Stanford: A College Football Team that Deserves Our Attention

On Saturday afternoon, i bet many of you were shocked when you heard that Stanford had beaten USC 55-21. When people think of Stanford, they think of bottom feeders in the PAC 10 or they look back to the days of John Elway and the classic "the band is on the field" play versus California. But now, they deserve being mentioned differently. This Stanford team lead by coach Jim Harbaugh deserves to be mentioned as one of the fastest rising teams in college football. Stanford is exciting and plays hard, physical football.

When Stanford first hired Jim Harbaugh, it got people's attention. Jim Harbaugh was a former NFL quarterback and gave Stanford a recognized head coach. Stanford struggled under Harbaugh his first two season there going 4-8 and 5-7. But now in his third season, Harbaugh seems to have turned everything around. Stanford is rolling at 7-3 and is coming off wins in consecutive weeks versus #8 Oregon and #9 USC. Stanford is now bow bow eligible and they are still in contention to go to the Rose Bowl.

There are a couple of reasons why they are playing so well. Coach Harbaugh has made Stanford a tough, blue-collar football team. The attitude change has had a very large effect on their play. They run the ball down their opponents throats led by running back Tony Gerhart. They have a good defense that is limiting opponents to 24 points-a-game. By having a good defense now, they never get far behind in games. Therefore, they do not have to change strategy on offense to get back into games. Lastly, Stanford is starting to recruit better. In 2008, Stanford signed espn.com's recruiting rankings #7 overall quarterback Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck is already the starting quarterback on the team and making a difference. Other recruits are also projected to make significant contributions in the future. The combo of these three things has made the rebuilding process go faster than expected for Stanford.

Stanford is a team that deserves our attention. They have won against great opponents on back-to-back weeks and are showing the signs of a very good team. Stanford is doing all the things that it takes for a program to get good. Right now is the time to start watching them. Because pretty soon, everyone will.