Farm vs. Farm

In a thrilling upset, the Aggies take down the Cardinal.

The stunned disbelief took two vastly different forms: On one side of the field, a dejected and surprised Stanford Cardinal football team watched in near silence as UC Davis jumped and hollered with delight on the other side—neither team fully believing what had just occurred on the field in which they both stood.

But the scoreboard told no lies: UC Davis 20, Stanford 17.

The game was played on a cool, crisp Saturday evening at Stanford Stadium on Sept. 17 and didn’t finish until 10 p.m., too late for the score to hit the East Coast newspapers. But word quickly rippled across the college football landscape over the following hours that UC Davis, still officially NCAA Division II, had taken down Division I-A Stanford, a member of the Pac-10 and a Bowl Championship Series team.

“It is still being measured and felt nationwide,” said KHTK radio analyst Doug Kelly, a broadcaster during the game. “Years from now, when people debate the greatest college football upsets, this game has to rank right up there.”

UC Davis head coach Bob Biggs returned to campus to a voice-mail inbox completely filled by messages from fellow coaches, former players and friends, all calling to pass along congratulations. Calls from media trickled in on Sunday afternoon but exploded on Monday when no less than four local television stations visited campus in search of reaction.

All of them, though, asked the same question: How did it happen?

These games generally just give the bigger, more reputable Division I-A team an opportunity to get its feet wet before playing a tougher opponent and the smaller non-Division I-A school an opportunity for exposure.

But UC Davis, currently in its third year of a four-year transition to Division I-AA, scrimmaged pretty well against Stanford before the 2003 season so, going into his year’s matchup, had more confidence than most teams in similar situations. And as the game progressed and the Aggies continued to stay close behind, that confidence began to grow. Stanford led just 17-7 at halftime.

A short touchdown run by running back Nelson Doris made it 17-14 heading into the fourth quarter as the Aggie defense continually stifled Stanford. Surely, many surmised, the Cardinal will flex its muscle and finally put away UC Davis. But the Aggies refused to roll over, twice driving inside Stanford’s 30-yard line in the fourth quarter only to see a pair of game-tying field goal attempts miss wide.

The third time was the charm, bringing forth a historic 11-play, 72-yard drive inside the final three minutes. It culminated with quarterback Jon Grant finding receiver Blaise Smith on a quick-strike 3-yard touchdown pass with eight seconds to play. UC Davis 20, Stanford 17.
Jubilation erupted from the estimated 10,000

UC Davis fans that filled two sections of Stanford Stadium, each person impatiently waiting for the final ticks of the clock. In the end, it turned into a UC Davis party with players running to the Aggies’ section to celebrate, while Cardinal fans and players were left to wonder how it all came to be.
One person who clearly knows how is Biggs. He saw the game stats that showed UC Davis nearly doubling the yardage of Stanford, holding the Cardinal to no offensive touchdowns and winning nearly every stat category of the game.

“The truth is, we were the better team that day—we really were,” he said. “In every category, you watch that film and we were the better team. Does that mean we’re always the better team? No. Does it mean on paper we’re the better team? No. But that particular night, when I watch the film, we were the better team.”

— Mike Robles