PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Stanford barely missed out on the College Football Playoff, and Christian McCaffrey almost won the Heisman Trophy. McCaffrey and the mighty Cardinal didn’t miss a thing in their Rose Bowl romp over Iowa.
McCaffrey caught a 75-yard touchdown pass on the opening snap and returned a punt 66 yards for another score while setting the Rose Bowl record with 368 all-purpose yards, propelling No. 5 Stanford to a 45-16 victory over the sixth-ranked Hawkeyes on Friday.
Kevin Hogan passed for 223 yards and three TDs in his final game for the Cardinal (12-2), who won the Rose Bowl for the second time in three trips over the past four years for this unlikely football powerhouse. McCaffrey was sublime in his debut at the Granddaddy of Them All, breaking the all-purpose yards record set by Wisconsin’s Jared Abbrederis in 2012.