



Kenjon Barner's football career was saved the minute his father forced him to go to a school without a football team.



If not for that, he probably wouldn't have ended up at Oregon, definitely wouldn't have run roughshod over USC and undoubtedly wouldn't be where he is now, a late arrival to the Heisman Trophy discussion.

Because as an eighth-grader, Kenjon Barner was running toward somewhere else – jail, or worse.

"I did some things I could have gotten in trouble for, had it been found out," Barner said Thursday. "Some people I knew ended up dead or in jail."

On the day of his eighth-grade graduation, Kenjon's dad, Gary, overheard him talking to some friends about some plans they were making. "It was nothing good," Barner admits. Gary put his foot down. Kenjon would not be going to public school. Not on his watch.

"I was mad,"Kenjon says. "It was my group of friends. I didn't want to be separated from them."







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Oregon State vs.Stanford





When the Oregon State Beavers (7-1) and Stanford Cardinal (7-2) meet Saturday, college football fans will witness a rarity involving these two programs – a battle between two seven-win teams that are nationally ranked.

Oregon State football has historically been awful. There have been a few really good teams in Corvallis over the past few decades, but for the most part the Beavers have been a perennial conference doormat.

Stanford football has been historically awful, too. The Cardinal have been successful for the past few seasons, but for for much of their history the Cardinal have played mediocre football, at best.

As the Beavers and Cardinal have journeyed from football oblivion to the BCS top 15, this game will mark just the third time in 42 years that both schools have had winning seasons at the same time.

In 2009, Oregon State finished with an 8-5 record – including a 38-28 victory over Stanford in Corvallis – on the legs of running back Jacquizz Rodgers. Jim Harbaugh and Andrew Luck put Stanford on the college football map that year with an identical 8-5 record.

Back in 1999, Oregon State put up its first winning season since 1970 with a 7-5 mark and went to its first bowl game since 1965. Meanwhile, an 8-4 Stanford squad was busy winning the Pac-10 and heading to the Rose Bowl. The Cardinal beat the Beavers 21-17 at home that year.

In 2012, both teams have relied on stingy defenses that don't allow much in the way of opponents scoring. Each team has put itself in the unlikely position of challenging Oregon for the Pac-12 North Division title and setting itself up for a shot at the conference crown and a BCS berth.

It's been a long journey for both Oregon State and Stanford, but at long last their game will finally mean something on a national level.





– Eric Ivie

See John Elway talk about his Journey to Comfort





Gary sent Kenjon to Calvary Chapel Christian School in Moreno Valley, Calif., 70 miles east of the Los Angeles suburb where he was born. It was hardly a sports powerhouse. Calvary had 400 students, K through 12. There was no football team. Barner had only played one season of football, as a sixth-grader, but gave it up to play basketball (and hang with the wrong crowd).

At Calvary, he was thrust into a tiny private school where the kids were – what's the word for it? – nice.

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