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Nov. 9, 1997
Cardinal Will Try to Bounce Back Against Cougars
Stanford (4-5, 2-4) at #14 Washington St. (8-1, 5-1)
Saturday, November 15, 1997 2:05 p.m. (pst)
Martin Stadium (37,600) Pullman, WA
GAME FACTS
TV and Radio Information
TV no live television
Radio - KSFO (560 AM)
Ted Robinson (play-by-play)
Bob Murphy (color)
KZSU (90.1 FM) - student
THE CARDINAL: Stanford's losing streak is now at four after last Saturday's 45-21 loss at USC ... The Cardinal (4-5, 2-4) is currently on its longest losing streak since the 1994 team dropped four straight ... After a 33-15 win over Notre Dame on Oct. 4, Stanford was 4-1 overall and ranked 16th in the nation ... Since then, however, the Cardinal has lost at Arizona, at home against Arizona State and UCLA and at USC ... Following Saturday's game at Washington State, the Cardinal concludes the season by hosting Cal in the 100th Big Game (Nov. 22) ... That game has already been announced as a sellout at 85,500-seat Stanford Stadium.
TYRONE WILLINGHAM: Now in his third season at Stanford, Tyrone Willingham, the 1995 Pac-10 Coach of the Year, enters Saturday's game with an overall record of 18-14-1 ... He has led the Cardinal to back-to-back bowl appearances and is only the third coach in school history to lead Stanford to bowl games in his first two years on The Farm (the other two are Tiny Thornhill in 1933 and '34 and Bill Walsh in '77 and '78) ... Willingham spent 17 years as an assistant coach on the college and professional levels before being named Stanford's head coach on Dec. 9, 1994 ... He previously coached the running backs at Stanford under Denny Green from 1989-91.
THE WSU SERIES: Stanford will attempt to derail Washington State's drive to the Rose Bowl when the two teams hook up in Pullman this week ... The Cardinal has won the last five meetings with WSU, including the last two in Pullman (36-28 in 1995, 49-14 in 1991) ... Stanford beat the Cougars a year ago 33-17 at Stanford Stadium after erasing an early 14-0 WSU lead ... The Cardinal leads the all-time series with WSU 27-19-1 and are 12-8-1 in games played in Pullman ... In fact, Stanford has won eight of the last nine in Pullman since 1974 ... In the last two games at WSU, Stanford beat the Cougars en route to advancing to a post-season bowl game: the Aloha in 1991 and the Liberty in 1995 ... The series has been a high-scoring affair of late with the winning team scoring more than 30 points 13 times in the last 14 meetings since 1977 ... Stanford has averaged 37.8 points (189 total) vs. WSU in the last five games with 31 points in 1990 being the lowest Cardinal point total during this time.
TROY'S TALE: Junior flanker Troy Walters is turning in one of the greatest seasons by a Cardinal receiver in school history ... He is on the verge of setting new school records for season receptions and receiving yardage ... Against USC, Walters, from College Station, Texas, grabbed 11 receptions for 209 yards and two touchdowns ... He also returned a punt 66 yards for Stanford's first touchdown of the game ... For the season, he has 72 receptions for 988 yards and five TDs ... He is just seven receptions away from breaking Brad Muster's 1985 Cardinal record of 78 catches in a season and he is only 130 shy of breaking Gene Washington's 1968 record of 1,117 season receiving yards ... His 209 yards receiving against the Trojans on Saturday was the third highest single game total in school history and it was also only the third time in Stanford history that a receiver gained over 200 yards in a game ... Walter's 72 receptions is also sixth on the Pac-10 single game list and with two games remaining in the season, he has a chance to break the all-time conference record of 90 set in 1995 by USC's Keyshawn Johnson ...
Walters ranks first in the Pac-10 and third nationally in receptions per game (8.0) and third in the conference and seventh in the country in receiving yards per game (109.8) ... Earlier in the season, Walters had 13 catches vs. Oregon, which left him one shy of the school's single game record of 14, held by four players ...A reserve player in '96, Walters finished the regular season by catching 21 balls for 291 yards in the final four games ... In his last 13 regular season games, he has caught 93 passes for 1,279 yards and seven touchdowns ... Walters is also fifth all-time at Stanford in career punt return average (11.8), fifth in career punt return yards (600), tied for fifth in season punt return average (12.3) and sixth in season punt return yards (323)
QUARTERBACK / PITCHER: Junior Chad Hutchinson (two years of eligibility remaining after the '97 season), is one of the top two-sport athletes in the nation ... He has been Stanford's starting quarterback the past two seasons - starting the last 21 games - but was replaced at halftime of last week's game at USC ... He and sophomore Todd Husak will compete this week for the starting assignment on Saturday at Washington State ... As a quarterback, Hutchinson is already among the top-10 all-time passers in Stanford history ... In baseball, he is 15-6 as a starting pitcher (114 strikeouts, 106.1 innings pitched) ... His 95 mph fastball is one of the reasons he is projected to be a first round draft pick in June, 1998 ... Hutchinson has thrown for 4,041 yards in his career (Sun Bowl stats do not count), placing him eighth on the school's all-time list ... After a 214 yard passing game vs. Arizona State on Oct. 18, Hutchinson moved past Mike Cordova (1973-75), John Brodie (1954-56) and Dick Norman (1958-60) ... He is 42 yards shy of Mike Boryla (1970-73) for seventh on the all-time list (Boryla passed for 4,082 yards) ... A former first round draft pick in baseball (26th pick overall by Braves, June, 1995), Hutchinson has been a starting pitcher for the Cardinal baseball team the past two seasons and will enter the '98 season as one of the top pitching prospects in college baseball ... He is eligibile for the major league baseball draft in June, 1998 following his junior season ... He began the '97 campaign by throwing for 302 yards in the season opener vs. San Jose State - the second 300-yard effort of his career ... He threw his third 300-yard game against Oregon (Sept. 27) when he completed 21-of-31 for 340 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions ... The four TD passes were a career-best and tied him with several others for eighth place on Stanford's single-game TD passes list ... In the last two years on The Farm, Hutchinson has participated in two bowl games (the 1995 Liberty Bowl as a redshirt freshman and the '96 Sun Bowl as the starting QB), two NCAA baseball regional playoffs and one College World Series, that coming last season ... He was a Freshman All-American in baseball in 1995 and last year he was the Offensive MVP of the Sun Bowl.
KAILEE'S CORNER: Senior DE Kailee Wong has earned the reputation as one of the top defensive lineman in college football ... He currently leads the Pacific-10 Conference in both quarterback sacks with 11 and tackles-for-loss with 20 ... He was among the final 12 for the Lombardi Award - presented annually to the nation's top lineman - and among the final 15 for The Football News Defensive Player of the Year Award ... A week ago at USC, Wong had five tackles, three tackles-for-loss and two quarterback sacks ... The week prior against UCLA, he recorded eight total tackles, seven unassisted, three tackles-for-loss and one and a half sacks ... He has already been chosen to play in the East-West Shrine Game at Stanford Stadium and the Hula Bowl in Maui ...Wong, a First-Team All-Pac-10 selection last season, is attempting to become the first Cardinal defensive lineman since Duncan McColl in 1976 to earn All-America honors ... He recorded a safety in consecutive games - vs. Oregon and Notre Dame - when he sacked the quarterback in the end zone late in the game ... In his last 20 games, he has accounted for 22 sacks and 41 tackles-for-loss ...He has at least one tackle-for-loss in all nine games and at least one sack in seven of the nine games in '97.
TODD HUSAK: The sophomore quarterback from Long Beach, Calif., was called on to replace Chad Hutchinson for the second half of last week's game at USC ... Husak responded by throwing for 266 yards and two touchdowns while completing 18-of-36 ... He will battle Hutchinson for the starting assignment this week ... Husak played in four games as a true freshman last year and had seen action in four games this year before last week ... He has completed 25-of-51 this year for 427 yards and three touchdowns ... He has led the Cardinal to four TDs in the last three games: an 81-yard drive vs. ASU, an 85-yard drive vs. UCLA and two TD drives vs. USC of 51 and 75 yards.
ALL-TIME GREATS: Mike Mitchell and Anthony Bookman rank third and fourth, respectively, on Stanford's all-time rushing chart ... Mitchell has gained 2,393 career rushing yards while Bookman follows close behind with 2,338 ...Only Darrin Nelson (4,033 yards) and Brad Muster (2,940 yards) have gained more rushing yards in Stanford history than Mitchell and Bookman ... On the school's career all-purpose running chart, Bookman ranks fifth all-time with 4,198 yards while Mitchell is sixth with 3,644 yards ... Both Bookman and Mitchell rushed for over 100 yards in three straight games (OSU, Oregon, Notre Dame), marking the first time in Stanford history that a pair of backs have each rushed for over 100 yards in three consecutive games ...Against Oregon State, Bookman gained 120 yards on 14 carries while Mitchell added 102 on 18 carries ... Against Oregon, Bookman gained 150 yards and scored two TDs o n 17 carries; Mitchell rushed for 109 and one TD on 24 carries ... Against Notre Dame, Bookman gained 142 yards on 14 carries, while Mitchell had a career-high 29 carries for 135 yards.
STANFORD INDIVIDUAL STAT RANKINGS (NCAA top-50 only) Name Category Avg. Pac-10 NCAA Chad Hutchinson Total Offense 189.67 5th 49th Troy Walters Receptions 8.00 1st 3rd Troy Walters Receiving Yards 109.78 3rd 7th Troy Walters Punt Returns 12.30 3rd 24th Troy Walters All-Purpose Yards 151.22 4th 16th Kevin Miller Punting 43.24 3rd 29th Damon Dunn Kickoff Returns 23.74 4th 42nd STANFORD-WSU STAT COMPARISON (ncaa rank) Stanford Washington State 25.2 (t56th).....Points/game...................43.1 (2nd) 28.8 (80th)......Pt.s. Allowed/game............23.6 (55th) 1100.............Yards Rushing.................1390 122.2 (86th).....Yards Rushing/game............154.4 (52nd) 166.2 (69th).....Yards Allowed Rushing/game....113.3 (t23rd) 15...............Rushing TDs...................21 193..............Pass Completions..............178 340..............Pass Attempts.................324 10...............Passes Had Intercepted........10 12...............Touchdown Passes..............30 2334.............Yards Passing.................3173 259.3 (21st).....Yards Passing/game............352.6 (4th) 122.9 (59th).....Pass Defense Rating...........103.5 (17th) 381.56 (47th)....Total Offense/game............507.00 (2nd) 380.7 (73rd).....Total Offense Allowed/game....326.1 (t32nd) 28-165...........QB Sacks By...................20-125 Washington State (8-1, 5-1 Pac-10*) 8/29 UCLA* W, 37-34 9/13 at USC* W, 28-21 9/20 at Illinois W, 35-22 9/27 Boise State W, 58-0 10/4 at Oregon* W, 24-13 10/18 California* W, 63-37 10/25 Arizona* W, 35-34 (ot) 11/1 at Arizona State* L, 31-44 11/8 SW Louisiana W, 77-7 11/15 Stanford* 2:00 pm 11/22 at Washington* 12:30 pm Stanford (4-5, 2-4 Pac-10*) 9/6 San Jose State W, 28-12 9/13 at North Carolina L, 17-28 9/20 at Oregon State* W, 27-24 9/27 Oregon* W, 58-49 10/4 Notre Dame W, 33-15 10/11 at Arizona* L, 22-28 10/18 Arizona State* L, 14-31 11/1 UCLA* L, 7-27 11/8 at USC* L, 21-45 11/15 at Washington State* 2:00 pm 11/22 California* 12:30 pm Pac-10 Standings (Pac-10/Overall) Washington State 5-1 8-1 Arizona State 5-1 7-2 Washington 5-1 7-2 UCLA 5-1 7-2 USC 3-3 5-4 Arizona 2-4 4-5 Stanford 2-4 4-5 Oregon 2-4 5-4 California 1-5 3-6 Oregon State 0-6 3-6
Radio Network
KSFO (560 AM in San Francisco) serves as the flagship radio station for Cardinal football in 1997 ... The network includes KYPA in Los Angeles, KPLS in Orange/Riverside, KTOM in Salinas, KKXX in Chico, KPSI in Palm Springs, KTIP in Porterville, KBUL in Modesto/Stockton and KTKZ in Sacramento.
On-Line
Information and current press releases on all Cardinal athletic teams can be found on the Stanford homepage on the internet at www.gostanford.com. All Stanford football games are broadcast live on the internet through AudioNet. The broadcasts can be accessed through the Stanford homepage.
Stanford Sports Magazine
Stanford Sports Magazine airs weekly throughout the football season on SportsChannel Pacific in the Bay Area ... Hosted by Stanford graduate Brian Webber, Stanford Sports Magazine is an inside look into Cardinal football, complete with game highlights, interviews and features with coaches and players and a look at the upcoming game.
THE OPPONENT
About Washington State
Location: Pullman, WA 99164-1610
Enrollment: 19,500
Nickname: Cougars
Colors: Crimson/Gray
Conference: Pacific-10
Stadium (Capacity): Martin Stadium (37,600)
President: Dr. Samuel H. Smith
Director of Athletics: Rick Dickson
Head Coach: Mike Price
Record at Washington St.: 51-48-0 (9th Year)
Career Record: 97-92-0 (17th Year)
1997 Record: 8-1 (5-1 Pac-10, 1st Place)
1996 Record: 5-6 (3-5 Pac-10, t5th Place)
Noting the Cougars
Washington State has been the surprise of the Pac-10 this season ... If the Cougars, currently 5-1 in conference play, can win their remaining two games (Stanford and Washington), and Arizona State loses a game, they will capture the school's first-ever Pac-10 title ... Washington State has not played in the Rose Bowl since 1931 ... WSU boasts one of the top offensive units in the nation ... Led by quarterback Ryan Leaf, the nation's third-rated passer (166.2), the Cougars are averaging a hefty 43.1 points per game, the second-best mark in the nation, and have posted 50 or more points three times ... The Cougars also rank second in the country in total offense, averaging 507.0 yds/g ... Leaf has completed 165-of-300 passes for 3,021 yards and a school-record 29 touchdowns ... Leaf's 3,021 yards passing is just 225 yards shy of Drew Bledsoe's single-season school record of 3,246, a mark he established in 1992.
Head Coach Mike Price
Price is in his ninth year at the helm of the Cougar program ... He is the second-winningest coach in school history with 51 career victories ... The Sporting News Pac-10 Coach-of-the-Year in 1989, Price is the only Cougar coach in the 100-plus years of the program to coach Washington State to two bowl games - the 1992 Copper Bowl and the 1994 Alamo Bowl ... Prior to his arrival at WSU, Price, a former Cougar player, spent eight years as the head coach at Weber State, compiling a 46-44-0 record.
The Last Time
Stanford kept its bowl hopes alive last season with an impressive 33-17 come-from- behind victory over WSU at Stanford ... Down 14-7 with just seconds remaining in the first half, Troy Walters returned a punt 75 yards for a TD... The play swung the momemtum to the Cardinal ... Just over one minute had passed in the second half when Cardinal quarterback Chad Hutchinson found wideout Damon Dunn for 58-yard TD strike ... Stanford took its first lead of the game and never looked back ... Hutchinson finished the day 15-of-22 passing for 206 yards and one TD ... The Cardinal secondary limited Cougar QB Ryan Leaf to 18-of-38 passing while picking him off twice
NOTEBOOK