This Week in Stanford Football History: San Jose State Week (Bonus Story!)

“Throwback Thursday”

September 23, 1999

Joe Borchard - UCLA 9-25-99

In some ways, the 1999 UCLA game feels like it took place yesterday. Time plays tricks on the mind, especially after getting one’s bell rung a few dozen times, as many of our football alumni have experienced. Why does this one memorable Cardinal victory stand out more than others?

Well, it was a highly entertaining 42-32 shootout played in front of a crowd of 47,432 that would witness a record-destroying single-game receiving day from one Stanford Football legend and one of the all-time dominant single-game performances produced by a non-starting QB in the 133-year history of our proud football program.

Remarkably, coming into this contest, the big-time Bruins had not lost a league game since their 1997 opener at Washington State. The “Bru-Crew” had just climbed back into the AP Top 20, but while they arrived in Palo Alto respecting the recently resurgent Cardinal, UCLA had no idea they were about to run headlong into a Bruin-butchering “Borch-saw”!

Replacing a banged-up all-conference QB Todd Husak, who was off to a sensational start, going 6-8 for 148 yards before going down early in the second quarter, Borchard grabbed his helmet, jogged out to the huddle, and proceeded to direct an utter annihilation of the visiting villains, throwing FIVE touchdown passes. This was against the then #18-ranked Bruins under head coach Bob Toledo, whose team has already logged decisive victories over Boise State and Fresno State and had lost only at national powerhouse Ohio State in between!  The Bruins were best-known for their star-studded secondaries.

It must have been especially sweet for Joe, a Southern California native who had starred in three sports at Camarillo High in Ventura County, a high school that also produced late-70s Stanford defensive lineman, wild man, and now accomplished orthopedic surgeon, Steve Ballinger! Sure, everybody knew that Borchard was a top two-way talent, but few expected he would edge past the far more-heralded QB recruit Randy Fasani on the ’99 depth chart. After all, Fasani was the more highly-lauded prep phenomenon, once landing on the cover of Allen Wallace’s prestigious SuperPrep magazine! Randy would have some truly spectacular moments when he was healthy, but Borchard nevertheless had emerged from the 1999 Fall practice as the #2 signal-caller. What did “Back-Up Joe” do in this game to have us still talking about it 26 years later? How about the fact that he stepped in and threw for 324 yards and five passing touchdowns in less than three quarters of work after starter Todd Husak had already thrown for 141 yards and a score. Who saw that coming? That day, an afternoon when just about everything seemed to go right, has made #11 more than a bit of a living legend among the Stanford Football community! Let’s place this in more better perspective:  In his entire college football career of appearing in just 16 games down on The Farm, usually in limited action as a back-up, Joe Borchard tossed a grand total of 10 touchdowns against only a single interception. Exactly half of those 10 touchdown passes took place in less than three quarters of this 1999 UCLA game! Clearly, he belongs in the Bruin Football Hall of Horrorä! What this teaches all players is to be ever at the ready, locked and loaded, because you just never know when your name is going to be called and you suddenly will get your primetime opportunity to shine!

Not that it was Borchard’s only moment of gridiron glory! As a redshirt freshman in 1997, Joe had entered a home game against North Carolina in the fourth quarter, after Husak was injured on a sack on the North Carolina 43-yard line, with the score tied at 34-34 game and only 34 seconds on the clock. The Tar Heels had just turned the ball over and were looking to hold on and send the game to OT. But on his very first play of the game, to the delight of the nervous home crowd, Borchard put on a Cardinal Capeä and heroically scrambled for a 41-yard gain all the way to the Tar Heel two-yard line, setting up a game-winning field goal from our ice-veined, Bama-bred senior kicker Kevin Miller.

Borchard, who was 15-of-19 for 324 yards after relieving the injured Todd Husak in the second quarter, connected with 1999 Biletnikoff Award winning WR Troy Walters for three scores, tossed touchdown passes of 13 and 8 yards to sure-handed WR DeRonnie Pitts and scrambled for a 56-yard romp to help squelch a late UCLA rally.

We needed most of those 42 points to keep pace with the explosive Bruin offense that day! Outstanding UCLA running back DeShaun Foster, who coincidentally was relieved this past week as the head coach at his alma mater, had seven-yard and one-yard scoring runs in the game.

5’8” superstar WR Troy Walters shattered the Stanford record book with 286 yards receiving yards on nine catches with a record 98-yard TD reception among his three scores. His epic receiving game was only surpassed by WR Elic Ayomanor’s surreal night against Colorado in a 46-43 double-overtime comeback victory in 2023, when Ayomanor had 13 catches for 294 receiving yards, with all of his catches and yardage coming in the second half. Think about that, Ayomanor produced our school’s highest-ever single-game receiving yardage total in a single half, largely against last year’s Heisman Trophy winner, CB/WR Travis Hunter, to lead The Cardinal to a unlikely comeback from a seemingly insurmountable 29-0 half-time deficit on the road! Talk about your break-out game – coming into the Colorado contest, Ayomanor’s totals were only 15 catches for 207 yards and one TD through five games.

2023 Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee Joe Borchard joined the likes of football-baseball dual-sport stars Mark Marquess, Larry Reynolds, John Elway, Mike Dotterer, Toi Cook, John Lynch, and Toby Gerhart.

1999 was the first time Stanford had started 3-0 in conference since the 1971 season, which happened to have been the last time Stanford had made it to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena!