There were a few drops on slightly off target passes, but Hogan was not good.

Stanford vs. Northwestern 2015 (live score results below) kicks off their NCAA College Football season today. After leading Stanford to two Rose Bowls, he had to deal with the death of his father during his junior season.

Stanford’s rival Cal ambushed Northwestern at the start of previous year, but then the Wildcats put the clamps down in the final 20 minutes and almost gave their adrift offense a chance at the upset.

Meanwhile, Clayton Thorson fared okay in his first collegiate start as the redshirt freshman passed for 105 yards on 12-of-24 passing and added 68 yards and a 42-yard touchdown on the ground. Kevin Hogan delivered his best by completing 65.9 percent of his passes for 2,792 yards, 19 touchdows and eight interceptions. With 24 wins as a starting quarterback, Hogan trails only Ohio State’s Braxton Miller (26) among active FBS players.

A drive-by-drive recap of the game can be found here. And Stanford is ranked in the AP Top 25 for preseason standings. Meantime Prater topped Northwestern receiving last season. The loss of an important pass-catcher was tough for the skill-position-starved Wildcats, who could have used Jones out in the flat during the tough 2014 campaign. That resulted in 2792 yards passing, 232 completions. Northwestern appears to be using him as a possession receiver this season, which would be the ideal role for the senior.

David Shaw’s Stanford Cardinal were supposed to be improved on the 8-5 record they had a year ago but showed zero evidence of that in the opener where they lost 16-6 to Northwestern.

However, he wasn’t the only defender who had a big game.

Credit Fitzgerald and his coaching staff for pulling off another huge upset in the last calendar year with wins over Wisconsin and Notre Dame last year. With the Thorson-led offense having trouble moving the ball at times, having Mitchell knock down short, medium and long field goals to get points on the board was needed.