So much unintended humor in this article. Start with the fact that Stanford and Rice are going to play in a stadium half the size of the one we played in last year (you can take the boys out of Circus Minimus, but you can't take Circus Minimus out of the boys). They are doing this in order to be "closer to town" and "stay connected to Sydney's immediate community." For anyone who has ever been to Sydney, that's just comedic gold - if anything more of the "Sydney community" lives nearer the Olympic stadium than they do the financial district - but why should the facts get in the way of a good story.

Then of course, proving he's completely out of his mind, Bruce Jenkins expresses his admiration for the Stanford band despite being "a Cal man." The band of course was suspended last December for hazing, sexual assault, etc., but then in a wholly unprecedented and completely unexpected turn of events

:sarc:

was reinstated after they promised to be good. Sadly the band won't be making the trip to Australia for financial reasons. So there's some hope Australia's generally favorable view of our country will survive this trip.

You'll note that Stanford is bringing its own goal posts to the game. We talked a lot about Cal doing the same last year. What the article fails to mention is that Cal actually left its goal posts in Australia (they didn't make the return trip). Maybe we stipulated they could be used by anyone but Stanford?

Anyway, Go Rice!

http://www.sfchronicle.com/college/jenkins/article/Stanford-plots-a-no-surprises-trip-to-Australia-11824616.php#photo-13762169

My wife and I had so much fun last year over there. We skied in NZ on the South Island for a week first and then went on to Sydney for a week to see the boys. Can't believe it has been a year already.

Go Bears!

Quote:

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Cal played its game in Sydney's Olympic Stadium, a gorgeous facility but about an hour out of town. Stanford will play in Allianz Stadium, a natural-grass venue used mostly for rugby matches with about half the capacity (at 45,000) as the Olympic facility.

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Attendance for the Cal-Hawaii game was 61,247, so either Stanford's reputation precedes itself, or they expected interest in "gridiron" to go down substantially after first-year curiosity about the game.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-colleges-california-hawaii-australia-spt-20160828-story.html

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The concession stands, however, appeared to be unprepared for the crowds. Stadium officials said 70,000 cups of beer were sold, but one spectator tweeted he waited in line for an hour, while another said the reason there were so many empty seats is that most of the fans were in a queue somewhere.

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TouchedTheAxeIn82;842862596 said:

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Attendance for the Cal-Hawaii game was 61,247, so either Stanford's reputation precedes itself, or they expected interest in "gridiron" to go down substantially after first-year curiosity about the game.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-colleges-california-hawaii-australia-spt-20160828-story.html

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I doubt it will go down as well for Stanfurd as it did for the Bears. I mean, do they have Marshawn? Additionally, I think the game was somewhat of a novelty to the Australian fans who obviously didn't know when or for who to cheer (don't use the word "root" down there). Is Furd also going to have hot dogs, churros, and Budweiser Beer brought down? I think its going to be a bust considering once again rugby (Wallabies vs All Blacks) might be on the Aussies minds?? In any event, Furd should get a very easy win.

Game is about to start (in an hour) for anyone who might be interested. Bonus points if you spot WIAF in the stands. Personally I'll watch to see how it compares to our down under game last year, but if Stanford gets up by three scores I'm flipping back to Breaking Bad.

Go Owls!

Td Furd. Damnit.

imho if the pac-12 isn't going to get good games for the australia game...stop doing it. Rice looks like a bad high school team.

The green screen is incredible. It really looks like Quint Kessenich is actually in Australia.

The only question is if Furd will hang a 100

That SF Chronicle columnist just completely fellated the furdies. How utterly pathetic. And isn't the article correct about Cal not playing in the same stadium last year? Looks like we played in ANZ Stadium and furd/rice is happening in Allianz Stadium.

Having such a mismatch is gonna kill this event. They obviously need to sign teams that are closer in competitiveness or the Aussies will no longer attend the game and get to enjoy "American-style" stadium food...

All Farm and no Rice.

All hat and no cattle.

Hey look at that, Rice finally made a stop. Boring game.

Stanford manages to find a way to ruin everything. No one is going to bring college football back to Australia after this game.

This game is horrendous.

MoragaBear;842865115 said:

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They're incorrect. Cal played in the same stadium last year.

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Lol. Wonder how they got that wrong. Of course what is right is the crowd for this is about half the one we played in front of. No wonder Stanford is doing well - they're used to the silence.

NYCGOBEARS;842865135 said:

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This game is horrendous.

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I'm not kidding about this potentially killing the entire Sydney Cup. Who scheduled this? I'm guessing if the Australians do this again they'll insist on a conference game.

No good team is going to give up a home game to travel half way around the world to play another good team.

Did I just hear a cannon fire? Did they like Cal's cannon so much that they brought a cannon this year?

Dammit, the furd is gonna break our Sydney Cup single game scoring record!

Eastern Oregon Bear;842865153 said:

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Dammit, the furd is gonna break our Sydney Cup single game scoring record!

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They seem to be playing a junior high team. Not that Hawaii were world beaters, but yea gods. Rice is just awful.

Back from the game. Furd threw the ball more than I have ever seen, and I'm not sure why give that Love was averaging around 10 yards per carry in the first half. Chryst looks decent, though he makes bad decisions (compare with Webb), Burns really is somewhat limited and unfortunately, Costello looks to be a very accurate passer. Rice is terrible. Rice mostly played a four, two, five set, which against a good running team seems dumb. Furd's response was to throw mostly. Strange game from a coaching perspective.

Nice facility, horrible tailgate. Aussie's really don't understand tallgates. They had announcers drowing out any conversation and basically all the Rice and Furd alums just left for the stadium, leaving the Aussies to mill about.

MoragaBear;842865115 said:

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They're incorrect. Cal played in the same stadium last year.

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NO they didn't. I was at both games. ANZ (Olympic Stadium) is not Allainz (a smaller rugby stadium in Sydney CBC). Crowd was less than half the Cal-Hawaill crowd. Aussies are fun to be around, regardless of the size of the crowd.

Let's hope USC beats them, otherwise we're in for another long season in which furd will be a playoff contender (and we'll hear endlessly how wonderful everything about their program is).

Rice players must have been pretty concerned about conditions back home. They're coming back to a disaster.

510Bear;842865205 said:

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Let's hope USC beats them, otherwise we're in for another long season in which furd will be a playoff contender (and we'll hear endlessly how wonderful everything about their program is).

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I see Southern Cal passing on them well enough to win. With a loss to UW, playoff contention would be slim... Their final three games are at home though.

LSJU has the best defensive backfield in the conference and one of the best in the country. Darnold will face a real test....

I don't doubt that Stanford's pass D will be improved. In 2016 they were 6th best in the Pac-12 in yards per attempt D and completion % allowed.

Southern Cal was 2nd in the conference in completion %, and did so over 67% of the time in Pac-12 games - with a freshman QB. I think the Trojans will be able to pass the ball sufficiently well enough to beat Stanford.

If USC can control Harrison there will be
No pressure. Otoh has darnold developed good chemistry with essentially a whole new pack of receivers

Just curious as I missed the game. Were the announcers at the game or in Bristol? Did they talk about the game or spend all their time plugging the upcoming season?