Stanford Runs Wild, Routs San Jose State

Stanford has nine rushing touchdowns in two games this year, matching its total for all of last season. And the running game was the key Saturday in a 51-20 victory over San Jose State.

Sure, Steve Stenstrom had three scoring passes and tied Jim Plunkett as the winningest quarterback in Stanford history. But he didn’t throw in the first quarter as the Cardinal established its running game.

Mike Mitchell ran 21 times for 179 yards and touchdowns of 52, one and three yards as Stanford (1-0-1) opened huge holes in the defense of the Spartans (0-3), who have given up 150 points in three games.

“Running the ball was the whole focus of our week, because we’ve got to run the ball in the Pac-10,” said Mitchell, whose team begins conference play against Arizona next week at Stanford.

The Cardinal ran for 314 yards, the most since Stanford had 322 yards against California in 1984.

Stenstrom, who got his 22nd collegiate victory, completed 14 of 18 passes for 231 yards.

Stenstrom completed scoring passes of 19 and eight yards to Justin Armour and 38 yards to tight end Tommy Hanson. He tied former Oregon quarterback Bill Musgrave for second place on the Pac-10’s all-time list with his 60th touchdown pass. John Elway had 77 for Stanford from 1979-82.

Alli Abrew had three touchdown passes for San Jose State. He had scoring passes of 16 and 25 yards to Jacobbi Williams and a four-yard touchdown pass to Brian Roche.