First of all, it isn't spring. Second of all, it isn't football season. But even though the calendar says February 22, it's time for Spring Football at Stanford. Coach David Shaw led his troops through their paces on Tuesday afternoon, looking for answers to a few key questions. Most of these answers won't be fully realized until the fall, but we might get a few hints during the two spring sessions scheduled over the next six weeks. Here's what I'm wondering now about the offense, in no particular order.
I love Tavita Pritchard. He engineered the most miraculous win in the history of Stanford football, but he was a marginal quarterback who became the backup when Andrew Luck was given the reins in 2009. When Luck was injured in the final game of that season and was forced to miss the Sun Bowl against Oklahoma, Pritchard played in his absence, and the team was completely different. This is the importance of having a quality backup quarterback, and one of the most important decisions confronting Coach Shaw will be his choice of Luck's understudy.
With Alex Loukas gone after having his appeal for an additional year denied by the NCAA, the competition would seem like a wide open race amongst sophomores Josh Nunes and Robbie Picazo and redshirt freshman Brett Nottingham. I never really liked the idea of having Loukas as the backup last year, simply because he was such a drastically different quarterback than the player he would've replaced. Hopefully Shaw will pick someone who would be able to slide into the lineup without forcing the offense to switch to a completely different playbook. Losing Luck for any stretch of time would be a disaster, but at least the talent behind him is better than it was two years ago. Okay, I need to stop thinking about this now.
2. What will the running back rotation look like, or, more accurately, who will be switching positions?
With the news that senior Jeremy Stewart was granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA, the logjam is official. We can bet that Stewart won't be spending his final year on the Farm learning a new position, so we can write him down as one of the backups. The top of the depth chart should look the same as last fall; of the top six ball carriers from 2010, only Owen Marecic (and his twenty-three carries) is gone. If I were in charge I'd write down at least 150 carries next to Anthony Wilkerson's name (he had 89 in '10), then let Stepfan Taylor, Tyler Gaffney, and Stewart split the other 300 or so.
The lurking problem, however, is that there's more talent coming. Four-star recruit Ricky Seale was redshirted last year, but since he was actually more highly thought of as a defensive back in high school, there could be a position change in his future. (There are also reports that Usua Amanam will be getting a look at cornerback this spring.)
Things won't get any clearer in the fall when four-star freshmen Remound Wright and Kelsey Young arrive on campus. They're both talented enough to come in and contribute if the depth chart looked the way it normally does, but as things are they'll probably both spend the season watching and learning.
3. Who's going to catch the ball?
If we learned one thing from Andrew Luck last year it's that he doesn't need marquee receivers to make him look good. He makes anyone look good. GMC favorite Doug Baldwin is gone, and Ryan Whalen has moved on to a lifetime of Wes Welker comparisons (you know -- they're both white), but the cupboard isn't completely bare. Chris Owusu will be back, but the big question is whether or not he'll be healthy. (Continuing a disturbing pattern, Owusu missed today's workout, recovering from an undisclosed surgery.)
Just for the sake of my own personal sanity, I choose to pretend that Owusu will be healthy and ready this fall. Let's pencil him in one one side of the field. There's lots of young receiving talent on the roster, but no one stepped up last year. People like Drew Terrell, Jamal-Rashad Patterson, and Jemari Roberts will definitely get a look, as will Darren Daniel, the recently converted quarterback.
But you know what I think? I think incoming freshman Ty Montgomery will arrive on campus in August and blow all of those people out of the water. You heard it here first.
4. What of the offensive line?
Jonathan Martin and David DeCastro are the only two players returning from last year's dominant unit, but who will join them? Early, early reports have Tyler Mabry, Khalil Wilkes, and Kevin Danser filling out the rest of the line right now, but who knows if that will stick. Really, this is the most important question facing the Cardinal. I have faith here, but it's blind faith. If the coaching staff can put something together on the line, last year will look less like an aberration and more like a beginning.
5. What kind of a coach will David Shaw be?
I'm not really talking about Xs and Os here. I don't think there will be too many differences in what we see on the field -- though for some reason I don't think we'll see so many of the show-offy line shifts that Harbaugh seemed to like. What I'm curious about is what Shaw will be like as the face of the program. Will he be eternally optimistic like his predecessor? Will he be as even-keeled as he appeared in his opening press conference? We definitely won't get a sense of this until he's standing on the sideline during a game that counts or answering questions about a decision that didn't work out, but I'm looking forward to getting to know him a bit this spring. Aren't you?
[Photo Credit: Patrick Boury]
