The Rose Bowl BCS college football matchup between the Stanford Cardinal and the Michigan State Spartans is the Granddaddy of them all and the game will be on ESPN from Pasadena at 5 pm and streaming online from the WatchESPN website.
Stanford comes into the game after winning against Arizona State and now they get the chance to win another Rose Bowl and this time around they will be playing against one of the top defenses in the nation in the Spartans. Kevin Hogan comes in playing well for the Cardinal and he has led the team on a number of winking drives late in games and he may need to do that again in the matchup with Michigan State and he has two fantastic players to work with in running back Tyler Gaffney and wide receiver Ty Montgomery, who each have double digit touchdowns this season. Hogan passed for nearly 2,500 passing yards this season with 20 touchdowns and Gaffney comes in with over 1,600 yards as one of the best running backs in the nation and he has the same amount of rushing touchdowns that Hogan has passing TDs, while Montgomery likely will go over 1,000 yards for the season and 60 catches after already making 10 touchdown catches.
Stanford comes into the game against Michigan State in the Rose Bowl averaging 33 points per game and the defense has been one of the best in the nation while ranked in the top 10 and they are allowing just 18 points per contest and the team has been very productive on the ground, rushing for over 210 yards per game this season and the team was very impressive while playing against top 25 teams, going undefeated in seven tries this season. The Cardinal now can add another one of those wins to the list and the team comes in having won six of the last seven games of the season, losing only to the USC Trojans and now they play their third straight ranked team in a row and fifth in the back stretch of the season.
Stanford has had quite the schedule this year with a stacked Pac-12 and the team took down number three Oregon in an impressive contest and Michigan State comes in looking to get another big win after the team defeated Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game against the Buckeyes. Connor Cook passed for 304 yards in that game and now he comes in with 2,423 yards on the season with 20 touchdowns. Jeremy Langford has been very solid with over 1,330 yards on the season with 17 touchdowns and the Spartans come into the game with the fourth ranked scoring defense in the nation with just 12 points per contest and that will be the main focus for Stanford and the Spartans.