Stanford Stadium Sold Out For 126th Big Game Against Cal

On Saturday the Stanford Cardinal will face the California Golden Bears for the 126th time in history.

On Saturday, the 126th matchup between the University of California and the Stanford Cardinal will kickoff with a sold-out Stanford stadium. 

Overall, the Cardinal leads the Golden Bears with a 65-49-11 record in playing one another. However, the last few years, the Golden Bears have claimed victory in four of their past five matchups.

Last season, at California Memorial Stadium, the Golden Bears snuck up from behind to pull off a 27-20 win over the Cardinal. 

California Golden Bears win Axe / Darren Yamashita

For the third consecutive season, California hopes to reclaim the highly desired Axe. However, this being Stanford head coach Troy Taylor's first season with the Cardinal, the first-year coach will be looking to make a good impression against his alma mater.

Taylor was starting quarterback for the Golden Bears from 1986-89 and was named the team's MVP  in 1987-89. When his college career at California came to a close, he was named the Golden Bears' all-time passing leader, recording 8,126 yards total.

Aside from that, Taylor knows that Stanford is his team now and understands the weight of this rivalry first hand. Not only are the coaches and players thrilled for the matchup, but it quite obviously is big deal to the fans as Stanford Stadium is sold out. 

"It's a great rivalry," Taylor said in a press conference on Tuesday. "Everybody in the Bay Area really comes alive and pays attention to it and there's history that's made and names that are remembered forever because of it so I'm really excited. Just trying to keep our focus on our preparation process but excited to be apart of it."