No. 19 Stanford To Play Oklahoma In Sun Bowl

By JOSH DUBOW, AP Sports Writer

(AP) – When Jim Harbaugh arrived at Stanford after the 2006 season, he took over a one-win team that struggled to compete against college football powers.

At the end of his third season with the Cardinal, Harbaugh has No. 19 Stanford back in a bowl game for the first time in eight years against one of the game’s traditional powers. The Cardinal (8-4) accepted a bid on Sunday to play Oklahoma (7-5) in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31 in El Paso, Texas.

“It gives us some sense of pride that our football team played well enough this year to be matched against Oklahoma in a bowl game,” Harbaugh said. “That’s big. I’m excited about that.”

It has been an impressive turnaround for Stanford, which struggled for relevancy under coaches Buddy Teevens and Walt Harris before Harbaugh’s arrival. The Cardinal upset Southern California and rival California in Harbaugh’s first season, fell one win shy of a bowl bid last year before finally breaking through this season.

After starting the season 5-3, Stanford shot up in national prominence with an impressive final month of the season. The Cardinal beat then-No. 7 Oregon 51-42 on Nov. 7 and then knocked off No. 11 Southern California 55-21 the following week to move into the thick of the Pac-10 race.

A 34-28 loss at home to Cal in the Big Game cost the Cardinal any chance at a conference title but they responded with a 45-38 win over Notre Dame in the regular season finale.

The closing stretch also vaulted star running back Toby Gerhart into contention for the Heisman Trophy. Gerhart ran for 742 yards and 13 touchdowns in November, also throwing a TD pass in the win over the Fighting Irish. Gerhart leads the nation with 1,736 yards rushing and a Pac-10 record 26 touchdowns on the ground.

“I think Toby should win it,” Harbaugh said. “I think he epitomizes everything about the award, and I’m looking forward to being in New York to support him. If he doesn’t get invited, that’s the biggest rake job in the history of the award. I trust he’ll be there in New York and have a good chance to win it.”

Invites for the Heisman will be announced Monday and the award will be handed out Saturday. While neither team has started preparations for the game, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops has already seen enough of Gerhart to be impressed.

“I got to see a decent part of the USC game and just incredibly impressed with Toby’s toughness, just everything about him, his power, his patience to see the holes,” Stoops said. “Just a very impressive football player.”

This will be Stanford’s third trip to the Sun Bowl. The Cardinal It defeated LSU in 1977 and Michigan State in 1996. The 38-0 win over the Spartans marks the last time the Cardinal won a bowl game.

They haven’t played in one since losing the Seattle Bowl to Georgia Tech in Tyrone Willingham’s final game as coach in 2001.

Oklahoma started the season with hopes of making the BCS championship game for the second straight year, but those dreams were derailed by a series of injuries – including season-ending shoulder surgery for Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford. The

Sooners’ five regular-season losses were their most in Stoops’ 11 seasons as coach.

Instead of returning to the BCS, Oklahoma will by trying to snap a three-game losing streak in bowls dating back to a victory against Oregon in the 2005 Holiday Bowl.

Redshirt freshman Landry Jones filled in for Bradford and threw 23 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Jones, who was also recruited by Stanford, is excited about the opportunity to play in El Paso – about 3½ hours from his hometown in Artesia, N.M.

“It’ll be nice to get back down to that part of the state and that part of the country,” Jones said. “Hopefully, I’ll have quite a bit of people coming to the game.”

This will be the fifth meeting between Stanford and Oklahoma. The Sooners won three of the first four, winning in 1978, ’83 and ’84. The Cardinal won 31-14 in Norman in 1980.

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AP Sports Writer Jeff Latzke in Norman, Okla., contributed to this report.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)