Looking back at the five greatest games in the USC-Stanford football rivalry

With USC and UCLA playing their final season in the Pac-12, The Times is revisiting the top five games in the history of each series. This week: USC-Stanford.

USC tailback Charles White runs for 13 yards against Stanford on Oct. 13, 1979, at the Coliseum. The Trojans couldn’t hold a 21-0 halftime lead, and the game ended in a tie.

(Associated Press)

One of the most consequential games in the rivalry didn’t even result in a win for either team. Stanford’s 21-point, second-half rally was the only blemish on USC’s 11-0-1 record, costing the Trojans a national championship in the polls. The Cardinal scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to tie the score, and on the last play of the game, USC botched the snap on a field-goal attempt. Alabama (12-0) finished No. 1 despite USC’s season-ending win over previous No. 1 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.

Stanford quarterback Tavita Pritchard loses his helmet as he reaches for a first down against linebacker Thomas Williams and USC on Oct. 6, 2007, at the Coliseum.

(Alex Gallardo / Los Angeles Times)

Backup quarterback Tavita Pritchard led Stanford, a 41-point underdog against Pete Carroll’s five-time defending conference champion Trojans, to what was the biggest upset in college football history. With just three career pass attempts leading into his first start, Pritchard threw a game-winning 10-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-goal with 49 seconds left. USC quarterback John David Booty had four passes intercepted, helping to end USC’s home winning streak at 35 games. The only upset with a larger point spread is Howard, a 45-point underdog, defeating Nevada-Las Vegas on Sept. 2, 2017.

Stanford’s A.J. Tarpley recovers a fumble by USC’s Curtis McNeal in the third overtime to secure the Cardinal’s win on Oct. 29, 2011, at the Coliseum.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Curtis McNeal’s fumble in the third overtime period overshadowed his 154 rushing yards and two touchdowns as Andrew Luck’s Cardinal survived the only overtime game in the series. The Trojans led by seven after Nickell Robey’s 33-yard interception return for a touchdown with 3:08 left in the fourth quarter, but Luck answered by leading the Cardinal on a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive ending on a two-yard run by Stepfan Taylor with 38 seconds remaining. Taylor scored a touchdown in the third overtime period before McNeal fumbled on USC’s game-tying attempt. Although they pushed into Stanford territory in the final seconds of regulation, the Trojans ran out of time for a long field-goal try because Robert Woods tried to run out of bounds instead of falling to stop the clock.

USC kicker Andre Heidari is mobbed by teammate Alex Wood after his last-minute field goal beat Stanford on Nov. 16, 2013, at the Colisuem.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The Cardinal got to play spoiler for most of the rivalry as USC leads the series 63-34-3, but the roles were reversed in the early 2010s when Stanford won four in a row. The Trojans ended Stanford’s longest winning streak in the series with a game-winning field goal from Andre Heidari with 19 seconds left. Su’a Cravens intercepted a pass to set up the kick in front of a sellout crowd at the Coliseum as the Trojans won their fifth game in six tries under interim head coach Ed Orgeron, who took over for Lane Kiffin earlier that season.

USC quarterback Sam Darnold throws a pass against Stanford in the Pac-12 championship game on Dec. 1, 2017, in Santa Clara.

(Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)

USC became the first Pac-12 South team to win the conference championship game with a key defensive stand and a clutch touchdown drive led by Sam Darnold. In the fourth quarter, the Cardinal had first-and-goal from the five, but were stopped on fourth down at the one. Darnold marched the offense into the end zone on an eight-play drive that chewed up three minutes and 38 seconds and put the Trojans up by 10 with 4:22 remaining.