Team preview: Stanford

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(All information as of June 20, 2007)

A year ago, this space was used to heap praise on the job Walt Harris did in his first season at Stanford. At the time, no one would've guessed he'd be gone by season's end.

His two-year stint was the shortest by a Stanford head coach since Rod Dowhower left after posting a 5-5-1 record in his lone season in 1979.

Call last season's 1-11 record whatever you'd like -- a train wreck, a wasted season, a complete and utter disaster, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that Stanford athletic direc-tor Bob Bowlsby decided it was enough to end Harris's tenure at the Farm after just two seasons. And it's hard to imagine many disagreeing with Bowlsby's decision, as the Cardinal were by most accounts the nation's worst team from a BCS conference in 2006.

They not only lost those 11 games overall and eight in the Pac-10, they lost ugly -- 48-10 at Oregon, 31-0 at UCLA, 31-10 at Notre Dame, 20-7 versus Arizona, 38-3 at Arizona State and 30-7 versus Oregon State. It also blew a 20-point lead in losing to San Jose State, 35-34.

The record was the program's worst since an 0-10 mark in 1960.

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