In 2006, Stanford football saw its first year of action in a gorgeous new stadium, led by a veteran coach, a highly touted senior quarterback and a team that had just barely missed out on bowl-game eligibility in 2005. Largely because the Cardinal still has yet to earn a single victory in its sparkling new home venue, the 2007 season will open with a Stanford team now led by Jim Harbaugh in his first year as a Division I-A head coach.

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T.C. Ostrander, 13, and Mikal Brewer, 72.

As a new era dawns for Stanford football, the Cardinal hopes to take another step forward and wash away the stench of an abysmal 1-11 2006 season by notching a win over a nationally ranked, Pacific-10 Conference opponent.

No. 14 UCLA was 7-6 last season and will come into Stanford Stadium looking to get its season off to a rollicking start, and recent history is certainly on its side. The Bruins crushed the Cardinal in a 31-0 romp at the Rose Bowl last year. Indeed, Stanford is winless in its last three matchups with UCLA, and has been shut out twice over that span.

For Stanford fans, the contest offers more than just the chance to see the Cardinal square off against a solid opponent for its season opener; it also marks Harbaugh’s Pac-10 coaching debut, after leading the University of San Diego to a 29-6 record over the past three seasons.

To be sure, it’s a big moment for the coach whose Stanford career has so far been marked more by his comments on Southern California coach Pete Carroll and the standards to which Michigan’s student athletes are held. Now is the time for the refreshingly straightforward coach to demonstrate what unbridled enthusiasm can do for a team that finished at the bottom of the Pac-10 just one year ago.

“I know that they’re going to play hard,” Harbaugh said. “It’s so different from any other sport. College football has no preseason, no exhibition season. Going into an opener in college football, you don’t know exactly where you are. That’s why the opener’s always so big each year — we’ll know where we’re at after that opener.”

Harbaugh seemed confident in his quarterbacking situation heading into Saturday, as senior T.C. Ostrander will finally be handed the reigns of the Stanford attack in his fifth year with the program.

“He’s been the guy that’s been respected by all of his teammates and all of the coaches since early on,” Harbaugh said of his fifth-year quarterback. “Just in the way that he prepares, the way that he works, the time that he devotes to the game and his performance level, he — like many of the seniors — reflects a group of guys that are tired of getting their butts kicked. They want to make a statement in their final go-around here at Stanford.”

The Cardinal rushing attack would also appear to be in good hands heading into the season, as Harbaugh said he considers both junior Anthony Kimble and sophomore Toby Gerhart to be starters and has lauded the work of true freshman fullback Owen Marecic in camp.

But most of all, Saturday should be an intriguing first test to see just how well Harbaugh’s promised level of “enthusiasm unknown to mankind” will stack up against the Bruins’ talented roster, which includes 20 returning starters on offense and defense. The UCLA defense, headlined by the nation’s top returning sack-artist — senior defensive end Bruce Davis — should pose a significant challenge to a Stanford offense still adapting to Harbaugh’s system.

Harbaugh had plenty of praise on Tuesday for Davis and head coach Karl Dorrell’s highly touted defensive unit.

“That extremely fast, quick speed-rusher is a guy that can have a tremendous impact on the football game,” Harbaugh said of Davis. “He was the sack leader in the country last year. He’s a tremendous football player and we’ve got great respect for him.”

“I mean they are solid,” Harbaugh later added. “This is a legitimate big-time defense; there’s no question about it.”

On the offensive side of the ball, UCLA’s approach is much more uncertain heading into Saturday’s contest. The Bruins’ first-year offensive coordinator, Jay Norvell, was a protege of Bill Callahan at Nebraska and a colleague of Harbaugh with the NFL’s Oakland Raiders; he is expected to run a West Coast style of offense with UCLA. The new Bruins offense will be coping with a retooled Stanford defense that is switching to the 4-3 scheme under new defensive coordinator Scott Shafer. Shafer’s defense at Western Michigan was the 11th-ranked unit in the country for 2006.

The Cardinal hosts UCLA Saturday at Stanford Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast nationally on Fox Sports Net. The game is the first of four straight home competitions to open the Cardinal’s 2007 season.