Stanford football came up just short against USC, but still managed to reach the Pac-12 title game. What can we take away from the 2017 season for the Cardinal?
It was a season of highs and lows for Stanford. They missed out on winning the Pac-12, but they also came far closer than might have been expected in the preseason. The Cardinal started the season 1-2 after losses on the road to USC and San Diego State. David Shaw‘s crew also fell against Washington State and looked for stretches like the third-best team in the Pac-12 North.
Yet an upset over Washington opened the door for a Stanford resurgence. When the Huskies beat Washington State in the Apple Cup, the Cardinal won the division crown. They got a second chance against the Trojans in the Pac-12 championship game, and they played a lot closer the second time around. But with a hobbled star in the backfield, Stanford fell short again against USC.
It was hardly a perfect season in Palo Alto, but the Cardinal still came through on many of their goals. As they prepare for their first-ever trip to San Antonio to play TCU in the Alamo Bowl, Stanford can look back on a season that exhibited spectacular victories and defeats that largely made sense. Of course, they didn’t have all the answers. But a win over the Horned Frogs would put the Cardinal at 10 wins for the seventh time in the past eight seasons.
What are the overriding lessons that Stanford fans and followers of other Pac-12 teams take away from the 2017 regular season that ended in a narrow defeat for the league title? Here are five things to take away from another solid year on the Farm.