Big Game: Tight end Greg Taboada catching on for Stanford

Stanford’s Greg Taboada doesn’t earn his keep as a receiving tight end, but rather as a blocker. The 6-foot-5, 244-pound Taboada has caught just five passes this year, two of them going for short-yardage touchdowns in the Cardinal’s 38-36 loss to Oregon at Stanford Stadium on Saturday.

Taboada’s second touchdown catch, a 4-yarder with 10 seconds to play, got the Cardinal within two points. Kevin Hogan’s pass to Austin Hooper on the two-point conversion try for the tie was incomplete. Taboada was not in for the two-point attempt play.

“I showed some that I can contribute more than blocking, which is my goal,” Taboada said. “We had a great tight end class. The competition makes you work harder. You need to do the extra things to try to get playing time.”

Stanford attempts to clinch the Pac-12 North on Saturday when Cal comes calling in the 118th Big Game at 7:30 p.m.

“The last two years, Cal wasn’t as talented a team,” Taboada said. “Cal is a great team this year. It’s going to be huge for us. It’s for the Pac-12 North championship. On campus, people are talking about it, even with the loss last week. We want to play our best football of the year this coming Saturday.”

Taboada prepped at Marist School in Atlanta, the same school that produced ex-Stanford cornerback Leigh Torrence, former Stanford catcher John Hester, along with Bert Parks, longtime host of the Miss America Pageant. Legendary golfer Bobby Jones attended Marist, but didn’t graduate from there.

The South is known for its fever-pitched interest in college football, played in such conferences as the Southeastern Conference, the Big 12 and the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“Coming from the South, I didn’t know much about the Big Game,” Taboada said. “There is a lot of history behind it. A lot of people are invested in it. People care about it. It’s important to us to be focused. We want to keep it rolling.”

At Marist, Taboada was labeled a four-star recruit by ESPN, which also rated him the 17th-best athlete in the nation. Taboada, who helped the War Eagles to the semifinals of the AAAA state playoffs in 2012, chose Stanford over Alabama.

“It was an easy decision,” Taboada said. “I realized I could go somewhere on a football scholarship. Other offers started coming in after I got the offer from Alabama. I liked the team chemistry when I came here and met some of the guys. I felt I’ve known them for awhile and we were all good friends. You can’t get that feeling in a lot of places in the South. You can’t beat a Stanford degree.”

The Cardinal’s national playoff hopes took a serious hit in the loss to the Ducks. A Pac-12 North championship is still there on the table for the Cardinal.

“Fortunately, we have a second chance,” Taboada said. “We have to beat Cal to get there.”