Roundup: McCaffrey joins Heisman race as Stanford makes itself CFP contender
What a performance – Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey broke the school’s single-game rushing record with a 243-yard night against the Bruins, pacing Stanford to a 56-35 victory over UCLA. FOX Sports’ Stewart Mandel writes that McCaffrey burst into the Heisman conversation, while Sports Illustrated’s Pete Thamel opines that Stanford is a College Football Playoff contender after the win over the Bruins. Also, Francis Owusu’s catch tho… (insert 20 fire emojis here, maybe 20,000).
Jack Wang gives us what head coach Jim Mora had to say after UCLA’s loss to Stanford in his postgame press conference.
Saturday action kicks off in Pullman, where the Cougs will host Oregon State (1 p.m. PT, Pac-12 Networks), and Jacob Thorpe writes that Washington State and Oregon State coach Gary Andersen are familiar with each other.
Meanwhile, Oregon State quarterback Seth Collins is looking to move on after a poor performance against ‘Zona, writes Gina Mizell.
In advance of the Trojans’ upcoming game at Notre Dame (4:30 p.m. PT, NBC), former USC greats Keyshawn Johnson and Willie McGinest spoke to USC players at practice Thursday.
Buffzone.com gives us a Colorado-Arizona scouting report. The Buffs welcome Arizona to town for a 6 p.m. PT/7 p.m. MT kickoff on FOX Sports 1.
Just another week in the rough and rugged Pac-12 South – No. 4 Utah hosts a hot Arizona State team at 7 p.m. PT/8 p.m. MT on ESPN, and Brennan Smith (ASU grad) of The Salt Lake Tribune (!!!) gives us a position-by-position preview of Utah-Arizona State. Quick, someone make Brennan a half-Utah, half-ASU hat like those Giants-A’s lids that always come out for the Bay Bridge series (by the way, you can’t root for both teams when one team is holding the other down, but I digress…).
The nightcap of all the nightcaps takes place on Montlake, where Washington probably feels like it has a really good shot of breaking that 11-game losing streak against Oregon. Unfortunately, Washington tight end David Ajamu is out for the season with a knee injury, reports Christian Caple.
Death, taxes and no resolution to Oregon’s quarterback situation yet, reports Andrew Greif.
From Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Media Day – Doug Haller writes that new Arizona State basketball coach Bobby Hurley got his official Pac-12 introduction Thursday in San Francisco.
Hey, wanna watch Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller play ping pong? He’s pretty good (up your game, Ashley). His ‘Cats are picked to win the Pac-12, btw.
Whoa, Czech this story out – the Associated Press reports that former Cal basketball coach Ben Braun called security to help escort Steve Bartman out of Wrigley Field during that fateful night in 2003 for Game 6 of the NLCS against the Florida Marlins.