A victory over Stanford on Saturday afternoon at the Rose Bowl wouldn’t do much to salvage the Bruins’ final record, but it would provide further evidence of the possibility of eventual salvation under coach Chip Kelly as his first season comes to a close.
The Bruins, 3-8 overall and 3-5 in the Pac-12 Conference, have already dispatched their archrival, USC. Now they get a chance to beat the team that’s been a giant sequoia blocking their path to supremacy in the Pac-12 over the last decade.
Stanford (6-4, 4-3) has won 10 consecutive games in the series, including a soul-crushing triumph in the final minute at the Rose Bowl in 2016 after it had appeared that Bruins coach Jim Mora’s efforts to remake his team in the model of the Cardinal just might work out.