PROVO -- After defeating Notre Dame in a close game at LaVell Edwards Stadium to open the season, BYU will travel to Palo Alto, Calif. to take on the Stanford. Last season the Cardinal defeated BYU 18-14 in a game that BYU held a lead until late in the game. Stanford scored nine points in the fourth quarter to earn the narrow victory. This is only the second meeting between these two programs, and the first time BYU has traveled to Palo Alto.
SETTING THE GAME
KICKOFF: 7:00 p.m. (PST)
SITE: Palo Alto, Calif; Stanford Stadium (85,500)
TELEVISION (National): CSTV; Tom McCarthy, Tony McGee and Jenny Cavnar (KUTV2 in Utah)
RADIO (Local): KSL-Radio; 1160 AM (Greg Wrubell, Marc Lyons, Bill Riley)
INTERNET WEBCAST: http://www.byucougars.com/football
THE SERIES: Stanford leads 1-0
IN PROVO: Stanford leads 1-0
LAST MEETING: Sept. 20, 2003 (Stanford 18-14)
LAST MEETING IN PROVO: Sept. 20, 2003 (Stanford 18-14)
FIVE OF FIRST SIX GAMES ON NATIONAL TELEVISION
The Cougars will play in five nationally televised games during the 2004 season. BYU opened the season on Saturday, Sept. 4 against Notre Dame on ESPN, marking the 10th straight season the Cougars have opened the season playing on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. On Sept. 11, BYU will participate in the first Division I-A football game broadcast on CSTV. The Cougars will host defending National Champion USC on Sept. 18 in a nationally broadcast game on ESPN, beginning at 8 p.m. (MT). The following week, BYU will travel to Boise State for a second straight nationally televised game on ESPN. On Oct. 8, the Cougars will host UNLV for a prime time, MWC match-up on ESPN2.
ROAD OPENERS
During the Gary Crowton era, the Cougars are 1-2 in road opening games; however, the two losses have been closely contested games. Last season, BYU opened on the road against eventual co-National Champion USC. After falling behind 21-0 in the first quarter, the Cougars made a game of it, pulling to within three in the fourth quarter before the Trojans added to late touchdowns to account for the final score. In 2002, BYU traveled to Reno, Nev. to take on Nevada-Reno. The Cougars lost a close game, 31-28. In Crowton's first year at BYU, the Cougars also traveled to the Bay Area to take on the Cal Bears with BYU winning 44-16.
GOING BACK TO CALI
When the Cougars travel to Palo Alto to take on Stanford, it will be their 57th trip to the state of California. BYU has an overall record of 24-29-3 (.453), including bowl games, in California. BYU's first game in the state of California came in 1926 when the Cougars dueled to a 0-0 tie with UC Davis. Last year, BYU posted a 1-1 record in the state of California, losing to USC 35-18 and defeating San Diego State 44-36. Also, BYU has 23 players on its roster that hail from California--the second most of any state behind Utah. Joe Griffin, a junior college transfer wide receiver who is redshirting this year, is from East Palo Alto and went to high school at Palo Alto High School. Other Cougars with ties to the Bay Area are Kayle Buchanan (San Jose), Gary and Greg Lovely (Los Altos Hills), Junior Kato (Daly City) and David Sollami (Daly City).
COMPLETE BROADCAST PLANS
TELEVISION: Saturday's game will be broadcast to a national audience on CSTV. The game will be broadcast beginning at 7:00 PST. Tom McCarthy will be handling the play-by-play, while Tony McGee will offer expert analysis. Jenny Cavnar will be reporting from the sidelines. The game will be rebroadcast on KBYU-TV on Sept. 13 at 10:30 p.m. and on BYU-TV on Sept. 13 at 5 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.
RADIO: Fans can tune into KSL Radio--the 50,000-watt home of the Cougars--and follow the action with the broadcast team of Greg Wrubell, Marc Lyons and Bill Riley. The game can also be heard on Dish Network channel 980.
INTERNET: A live webcast of the game, which includes play-by-play and up-to-the-minute statistics , can be viewed by logging on to: http://www.byucougars.com/football
In addition to the webcast, a live audio stream will be available on the following URLs:
http://ksl.com and http://www.byuradio.org
THE GRANITE STATE
Both BYU head coach Gary Crowton and Stanford head coach Buddy Teevins have ties to the football hotbed of New Hampshire. Crowton was the offensive coordinator at the University of New Hampshire located in Durham from 1988-1990. Coach Teevins graduated from Dartmouth, which is located in Hanover, in 1979 and was the head coach there from 1987-1991. New Hampshire and Dartmouth squared off once during the two coaches' tenures, a 21-21 tie in 1990.
FAMILIAR FOES
Every team on BYU's schedule in 2004 was on its schedule in 2003. The only opponent missing from BYU's non conference schedule in 2003 is Georgia Tech. Last season the Cougars finished 1-4 in non-conference games with its only victory coming against the Yellow Jackets. The last time there was so little change in BYU's schedule was 1993. In 1992 the Cougars faced off against UCLA, Utah State, Notre Dame and Penn State in their non-conference schedule and played all four of those teams again in 1993.
TRAVEL ITINERARY
The Cougars will depart Provo at 2:45 p.m. (MT) on Friday, Sept. 10, arriving in San Jose, Calif. at 3:50 p.m. (PT). The team will headquarter at the Santa Clara Marriott. The Cougars will return to Provo immediately following Saturday's game.
HISTORIC BROADCAST
Saturday's game will mark the first-ever Division I-A college football broadcast by College Sports TV. In 1984 BYU was also involved in another historic college football broadcast. The Cougars' season-opening game in 1984 against Pittsburgh was the first-ever, live Division I-A college football game broadcast on ESPN. Since 1974, BYU has posted a 53-37-2 record on national television, including the Cougars' 20-17 victory over Notre Dame on Saturday, which appeared nationally on ESPN.
ATHLETIC EXCELLENCE
Stanford is one of the most successful athletics departments in the country. The Cardinal have won 71 national championships since 1980--the most in the nation. Since 1970 when BYU captured its first NCAA title, the Cougars have won 10 national championships, including four in cross-country and three in men's volleyball since 1997. BYU also won the national championship in football in 1984. BYU has also ranked high in the NACDA Director's cup, an award given to the nation's best athletic program. The Cougars have accumulated seven top-30 rankings in the directors cup since 1996-97.