Ball also said his team is rolling now after its 70-31 rout of Nebraska in the Big Ten title game.
Stanford, as a football program, doesn't raise goose pimples. The team is top 10 but couldn't even fill its own stadium for the Pac-12 title game.
If they don't care, why should we?
Oregon (11-1) ended up with a better overall record but couldn't hold a fourth-quarter lead against Stanford in Eugene.
The Cardinal, though, is also only a couple of plays from playing for the national title. There was an inexplicable loss at Washington in which Stanford squandered a last chance to win when one of its players jumped offside. The defeat at Notre Dame, decided in overtime and in the replay booth, will be debated for years.
Both losses came before Shaw made the quarterback switch to Hogan, who has gone 4-0 as the starter and invigorated the post-Luck offense. All four of the wins have come against ranked opponents. Since replacing starter Josh Nunes during the first half Nov. 3 against Colorado, Hogan has completed 72.7% of his passes with eight touchdowns, and has rushed for 193 yards. He was named most valuable player in Stanford's Pac-12 title-game win over UCLA.
You can wonder about Stanford being 13-0 had the move to Hogan been made sooner, but the smart people who follow and coach at Stanford say the redshirt freshman wasn't ready.
Even Hogan says it:
"I think my knowledge of the playbook probably held me back," he acknowledged. "The coaches knew I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to go in at the time."
After a sluggish start for the bowl, the weather, the reporters and the teams, it appears everyone is ready now.
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