Stanford Cardinal (9-3)
North Carolina Tar Heels (8-4)
December 30, 2016 • 11 a.m. PT
Sun Bowl (50,426) • El Paso, Texas
Game Notes Depth Chart Live Stats Tickets
TelevisionLive national broadcast on CBS with Brad Nessler (play-by-play), Gary Danielson (analyst) and Allie LaForce (sideline).
RadioLive coverage on Stanford's flagship station -- KNBR 1050 AM -- with Scott Reiss '93 (play-by-play), Todd Husak '00 (analyst) and John Platz '84 (sideline). The broadcast begins one hour before kickoff with the Cardinal Tailgate Show and concludes with the postgame Cardinal Locker Room Report. The game can be heard on Stanford student radio -- KZSU 90.1 FM -- and online at kzsulive.stanford.edu. Sirius Satellite Radio (channel 132) and XM Satellite Radio (channel 132) will carry a national broadcast.
On the WebGoStanford.com • GoHeels.com • #GoStanford
Notes
- Stanford makes its 28th all-time -- and school-record eighth straight -- bowl appearance Dec. 30 when it faces North Carolina in the Sun Bowl. It is the third meeting between the programs and first since 1998.
- Stanford is 2-1 in its previous Sun Bowl showdowns, 1-1 all-time against North Carolina, 9-10 all-time against current Atlantic Coast Conference programs. Under head coach David Shaw, Stanford is 4-2 on neutral sites, 48-15 coming off a win, 43-7 vs. unranked opponents, 3-0 in December, 7-1 on Friday, 6-2 in the postseason and 3-2 in bowl games.
- With a win, the Cardinal's three Sun Bowl victories would tie for fourth all-time in the game's history. The Sun Bowl and the Rose Bowl Game are the only bowls in which Stanford has played more than once.
- North Carolina is Stanford's fifth bowl opponent originating from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Stanford is 1-3 in the previous four matchups, with the lone win coming over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl following the 2010 season.
- The Sun Bowl will be the school-record sixth bowl game for head coach David Shaw. Shaw is tied with Bill Walsh for most bowl wins -- three -- in Stanford history.
- Stanford is aiming for its sixth 10-win season this decade, trailing only Alabama (8). Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma also have six 10-win seasons this decade.
- Stanford has won at least eight games for a school-record eighth straight year, and the eight-year bowl streak leads the Pac-12.
- Stanford ranks 17th nationally in scoring defense (20.2) and defensive touchdowns (3), and 18th in sacks (2.92) and time of possession (32:48).
- All-America running back Christian McCaffrey leads the nation with 211.6 all-purpose yards/game and is seventh with 1,603 rushing yards. He's fourth with 145.7 rushing yards/game, a figure that leads the Pac-12. He has 16 total touchdowns, third-best among conference players and 18th nationally.
- For his career, McCaffrey is averaging 183.87 all-purpose yards/game, the most of any active FBS player. LSU's Leonard Fournette (155.66) is second.
- Stanford has held 11 of its 12 opponents under their season scoring average.
- Stanford's 75 wins this decade are the most of any private school, ahead of TCU (64), Baylor (63), USC (61) and Notre Dame (59).
- Stanford has won at least 11 games four times in five seasons under head coach David Shaw. From 1891-2010, the program recorded four 10-win seasons.
- Situated in the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford's student-athletes are afforded the opportunity to experience the latest in cutting-edge technology, as the origins of some of the greatest hi-tech breakthroughs and most dynamic companies can trace their roots back to The Farm.
- STRIVR Labs co-founder and former Cardinal kicker Derek Belch has created a truly immersive, fully customizable virtual reality experience specifically for football teams. The platform has already changed the way Stanford's student-athletes prepare, and high school, college, and NFL teams are close behind.
- With the help of the Cardinal football team, a group of Stanford doctors and neuroscientists have been working to quantify the head trauma that players sustain during a game. The researchers developed custom mouth guards equipped with accelerometers and gyrometers that measure linear and rotational acceleration -- essentially, how violently the head gets whipped around during a game. The data from the sensors, which the scientists pull from the mouth guards after games and practices throughout the season, provides critical baseline data of how many jarring hits players typically experience.
- Temperature-regulation research of Stanford biologists H. Craig Heller and Dennis Grahn led to a device that rapidly cools body temperature and greatly improves exercise recovery. This is the sort of claim you see in spam email subject lines, not in discussions of mammalian thermoregulation. By taking advantage of specialized heat-transfer veins in the palms of hands, "the glove" can rapidly cool athletes' core temperatures -- and dramatically improve exercise recovery and performance.
- The program partnered with APTUS Sports to maximize athletic and academic development. Prior to the season, each player completed 10 game-like exercises in 30 minutes on a special tablet that assessed how quickly and accurately they learn, react and adjust. APTUS analyzed individual, group and team data, and reported the findings to the coaching staff.
- In 2012, Stanford became the first college program to use iPad playbooks, saving countless trees, dollars and man-hours.