PASADENA, Calif. — On Friday, Christian McCaffrey presented an argument to extend the Heisman Trophy voting beyond the regular season, and Stanford made the case that defeats suffered way back on Labor Day weekend should be discounted when ultimately evaluating teams for bowl games and in year-end polls.
McCaffrey, the Heisman Trophy runner-up who based his candidacy on toppling a single-season record for all-purpose yardage, outran even his sterling reputation. A master of many trades, McCaffrey amassed 368 yards by almost every conceivable means — rushes, receptions and punt and kick returns.
Stanford (12-2), which tumbled from the top 25 after a baffling loss to Northwestern before hoisting itself all the way to fifth, hammered sixth-ranked Iowa, 45-16, in a Rose Bowl lacking suspense apart from imagining what wondrous feat McCaffrey would pull off next.