Troy Story Has Happy Ending for Stanford

Stanford flanker Troy Walters is keeping a videotaped record of his final season, preserving the special moments teammates share after games.

“I had my brother filming in Texas,” the fifth-year senior said of the Cardinal’s season-opening 69-17 embarrassment. “We didn’t film the locker room in Texas.”

Since then, Walters has needed miles of tape to capture the Cardinal’s three postgame celebrations. On Saturday, he could have starred in his own highlight film.

Walters set school and Pacific 10 records by combining with Joe Borchard on a 98-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter of the Cardinal’s 42-32 victory over UCLA at Stanford Stadium, a spectacular play on a spectacular day.

Walters caught nine passes for 278 yards, the most yards ever by a receiver against UCLA and the third-best single-game receiving yards total in Pac 10 history. With 3,145 receiving yards for his career, he owns the school record and is 56 yards short of the conference record set by USC’s Johnnie Morton.

“I’ve never had a 98-yard run before. I’ve dreamed about it,” said Walters, who caught three touchdown passes to pad his career reception total to 20. “It just happened today. . . . This was a total team victory. It feels good to defeat UCLA and be on top of the Pac 10. It’s big for us, beating Washington State and two top teams going into the season [Arizona and UCLA]. It’s good for our confidence. We’re 3-0 and rolling.”

The Cardinal punctured UCLA’s secondary almost at will. Borchard, who replaced Todd Husak in the second quarter after Husak suffered bruised ribs, completed 15 of 19 passes for 324 yards and five touchdowns. Husak completed six of eight for 141 yards.

“We knew we were going to attack them, no matter what and no matter who was out there,” Walters said. “We were going to fire our weapons. We have a lot of weapons, and there’s no use saving them for the next game. It’s tough for a defense to really stop us.”

Nothing the Bruins did could stop Walters, whose quick thinking and good hands compensate for his 5-foot-8, 175-pound stature.

“He’s a little guy,” UCLA Coach Bob Toledo said. “It’s kind of like when you go to the dance. You wouldn’t pick him, but he’s a good dancer.”

Walters used his nimble feet to dance past Bruin cornerback Joe Hunter and catch a 50-yard pass from Borchard on the play before his 30-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter.

“I was surprised on the second pass because it was the same play as the first,” he said, “but our coaches know what they’re doing. It was just a fade route.”

His 98-yard touchdown gave the Cardinal a 28-3 lead in the third quarter, bringing the crowd of 47,432 to its feet and breaking the school record set in 1970 on a 96-yard pass by Jim Plunkett to Randy Vataha at Washington State.

“It was a post route, and I saw the safety in the middle and I was outside,” he said. “I was worried that the safety was going to stay there and take the route away, but we have a tight end that goes up and takes the safety, and he jumped at it. Joe threw a ball that was easy for me to catch.”

Said Borchard, who teamed with Walters later that quarter on an 18-yard pass that gave the Cardinal a 35-17 lead: “He’s so open and he’s so good he’s going to make you look really good. I’ve known for two years that Troy is the guy you want to throw the ball to.”

Walters made sure to film the Cardinal’s revelry Saturday, but he hasn’t asked anyone to send films of his exploits to Heisman Trophy voters. “I’m not really thinking about that at all,” he said. “Right now this season has been better than any other. We have a special group of people here. But in ‘97, we were 4-1 and we lost five straight, so we can’t get big heads.”