He's gone from walk-on to training-camp surprise to starter to star to co-captain. Now Stanford's Ryan Whalen wants to win the Big Game, play in the Rose Bowl and then the NFL. Based on his history, you can't count him out in any endeavor.
First things first, though. Whalen hasn't been on a Big Game winner since his freshman year, the only time Stanford has won in its past eight tries.
"It's a distant memory now, fogged by a couple of losses," the senior said of that 2007 victory at Stanford Stadium, "so I'm really excited about this one." But he said Cal has the best defense of any team on Stanford's schedule.
Even though he grew up in Alamo and his aunt and uncle were Cal grads, he had never attended the Big Game until he played in it.
"His schedule was always so busy with basketball," said his father, John. "It always seemed he was at a practice or a game on that Saturday."
Whalen led the Cardinal in receiving the past two years but hasn't been as prolific this year, mainly because he missed practically three full games with a dislocated elbow. Still, he's second on the team with 29 catches.
"It's calming for a quarterback when you see him line up," quarterback Andrew Luck said. "It's almost a guaranteed completion when he's running his route. He's going to make the catch; he's going to do his job. He has a knack for getting separation and for finding a hole in the zone."
The 6-foot-2, 205-pound receiver has been a weight-room regular since his freshman year at Monte Vista High School in Danville.
"He's strong for his size, which works to his advantage," Luck said. "He can block linebackers and get off pressure very well."
Coach Jim Harbaugh calls him "a joy ... the consummate coach's player. He's always out there early on the field. He'll do anything you ask him to."
When Whalen returned from his injury, he probably wasn't completely fit, but he made a key 17-yard catch on a 3rd-and-10 play against USC. The play kept a touchdown drive alive in a 37-35 win, the most exciting Stanford game of the year.
Over the past four years, Whalen has routinely made third-down catches in traffic. He'd like to get a chance to do the same in the pros.
"Just about every (NFL) team has a guy like that as a slot receiver," Harbaugh said. "Sure-handed, a guy who gets open in space, quick in beating man-to-man coverage. A good special-teams player. A lot of teams are really intrigued by him."
Even though he'll take the winter quarter off to get ready for the NFL Combine, Whalen will graduate on time in June. He had a 4.2 grade-point average in high school, and he recently made the Pac-10 All-Academic first team with a 3.52 GPA in his major of science, technology and society.
No wonder every Ivy League school pursued him out of high school. But he knew he could play at a higher level. "Whales," as his teammates call him, became a very big fish, or mammal, in a big pond.
The 113th Big Game
Who: No. 7 Stanford (9-1, 6-1 Pac-10) vs. Cal (5-5, 3-4)
When: 12:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Memorial Stadium
TV: CSNBA
Radio: 810, 860
E-mail Tom FitzGerald at tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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