Photos

By Rick Eymer
Palo Alto Online Sports

Michael Thomas was over dancing with the school band, Toby Gerhart was surrounded by what seemed like the entire population of Stanford's 'Red Zone' student section, and most members of the Cardinal football team were whooping and hollering and jumping around like little kids.

Jamal-Rashad Patterson was off giving autographs to little kids with painted red 'S's' on their cheeks. Junior left tackle Jonathan Martin walked toward the locker room with a huge smile on his face. "How about that" he exclaimed to no one in particular.

No one seemed in any hurry to leave the field, wanting to share the glorious moment with the Stanford community at large. There hasn't been a bigger celebration at Stanford Stadium in eight years.

When Nate Whitaker's 48-yard field goal split the uprights with 11 seconds remaining to play in Stanford's 51-42 victory over visiting Oregon on Saturday, fans began gathering by every available gateway to the gridiron to enjoy the moment.

Stanford (5-2, 6-3) became eligible for a postseason bowl game for the first time since spending part of the 2001 holidays in Seattle. Tyrone Willingham, Stanford's coach at the time, has since been hired -- and fired -- to coach two other major college schools.

Jim Harbaugh, meanwhile, was sitting on the bench with the NFL Carolina Panthers as an extra quarterback pondering his future.

That future now includes travel plans for a bowl game and the possibility of ending Stanford's seven-year losing streak, the longest in school history.

"This is definitely my biggest win," said Gerhart, who missed the USC contest of two years ago with an injury. "I think this is bigger than USC because it gets us to a bowl game."

While the upset over the then top-ranked Trojans was considered the greatest statistical (USC was favored by 41 points) upset, and that concluded one of the strangest weeks on record, Saturday's win over the 7th-ranked Ducks carries the banner of ultimate success and the promise of more good things to come.

And just like Stanford wide receiver Evan Moore predicted before Stanford's win over USC, Gerhart echoed Harbaugh sentiments of possible success over Oregon.

What made Oregon, which had beaten the Cardinal seven straight before Saturday, vulnerable? The Ducks entered the game with the nation's 19th best scoring defense at 17.13 per game and Stanford averaged 31.88 points a game.

"We knew they could throw the long ball but we definitely had to play the run," Oregon linebacker Spencer Paysinger said. "Gerhart is a big boy and good back. He's a powerful back who kept his legs going."

The Ducks were committed to stacking the box and were slow to react to speedsters like Chris Owusu, who played brilliantly both as a kick returner and wide receiver. Redshirt freshman quarterback Andrew Luck played fearlessly, taking a couple of hits and still kept on ticking.

"We believe in ourselves as an offense," Luck said. "We know that we can play with anybody if we play mistake free. They're a great defense but we weren't intimidated by any means. If anything we were more fired up to go up against them."

If Arizona was his statistical breakout game, this was his coming out party. The best measuring stick for a quarterback, so conventional wisdom tells us, is winning. Stanford has won 67 percent of the time when Luck starts.

"Just an unbelievable performance by Andrew," Harbaugh said. "I don't know how you can play better. How can you play better as a quarterback? What can you say he should have done better? Who could have done better?"

Harbaugh won't get an argument from Oregon.

"We threw a lot of stuff at him and he was able to adjust," Paysinger said. "I think he's one of the best quarterbacks in our league. Stanford has made a great turnaround in the last two or three years."

Stanford returns to USC next Saturday for the first time since winning that 24-23 contest.

"Stanford played harder than USC," Ducks' tight end Ed Dickson said.

There aren't many rushing records for Gerhart to set these days. His 223-yard performance stands alone as the greatest single effort in a game. He carried the ball 38 times; losing yardage once, the second-most carries in a game.

Gerhart has 1,217 yards, a single-season best, and 16 touchdowns. Tommy Vardell scored 20 in 1991.

Gerhart became the second Cardinal to rush for more than 1,000 yards twice in his career, joining All-American Darrin Nelson, who did it three times. He also rushed for more than 100 yards for the 16th time, tying Nelson for the record.

"I was out there and people were saying, 'I can't believe you won,'" Gerhart said. "I was like, 'Have faith.' We were confident. There was definitely no fear going into this game. They're a good defense but we felt we could score on them and we did. The students storming the field -- that was an awesome feeling."