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The Washington State Cougars, coming off of a very important bye week, will travel to Stanford, California to take on the 17th ranked team in the nation, the Stanford Cardinal in Stanford Stadium. Last week, the Cardinal dominated the Cal Bears 21-3 in the earliest Big Game ever.
Vitals
Date: Saturday, October 27th 2012 at 3:15 p.m.
TV Coverage: Pac-12 Networks (National and all regional networks)
Internet Coverage: Video.Pac-12.com (With participating TV providers)
Tickets: Here
Opponent
School: Leland Stanford Junior University (a.k.a. Stanford University), Pac-12 Conference, Official Team Site.
Season: The post Luck era began in Stanford with dud as the Cardinal tripped out of the gate at home against San Jose State. They recovered and were able to sneak out with a win 20-17. The next week, they recovered with a much needed domination against Duke before they went into their major game against USC. In week three, Stanford shocked the Trojans, and the world, by taking control of the line of scrimmage, making USC's line look downright terrible and winning the game 21-14. Following the big USC win, Stanford came out with another dud in Seattle. Justin Wilcox's defense essentially shut down Josh Nunes and the Stanford offense and upset the high ranked Cardinal 17-13. The Cardinal faced back to back overtime games in the following weeks as they were able to send Arizona home with a heartbreaking loss after a shoot out before "losing" to Notre Dame in overtime following a controversial goal line call. Last week, they recovered by shutting down the rival California Bears in the Big Game in Berkeley.
Coverage: SB Nation's Stanford Blog Rule of Tree.
Important People
Head Coach: David Shaw, 15-4 in his second season at Stanford.
Cordinators: Pep Hamilton (Andrew Luck Director of Offense*) and Derek Mason (Defensive Coordinator)
*I'm not kidding, that's his actual title.
Key Offensive Players: Josh Nunes: You know how they tried to continue Happy Days after Ron Howard left? It wasn't very good. However, you know how they replaced Darrin on Bewitched after one season and no one really noticed? Is Josh Nunes, the senior QB out of Upland, Ca, A Ted McGinley or a Dick Sargent? So far this season, after 1484 yard, 9 TDs and 7 ints, he's been both depending on the game.
Stepfan Taylor: The senior running back has been nothing short of amazing this season. Taylor is third in the conference in rushing yards, with 846 yards, and has scored seven TDs on the season. CBS Sports is rating Taylor as the 5th best running back in the upcoming NFL draft.
Key Defensive Players: Trent Murphy: The senior linebacker leads the Cardinal in sacks, with 4.5, and was recently named a finalist for the Butkus Award.
Chase Thomas: Another senior linebacker who helps anchor the defense, along with Murphy. Stanford has the fourth ranked rush defense in the nation and held Cal to three rushing yards last week, approximately, 2 trillion fewer yards than they rushed for against WSU.