Frustration on the Field

This year's 4-7 record is the same as last season’s. But if the 2003 football season was a roller-coaster ride, 2004 started with a promise that degenerated into a humiliating mess and cost head coach Buddy Teevens his job.

Teevens was brought down by a set of disappointing numbers: 10-23 in three seasons on the Farm. “Unfortunately, it’s a win-loss business, and I didn’t win enough ballgames,” Teevens said at a November 29 press conference. Athletics director Ted Leland, PhD ’83, had praise for Teevens, noting that the coach was a “fabulous educator” who “gave it his best shot.”

Defensive tackle Julian Jenkins, ’06, who was recruited by Teevens, echoed those sentiments. “He treated us like men,” Jenkins said. “He taught us that if you make a mistake, you go back and look at that mistake and see what it means to you—so a coach won’t have to tell you the next time.”

In Teevens’s final game on November 20, Stanford lost to No. 4 Cal 41-6, but the numbers that really told the story were seven personal fouls amid 14 penalties called on the Cardinal (with Cal taking five and 12, respectively). In one egregiously rough play in the fourth quarter, redshirt senior cornerback Leigh Torrence ignored a fair-catch signal and leveled Golden Bear punt returner Tim Mixon as he waited for the ball. “This isn’t football we’re watching,” said kzsu announcer Andy Aymeloglu, ’04, in the final minutes. “This is a bunch of angry players just trying to beat each other up.”

Although Stanford was pegged to finish ninth in the Pac-10 at the start of the season, the 11 seniors on the team had high hopes in the autumn. In the opening home games, the Cardinal defense held a consistent line while redshirt sophomore quarterback Trent Edwards performed confidently against San Jose State and Brigham Young University. Edwards connected with sophomore receiver Evan Moore for two touchdowns in a 43-3 win over the Spartans, and junior cornerback T.J. Rushing returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown in a 37-10 win against the Cougars.

The Cardinal lost to No. 1 University of Southern California, after leading at one point 28-17, and players were proud of hanging tough with the top team. “People know we’re for real, that this is no joke,” Moore said after the three-point loss to the Trojans.

Stanford regressed, however, in its turnover- and penalty-laden win over Washington, 27-13, which Teevens called the “ugliest game” he’d ever seen. A 23-15 nationally televised loss to Notre Dame followed, and seniors who had played in the Seattle Bowl under Fighting Irish coach Tyrone Willingham were confounded by dropped passes and missed opportunities. A pattern was beginning to emerge: the Cardinal would take a convincing half-time lead, then all but disappear in a lackluster second-half performance.

The Cardinal’s first road victory came in a 23-17 defeat of Washington State. But Edwards took a hard hit in the second quarter, resulting in a shoulder injury that sidelined him briefly. He was reinjured in the second quarter of the Cardinal’s 16-13 loss to Oregon on October 23, and watched as redshirt freshman T.C. Ostrander completed 18 of 29 attempts for 236 yards, including one touchdown pass for the Reunion Homecoming crowd. A 49-yard, game-tying field goal attempt by kicker Michael Sgroi, a redshirt junior, came up short of the crossbar.

Stanford suffered a 21-0 blowout at UCLA and dropped to 4-4, 2-3 Pac-10. Although the defense played with characteristic fortitude, the offense never quite got in the game, with only 83 rushing yards in 33 attempts. The following weekend, the Cardinal lost 34-31 to No. 23 Arizona State. It also lost Edwards for the remainder of the season.

The 24-19 home loss to Oregon State on November 13 shattered all hopes of a bowl invitation. At the 107th Big Game, as a sellout crowd of 72,981 watched from Memorial Stadium and an additional 1,000 onlookers clung to the grass on Tightwad Hill, the Cardinal came apart. The frustration of yet another losing season had taken its toll.