carolina ... He left North Carolina in 1972 to attend Michigan State, but returned to his home state from 1983-85 as the defensive secondary coach at North Carolina State.
THE WINNING STREAK: Stanford's current six-game winning streak is tied for the longest current streak in college football ... Top-ranked Penn State and #3 Tennessee also have won their last six games ... Stanford has not won as many as six in a row since the 1991 team - with Willingham as an assistant coach - won seven straight to close out the regular season ... Included in Stanford's current six-game streak are wins over UCLA, USC, Washington State, Cal, Michigan State in the Sun Bowl and last Saturday's season-opening victory over San Jose State at Stanford Stadium.
MORE STREAKS: Since 1960, Stanford has posted two, seven-game winning streaks and six, five-game streaks along with the current six-game streak ... As previously noted, the '91 team won seven straight to advance to the Aloha Bowl while in 1969 and '70, John Ralston's teams combined for a seven-game winning streak ... The school record for longest winning streak is 18, set from 1904-06 ... Since WWII, the longest winning streak on The Farm belong to the 1951 team which ran off nine straight wins to open the season.
TWO-SPORT STAR: Junior Chad Hutchinson (three years of eligibility remaining) began his second season as Stanford's starting quarterback by registering his second career 300-yard game in last week's 28-12 win over San Jose State (18-for-36, 302 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT) ... Hutchinson, from Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, has been a starting pitcher on the Cardinal baseball team the past two years (15-6 career record) and is considered to be one of the top two-sport athletes in the nation ... He is rated as the fifth best QB in the country by Lindy's and sixth by The Sporting News ... Hutchinson has continued to improve since being named the team's starter in September of 1996 ... In his last five games, he has completed 91-of-150 (.607) for 1,126 yards and seven touchdowns ...In the seven wins in which he has led his team over the past two seasons, he has completed 135-of-211 (.640) for 1,674 yards and nine TDs ... Hutchinson, of course, was Stanford's number two pitcher in the starting rotation this past baseball season ... He beat Auburn in the College World Series opener last spring, and lost to evenual NCAA champion LSU ... He will be a junior in baseball in 1998 and will be eligible for the Major League Draft in June ...He was a first round pick in the June, 1995 Draft by the Atlanta Braves (26th pick overall) ... Following the 1997 football season, he will still have two years of eligibility remaining to play college football.
DURING THE STREAK: Since running its record to 2-5 a year ago, the Cardinal has been impressive in winning its last six games ... During this time, Stanford has outscored its opponents 186-90 - an average of 31-15 - and has been dominant in virtually every statistical category ... The Cardinal has out-rushed its opponents by an average of 157 yards per game to 61, has out-gained the opposition by an average of 385 yards in total offense to 313, has completed .633 of its passes compared to .469 for its opponents and has won the turnover battle 18-9 ... Through the air, Stanford has completed 114-of-180 and thrown seven interceptions while its opponents have been limited to 107-of-228 while being picked off 16 times ... Stanford has not allowed an opponent to rush for over 100 yards during the six games, but the Cardinal has managed to break the 100-yard barrier in each of the last five games ... Compare the Cardinal's numbers vs. its opponents during its six-game winning streak (*per game averages):
Tot. Turn- Passing
*Pts *Rush *Off. Overs PA-PC-.PCT-INT
Stan 31 157 385 9 114-180-.633-7
Opp 15 61 313 18 107-228-.469-16
BACKFIELD BUSINESS: Stanford's offensive backfield has gained national recognition as one of the best in college football ... In fact, both The Sporting News and Lindy's ranked the Cardinal offensive backfield number-two in the nation ... The reason for this lofty status is the four backs who return in '97 along with QB Chad Hutchinson ... In Mike Mitchell and Anthony Bookman, Stanford has two of the top backs in school history ... Combined, the duo has rushed for 3,662 yards and both rank among the top six in school history - Mitchell #4 with 1,888 yards and Bookman #6 with 1,774 career yards rushing ... Mitchell and Bookman will share the running back duties in 1997 ... At fullback, Stanford's tandem of Jon Ritchie (6-2, 240) and Greg Comella (6-2, 225) provide the Cardinal with one of the top duos of fullbacks in the conference ... The RB team of Mitchell and Bookman rank as one of the best tandems in school history ... Perhaps the last great pair of halfbacks to play on the same team were Darrin Nelson and Vincent White, who were teammates in 1980 and '81 ... Nelson is the school's all-time leading rusher with 4,033 yards while White is eighth in the record books with 1,689 yards ... Stanford has had other great fullback-halfback combinations in the same backfield - such as Tommy Vardell (FB)-Glyn Milburn (RB) in 1990 and '91 and Brad Muster (FB)-Jon Volpe (RB) in 1987 - but the combination of Mitchell and Bookman sharing the halfback position is without question among the best that Stanford has ever produced.
TROY'S TALES: Junior flanker Troy Walters began his first season as a starter in impresive fashion as he recorded a career-best 166 receiving yards in last Saturday's game with San Jose State ... Walters, who also tied his career-high by catching eight balls vs. the Spartans, came on strong over the final five games of last year and wound up with 32 receptions for 444 yards and a team-leading 13.9 ypr average ...Walters, whose father Trent is currently the outside linebackers coach for the Minnesota Vikings and was on the same Viking staff as Cardinal head coach Tyrone Willingham, has also proven to be a dangerous punt return specialist ... He returned three punts for 35 yards vs. SJSU, including an 18-yarder, and had receptions of 46 and 42 yards ... In his last six games, Walters has caught 30 passes for 466 yards, four touchdowns and a team-high 15.5 yards per reception average ... Walters ranks among the nation's best this week in receiving yards (5th), receptions (8th), all-purpose yards (10th) and punt return average (21st) ... His 11.2 punt return average places him fifth all-time at Stanford ... Walters, who was named the Special Teams Player of the Game in last year's Sun Bowl, had three receptions of over 50 yards last season and a 75-yard punt return, has now recorded six plays of over 40 yards or more ... Walters redshirted his freshman season in 1995 and has three more years of eligibility remaining (including the '97 season).
ACTIVE DEFENSE: Against San Jose State last Saturday, the Cardinal defense accounted for several big plays as it limted the Spartans to just 12 points ... Stanford recorded three quarterback sacks, five tackles-for-loss, picked off three passes, had eight pass break-ups, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery ... The Cardinal's pair of nickel cornerbacks who were receiving extensive playing time for the first time in their careers were very active as well ... Frank Primus led the team with eight tackles ... He also had one pass break-up and one forced fumble while Chris Johnson added seven tackles, one interception - in the end zone - and two pass break-ups.
KAILEE'S CORNER: Senior DE Kailee Wong has earned the reputation as one of the top defensive lineman in the country ... He has been tabbed as a consensus pre-season All-Pac-10 pick and a Second-Team All-American ... He is attempting to become the first Cardinal defensive lineman since Duncan McColl in 1976 to earn All-America honors ... A year ago, Wong tied for second in the Pac-10 with 12 quarterback sacks and was third in the league with 21 tackles-for-loss ... The Sporting News ranked Wong as the sixth best DE in the nation while Lindy's ranked him ninth ... Wong was also named by some magazines as a candidate for the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Award ... He added one sack against San Jose State in the season opener, giving him 13 sacks and 22 tackles-for-loss in his last 12 games.
SO FAR AWAY: Stanford's trip to North Carolina will mark only the second time in school history that the Cardinal has traveled to this part of the country to play a football game ... The only other time occured in 1972 when the two-time defending Rose Bowl champions beat Duke 10-6
STANFORD-NORTH CAROLINA STAT RANKINGS Category Stanford (NCAA) North Carolina (NCAA) Rushing Offense 148.0 (50th) 138.0 (56th) Passing Offense 302.0 (15th) 200.0 (63rd) Total Offense 450.0 (24th) 338.0 (67th) Scoring Offense 28.0 (t41st) 23.0 (t63rd) Rushing Defense 95.0 (t36th) 110.0 (50th) Passing Eff. Defense 82.8 (18th) 52.6 (3rd) Total Defense 331.0 (t50th) 172.0 (4th) Scoring Defense 12.0 (t22nd) 6.0 (t5th) STANFORD INDIVIDUAL STAT RANKINGS (top-50) Name Category Avg. Pac-10 NCAA Chad Hutchinson Pass Efficiency 118.5 7th 50th Chad Hutchinson Total Offense 279.0 6th 17th Troy Walters Receptions 8.0 t2nd t8th Troy Walters Receiving Yards 166.0 3rd 5th Troy Walters Punt Returns 11.7 4th 21st Troy Walters All-Purpose Yards 201.0 4th 10th Anthony Bookman Kickoff Returns 27.5 2nd 19th Kevin Miller Punting 45.2 1st 18th