Some Good News to Go With the Bad

After 10 days of telling reporters he would not play in Saturday’s Rose Bowl, defensive tackle Willie Howard has a ray of hope.

He practiced for the first time Wednesday on his injured right knee that suffered anterior cruciate ligament damage in the Cardinal’s regular-season finale against Notre Dame on Nov. 27.

“Basically, what we’re doing is getting me in a position to make a call at the last minute,” Howard said.

The 6-foot-4, 290-pound Howard is considered Stanford’s best defensive player. He was a first-team All-Pacific 10 Conference selection with 10 quarterback sacks.

Coach Tyrone Willingham never ruled Howard out of the Rose Bowl, but the team was prepared to play without him.

“We took a pessimistic public posture to make sure if the window of opportunity opened, we’d be in best position to handle it,” Willingham said. “I’m still optimistic that he may be able to give us some play.”

Howard’s return would be a big psychological boost, considering receiver Troy Walters won’t be available because of a dislocated wrist. Howard said he’d think of Walters if the doctors clear him to play.

“I’ll remember him as I’m going through a block, saying, ‘Hey, he doesn’t have the opportunity. I made it back, now I’ve got to give the extra effort for him,’ ” Howard said.

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“Outmanned” is the favorite word being used to describe Stanford’s defense.

“It gets me mad,” outside linebacker Riall Johnson said.

Johnson and his teammates are tired of hearing how the Cardinal defense can’t stop anyone.

They know there have been difficult moments this season. They gave up 415 yards passing to USC and 368 yards rushing to Washington. They surrendered 69 points to Texas and 44 points to San Jose State.

So what has Stanford done well on defense?

“We’ve played real good red zone defense,” defensive coordinator Kent Baer said. “We get a lot of hits on the quarterback. We get a lot of turnovers.”

Now comes Wisconsin, which Baer said doesn’t throw interceptions, doesn’t make fumbles and “has the best offensive line I’ve ever seen.”

What’s Stanford to do?

“We’ve known this has to be the best game we’ve ever played,” Johnson said.

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With Walters sidelined and Howard questionable, Stanford is facing adversity at the most crucial point in the season.

“That may be some miracle that happens in the next couple of days, but any time you lose great players, it has some kind of effect on your football team,” Willingham said. “It all depends how you respond to it. Our football team has been an amazingly resilient team that when we faced adversity, we found ways to fight that.”