Cornerback Nick Sanchez and his teammates practically grew up with Captain Comeback and his sizzling QB arm.
"When I was younger, I was a Harbaugh fan," the fifth-year senior says. "I watched him with the Colts, and a lot of the other guys watched him, too."
Those Sunday afternoons in front of the family TV, seeing quarterback Jim Harbaugh pass for more than 26,000 yards and 129 touchdowns for five different NFL teams (Chicago Bears, Indianapolis Colts, Baltimore Ravens, San Diego Chargers and Carolina Panthers), made a lasting impression on the young men the captain now is coaching. "It helps us a lot to know he was a good college player on a winning team; he was a good pro player on winning teams and he's won at other [universities] as a coach," Sanchez adds. "He's been a winner everywhere, so he knows what it takes." (The nickname resulted from Harbaugh's penchant for turning a game around in the fourth quarter.)
For the past three years, Harbaugh was head coach at Division I-AA University of San Diego, where he compiled a 29-6 record, guiding the Toreros to two mid-major national titles. As the Cardinal prepared for its first season with Harbaugh at the helm, Stanford wasn't leading any poll parades, thanks to a 1-11 overall finish in 2006 and a 10th-place finish in the Pac-10 conference.
"With the record we had, it would have been easy for a [new] coach to think he had to rebuild and move on," says senior wide receiver Evan Moore, who didn't know if he wanted to stay on the Farm after the dismal '06 showing under former coach Walt Harris. But instead of bailing on the older players, Harbaugh placed calls to Moore and senior wide receiver Mark Bradford, who was injured most of last year, asking them to remain. "I really appreciate him taking the initiative to call myself and Mark," Moore says. "It showed that he really cared about what we had here."
Moore has 64 career catches for 1,074 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns, and Bradford is Stanford's active career leader in receptions (118), yards receiving (1,789) and touchdown receptions (11, co-leader with Moore). The two fifth-year receivers are now part of the core of experienced players that Harbaugh is counting on. "We're banking on our seniors," the coach says. "They're talented, they've got experience, they've been there before." But the Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football adds, "We understand that we are going to be in the fight of our lives in every single game we play."
With a home opener against UCLA on September 1, and seven more games in the new stadium, the Cardinal is happy to be suiting up in its own house. As players slipped on practice gear in August, Harbaugh was eager to put upperclassmen through conditioning drills and test 24 newcomers in a range of positions. "When they get out there and get pads on—that's when you start to know them," he said about the start of training camp. "You've got them all day, and it's tough and it's hard, and it's when you find out who the guys are who are going to win you games."
Harbaugh will mount a West Coast offense and an attack 4-3 defense. "The key to our success this year will be on the defensive side of the ball," he notes. "We expect to shut down our opponents' wide receivers so we can get eight men in the box [near the line of scrimmage]. We are dedicated to stopping the running game."
Fifth-year senior T.C. Ostrander will quarterback a team that's proud of its 15 returning starters—seven on offense and eight on defense—and the Cardinal already is wearing a steely game face. "T.C. knows us, and we know him," the 6-foot-7 Moore says. "He's very durable. He can take it."
Sanchez, whose 100 career tackles crown him leader among current players, acknowledges that he and his teammates "all have had our bumps and bruises." But not to worry, he said in August. "This is our last chance, we've got a good quarterback and we're ready to turn this thing around."
