Posted by ESPN.com's Ted Miller
Stanford nearly took a giant step forward in 2008, almost earning its first bowl berth in seven seasons. But the Cardinal fell short by losing four of its final five games after a 4-3 start.
The good news is second-year coach Jim Harbaugh's emphasis on a blue-collar, hard-nosed approach seems to be taking root. Stanford played physical football, particularly on offense, where 230-pound running back Toby Gerhart led a rushing attack that averaged just under 200 yards a game and ranked 22nd in the country.
The bad news is the Cardinal still lacks the athleticism to play at an elite level, particularly in the secondary, which allowed opponents to complete 63 percent of their passes. The positive addendum to that is Harbaugh is proving to be an outstanding recruiter, so more athletes should be coming in.
The season highlights included a victory over Oregon State in the opener and a comeback win over Arizona. The lowlights was the late-season slide, which included a blowout loss to rival California in the Big Game.
Offensive MVP: Gerhart become Stanford's first 1,000-yard rusher since "Touchdown" Tommy Vardell eclipsed the benchmark number in 1991. Gerhart, a physical runner with surprising speed, finished with 1,136 yards and 11 touchdowns, averaging 5.4 yards per rush.
Defensive MVP: Linebacker Pat Maynor finished second on the Cardinal defense with 69 tackles, including 8.5 for a loss, four of which were sacks. He also forced a fumble and defended five passes. He also set a tough-guy tone for a defense that was often overmatched athletically with his physical style.
Turning point: While Stanford's season feels like a moderate success, the clear turning point is a negative one: On Oct. 18, needing two wins to become bowl eligible -- with a gimme against Washington State remaining on the schedule -- the Cardinal yielded a winning touchdown pass to UCLA's beleaguered quarterback Kevin Craft with 10 seconds left and lost 23-20. That was the first of four losses in five games -- and by far the most winnable of a difficult stretch -- that prevented the Cardinal from earning a bowl berth.
What's next: With a solid cast returning and a good recruiting class expected to arrive, Stanford should take the next step forward and earn a bowl berth next year. The first big question this spring will be, of course, at quarterback. The passing game needs to improve, and the question will be whether it will improve most with incumbent starter Tavita Pritchard or hotshot freshman Andrew Luck, who redshirted this season. There are a couple of holes on the offensive line, defensive line and linebacker, but the Cardinal should go into 2009 with a nice mix of youth and experience.
Ted Miller has been covering college football since 1997, starting with Auburn and then heading West to Washington and the Pac-10. His columns for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer won first place in 2007 APSE Best Writing contest. The Atlanta native and University of Richmond graduate presently lives with his wife in Scottsdale, Ariz.
