Stenstrom’s Best Not Quite Enough : Stanford: He passes for 408 yards, puts Cardinal in position to win, but field-goal try misses.

Stanford quarterback Steve Stenstrom won’t remember the 408 passing yards he collected against UCLA Saturday, a personal best and a UCLA record for an opposing quarterback.

He won’t remember the first-quarter touchdown drive that put him over 10,000 passing yards for his career, making him only the 10th NCAA Division I-A player to amass that many yards, not including bowl games. Nor will he take consolation in throwing the two touchdown passes that brought him within five of the Pacific 10 record of 77, as his mother and father sat in the Rose Bowl stands and applauded.

Perfectionist that he is, Stenstrom instead will recall what went wrong and wonder how he might have made it come out right in Stanford’s 31-30 loss.

“I don’t know if I’ll think about the positives. I tend to reflect on everything I could have done differently,” said Stenstrom, from El Toro High. “I’m going to think about this one for a long, long time.”

Stenstrom didn’t need to see the the game films. He was already replaying everything in his mind, viewing it with a clarity sharpened by a keen sense of regret.

“I know what I could have done,” he said. “I could have hit Justin (Armour) on that crossing pattern (on third and goal from the five-yard line early in the fourth quarter). I’m going to relive having somebody stepping on my foot (to blunt a touchdown drive on third and goal at the one in the third quarter).

“And that batted ball down at the other end of the field: Justin was wide open (but linebacker Phillip Ward intervened). I’m going to think about the fact we were down inside the five twice and didn’t get a touchdown.”

His thoughts were especially melancholy because as a senior, Stenstrom won’t play again in Southern California as an amateur. Saturday’s loss wasn’t how he wanted to write the final chapter to that part of his career, despite his 28-for-45 performance and the line he etched in UCLA’s record book. The previous record for most passing yards by a Bruin opponent was 387 by Tennessee’s Tony Robinson in 1987.

“There’s a little sentiment attached to every game this season,” Stenstrom said. “And I have a lot of respect for UCLA. It’s been a great, fun career for me. I’m going to miss a lot of the situations I’ve been in during these years and the opportunity to play UCLA.”

In his last opportunity against the Bruins, whom he had burned for 313 years and three touchdowns last year, he thought he would grab a last-minute victory. Getting the Cardinal into field-goal position with a rapid-fire succession of six passes, he had no doubt they would rally. “I thought it was done,” he said.

His teammates thought so too.

“We did exactly what we wanted to do,” said Armour, the senior wide receiver who caught 11 Stenstrom passes for 220 yards, including a 17-yard catch over the middle for the Cardinal’s first touchdown. “That’s how you write it up and dream it will end. Everything worked exactly like we wanted.”

Everything up to the final field-goal attempt by Eric Abrams.

And even then, Stenstrom thought the 32-yarder had sailed through the uprights instead of drifting wide to the left.

“I thought it was good for sure,” he said. “It’s hard to tell field-goal angles, so you have to trust the official had a better angle. My initial reaction was elation, a tremendous feeling. All of a sudden, it hit me and it was the exact opposite. I found myself on my back. I couldn’t believe it had happened.”

Air Stenstrom

Steve Stenstrom’s 408 yards passing against UCLA on Saturday made him the 10th player in NCAA Division I-A history to pass for more than 10,000 yards.

The list:

Player School Years Yards Ty Detmer BYU 1988-91 15,031 Todd Santos San Diego St. 1984-87 11,425 Alex Van Pelt Pittsburgh 1989-92 10,913 *Eric Zeier Georgia 1991-94 10,777 Kevin Sweeney Fresno St. 1981-84 10,623 Doug Flutie Boston College 1981-84 10,579 *Steve Stenstrom Stanford 1991-94 10,342 Brian McClure Bowling Green 1982-85 10,280 Troy Kopp Pacific 1989-92 10,258 Glenn Foley Boston College 1990-93 10,042

* active