By Do-Hyoung Park on October 10, 2014

In today’s Pac-12 landscape, it’s hard to find two teams that are as different as Stanford and Washington State.

Over the last few years, Stanford has made a point of running the ball down its opponents’ throats. Meanwhile, Washington State’s running game is all but nonexistent and Connor Halliday wins games for the Cougars by throwing the ball at a historic clip to his talented wide receivers.

Stanford’s defense is one of the stingiest in the nation; Washington State’s defense tends to indiscriminately give up points in bunches, as evidenced in the team’s 60-59 loss to Cal last week.

Heck, the differences even go all the way to the coaches: David Shaw tends to be calm, collected and relatively vanilla, while it just suffices to say that Mike Leach is…well, Mike Leach.

Yes, the recent matchup between these two teams has been lopsided in favor of Stanford, but the Cardinal and Cougars have stayed true to their respective styles as the times have changed. But while the Cardinal and Kevin Hogan have seemed to hit a downswing this season behind an ineffective running game, the Cougars and Halliday have reached historic new heights with Madden-esque success in the passing game this season as the patented Mike Leach “Air Raid” scheme has finally begun to click and pay dividends for Washington State.

All this is to say—when the Cardinal and Cougars clash on the Farm tonight, there’s going to be some entertaining football involved. And this matchup has certainly provided a dose of entertainment over the last few years; let’s take a look at the last three times these teams met:

2011: We’re up all night to get Luck-y

The contrast starts here. For Stanford, 2011 was supposed to be the year of destiny. A third-year Andrew Luck combined with one of the top defenses in the country? Please. That’s just not fair. (Well, it wasn’t until Oregon brought the Cardinal down to earth.)

Meanwhile, Washington State was in the final year of a dismal four-year era under head coach Paul Wulff, who would ultimately guide the team to a 9-40 combined record in those four seasons.

The two storylines collided in Pullman, Washington on a Saturday evening as the undefeated No. 7 Cardinal marched into Martin Stadium and pounded the Cougars by air to the tune of a 44-14 final score behind an explosive day from Luck.

After sophomore Ty Montgomery returned the opening kickoff 62 yards deep into Washington State territory (sound familiar?), Luck was actually picked off by Damante Horton on his first pass from scrimmage. But it wouldn’t prove to be a bad omen for the Cardinal, as Stanford got off the ground with a first-quarter Jordan Williamson field goal and then took advantage of a fumble recovery from Michael Thomas in the second quarter to set up a Jeremy Stewart touchdown.

Jeff Tuel and the Cougars couldn’t ever get much going against the Cardinal defense, and after the halftime break, Luck went beast mode in a 34-point second half in which he connected on four passing touchdowns to future NFL players—one to Coby Fleener, two to Levine Toilolo and one to Stepfan Taylor, who also rushed for 100 yards in the game.

Luck’s final stat line: 23-of-36 for 336 yards and four touchdowns. Yeah, you could say that’s pretty good. The cherry on top? The win marked the 14th straight victory for Stanford—a new school record (at the time).

2012: The party in the backfield begins

It had been a frustrating season, to say the least, for Stanford fans. Josh Nunes did not seem to be the answer at quarterback after Luck’s departure, and aside from a 54-point outburst against Arizona, the offense looked stagnant in the games leading up to the Cardinal’s matchup with the Cougars, now led by offensive guru Mike Leach.

Of course, we Stanford fans know now that this matchup would be the final game of the Nunes era, as he was replaced by Kevin Hogan in the following week at Colorado—and it was a characteristic end at that: a 24-17 nail-biter against a bottom-tier opponent that was ultimately beaten by the hulking Stanford defense.

The Cardinal rode the running game to an early three-point lead after Jordan Williamson connected on a first-quarter field goal, but after that, the offense all but shut down in the first half, going three-and-out in three of the four ensuing possessions before halftime.

But it’s what happened in the other possession that mattered, as on the second play of the drive from the Stanford 30, Nunes found Jamal-Rashad Patterson wide open down the sideline on a blown coverage that went for one of the easiest 70-yard touchdown passes you’ll ever see at the collegiate level.

The Cougars cut the Cardinal lead to 24-17 in the fourth quarter and were driving deep into Stanford territory in the final minutes, but that’s when the defense cracked down. The perimeter passes had been killing the Cardinal all day, but the ferocious Cardinal pass rush had also been killing Jeff Tuel all day—in fact, Stanford had already accounted for nine sacks before the final play of the game. That final play? You guessed it, sack number 10, coupled with an intentional grounding penalty that stalled the final drive at the Stanford nine-yard line to end the game. Legend has it that it was in this game that the #PartyInTheBackfield moniker was born behind that overwhelming performance from the front seven.

2013: Utter dominance with a side of popcorn

This was set to be the Cougars’ annual CenturyLink Field game, in which Washington State hosted an opponent at the Seahawks’ home field to cater to their Seattle-based alumni (Pullman is a five-hour drive away from Seattle).

But most of the fans that made their way out to support the Cougars didn’t stay for too long on that cold, rainy Friday night, as the No. 5 Cardinal laid a world of hurt on the Cougars (literally), briefly knocking out both the starting and backup Washington State quarterbacks with monster hits while putting on a clinic on the offensive side of the ball in a 55-17 rout.

It started slowly enough, with Hogan and the Cardinal owning just a 17-3 lead at halftime behind two Devon Cajuste touchdowns of 57 and 33 yards as well as a Jordan Williamson field goal. But Stanford was just getting warmed up—it was clear through the first half that the running game would be effective and the Cougar secondary couldn’t keep up with the explosive speed of the Cardinal receivers.

And after halftime, it all came together for Stanford in one of the most dominant nine-minute stretches in the program’s recent history as the Cardinal stretched the lead from 17-3 all the way up to 38-3 in the blink of an eye.

It all started when Trent Murphy steamrolled through the line and blasted Halliday to the ground as he released the ball, setting up an easy interception for Jordan Richards, who ran it back with help from fantastic blocking for a score. Although Halliday played one more snap, the injury he sustained from that hit knocked him out of the rest of the game.

The world came crashing down for Washington State when a huge Kevin Anderson sack on the ensuing drive knocked backup quarterback Austin Apodaca to the ground for an extended time as well, though Apodaca would return and play the rest of the game.

A lightning-quick strike to Michael Rector for a deep 45-yard touchdown was quickly followed by Trent Murphy batting down a screen right in front of Apodaca and taking it 30 yards to the house for a touchdown, and Stanford was rolling.

When the dust cleared, Hogan had racked up 286 yards and three touchdowns through the air, the world had been properly introduced to Barry J. Sanders and most importantly, an I’m-done-with-this-crap Washington State fan cemented his legacy as “Popcorn Guy” in one of the most glorious 30-second segments to ever air on television.

Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dpark027 ‘at’ stanford.edu.