Stanford obliterates Iowa from start to finish in the Rose Bowl

Published Jan. 1, 2016 8:56 p.m. ET

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by Bart Doan

The Rose Bowl likes its own time slot, but even its committee had to be wishing it could move the Sugar Bowl up in starting time just to have something interesting to watch.

Stanford dismantled Iowa from the very beginning (literally, a 75-yard touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey on the first play of the game) to end, which arrived sometime in the second quarter, one that saw the Cardinal take a 35-0 lead into halftime and never look back en route to a 45-16 win.

Here was McCaffrey’s first burst on a day he owned in the Arroyo Seco:

Iowa came in with the 13th-best scoring defense in college football. By the half, Stanford had eclipsed what any team had done against the Hawkeyes all season. It was an unfettered disaster for an Iowa teamwhich had not been to the Rose Bowl in 25 years. In 1991, The Hawkeyes allowed 46 points to Washington. A quarter of a century later, surrendering nearly half-a-hundred to another Pac-12 team showed how little had actually changed in Pasadena.

Kirk Ferentz wanted this day to be special for his team and its fans. Ferentz was Iowa’s offensive line coach in the 1982 Rose Bowl, which also marked a time when the Hawkeyes returned to the Granddaddy after an absence of more than 20 years. (They hadn’t played in the game since 1959, the last time they won the event.) Ferentz could have re-ordered history with a win; instead, familiar Rose Bowl memories came flooding back to him and a fan base which flocked to California for some winter sunshine.

The Rose Bowl visuals were spectacular before the opening kickoff. Unfortunately for Ferentz and the Hawkeyes, Stanford and McCaffrey produced all the gorgeous scenes and pretty plays once the contest began.

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Stanford set itself up for big things in 2016, at least in terms of what people will expect from the Cardinal. Christian McCaffrey will be back, and he looked like Barry Sanders on Friday. (Coincidentally, Barry Sanders’ son happens to be a teammate on the Stanford roster.)

While the focus on 2016 will certainly gain momentum and traction in the coming offseason, stop for a moment and pause to consider how impressive this achievement is for the Cardinal. They played an ambitious schedule yet fell short of the College Football Playoff because of a late fumble in a loss to Oregon at home. Slightly better attention to detail could have carried the Cardinal into the playoff, but that second loss was too much for this team to overcome.

Missing the playoff stung, but coach David Shaw — having won three Pac-12 titles in the past four seasons — captured a second Rose Bowl title, the third BCS or New Year’s Six bowl the program has won since the 2010 season. (The Cardinal won the 2011 Orange Bowl over Virginia Tech under former coach Jim Harbaugh. Just imagine a Harbaugh-Stanford Rose Bowl or playoff semifinal in the coming years…)

Beyond Stanford’s success within the Pac-12, the Cardinal just completed their fifth season with a BCS or NY6 game in the past six years. It’s one thing to be consistent. It’s another thing to be consistent at a very high level.

For Stanford, David Shaw, and Christian McCaffrey, high-level consistency is a way of life. This idea was powerfully confirmed on New Year’s Day afternoon in college football’s most famous setting.

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