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No one ever said rebuilding a football program was going to be easy. USC has been at or near the top of the college world for a long, long time and averages a trip to the Rose Bowl once every 2.2 years since 1967.

When Jim Harbaugh arrived at Stanford he envisioned the program winning multiple Pac-10 championships; at least more than the average of once every 12.6 years in which Stanford has been to the Rose Bowl since 1971.

The Cardinal demystified the Trojans' aura last year. Stanford even felt it played better during Saturday's 45-23 loss to USC, than last year's 24-23 victory.

Growing pains can be, well, rather painful.

"Our team is closing the gap," Harbaugh said. "We didn't get the turnovers like we did last year but we're a much improved team. That doesn't always show up in the win column."

Stanford showed it could run the ball against the Trojans in a big way. Toby Gerhart gained 101 yards on 23 carries to become the first Stanford runner to gain over 1,000 yards since Tommy Vardell in 1991 and just the fifth Cardinal ever.

Gerhart and quarterback Tavita Pritchard each recorded a run of 40 yards, the longest (by 14 yards) versus the Trojans this season.
Against the best defense in the nation, Stanford produced 367 total offensive yards, 202 on the ground, and 23 first downs. All three statistics are the most by any USC opponent, and the 23 points is the second most scored against the Trojans.

This year, unfortunately, the Cardinal (4-4, 5-6) has to settle with being the team that beat the team which beat USC.

"We played better tonight than we did last year," Stanford senior center Alex Fletcher said. "We watched the film of the first half (on Friday) and there were times we could not function as an offense. We caught more breaks last year."

Last year Stanford was 41-point underdogs heading into the USC contest. This year, the Trojans were favored by "only" 23. At least the Cardinal beat the spread two years in a row.
Stanford turns its attention to next Saturday's Big Game against California in Berkeley, and the last chance to gain a bowl berth.

"It's a one-game season now and we want this for the seniors," Pritchard said. "We want to get these guys a bowl game."

Stanford scored first Saturday, going 80 yards in seven plays on the opening drive, the longest drive of the season against the Trojans. It was also the first time Stanford scored on its opening drive.

The Cardinal found itself tied at halftime and well into the third quarter before USC righted itself in front of a capacity crowd of 50, 425 fans.

Anthony Kimble scored his 18th career touchdown, matching Bobby Grayson for sixth all-time. He added another 38 yards to his ledger and has 1,911 for his career, eighth best.

Gerhart needs 56 yards to set a school record for single-season rushing totals. Vardell had 1,084 in 1991.

"I'll take a win any day over getting 1,000 yards, especially for the seniors in their last home game," Gerhart said. "We were right there with these guys. We can beat them."

In the end, while Stanford was able to run the ball, passing was an adventure and the defense failed to keep big plays to a minimum. USC also ran a kickoff back for a touchdown.

"They gave everything they had," Harbaugh said. "It's tough to find fault with the way they played. We could talk about a couple of possessions in the second half. We had them backed up inside the 20 and if we got a stop there it would have helped."

Stanford linebacker Pat Maynor missed the game with a swollen right knee, and is questionable for the Cal game.

"Pat is a great football player," Stanford safety Bo McNally said. "He brings a lot to the defense. We have depth at linebacker but no matter who comes in to play it's hard to replace a guy like Pat."