Go Mighty Card

2015 Positional Preview: Wide Receivers

When the Cardinal's top receiver was injured early in the first quarter against Cal, there was concern that the Stanford offense might have been doomed. But even without Ty Montgomery, Kevin Hogan was able to lead his team on its most productive three-game stretch of an otherwise frustrating season. Wide receivers Devon Cajuste and Michael Rector provided downfield threats to complement the emerging tight ends and running backs, and the offense looked like many had hoped it would have from the outset of the season. With Cajuste and Rector returning this fall, as well as a few key additions, Stanford will roll out its most complete and balanced offense since Andrew Luck was behind center.

2015 Positional Preview: Tight Ends

The Stanford offense is different. During an era in which some quarterbacks throw only slants and bubble screens, many teams never huddle, and some schools have even eliminated play books all together, David Shaw and the Cardinal cling stubbornly to traditional football like a dog to its bone. (It should be noted, however, that like Andrew Luck and his flip phone, Shaw is no Luddite. Stanford players were the first collegians to use iPads for play books a few years ago, and Stanford was the birthplace of STRIVR Labs and the virtual reality technology that has swept through college football and the NFL over the past six months.)

But even as Stanford pushes into the frontier of technology and all that it can offer, the offense is still tradition-bound on Saturday afternoons. In fact, if the late Hall of Famer John Mackey still looks down from above to watch the game he once loved, there's no doubt that a smile bends the former tight end's lips when his eyes find Palo Alto, where the tight end is still revered. 

2015 Positional Preview: Running Backs

Even though the Stanford offense of the last six years has been captained by one player (Andrew Luck) who was arguably the greatest collegiate quarterback of the past thirty years and the current starter (Kevin Hogan) who has led his team to more victories than any active NCAA quarterback, this current resurgence of Stanford football has been led by the running game.

2015 Positional Preview: Quarterback

Consider for a moment the arc of Kevin Hogan's Stanford career. After redshirting during his first year on campus and sitting in meetings with the greatest quarterback in Stanford history (that's Andrew Luck, not John Elway or Jim Plunkett, in case you're wondering), Hogan entered the 2012 season as the number two quarterback behind starter Josh Nunes. He had only been on campus for about fifteen months, so it made sense.

But the Cardinal offense struggled under Nunes. There were high points, like a 50-13 pasting of Duke, a 21-14 upset of USC, and a 54-48 overtime barn-burner over Arizona, in which Nunes posted one of the greatest quarterback lines in Stanford history (21-34, 360 yards, 2 passing TDs, 3 rushing TDs), but eventually it became clear that he wasn't the right player to lead the team.

Slowly but surely, Kevin Hogan was integrated into the offense starting midway through the season. He threw one pass against Cal (a nine-yard touchdown), then had four carries the following week against Washington State. David Shaw was committed to inserting the "Hogan Package" for one or two series per game, but I can't imagine he would've predicted what happened the next week against Colorado. 

Position Pulse: Quarterbacks

In this series leading up to next month's National Signing Day, I'll examine the state of each position, including discussion about players who won't be back, players who are returning, and players you might not know yet. I'll also use a simple four-point system to give my assessment of the pulse of the position: Racing, Steady, Faint, or Flatlining.

Leaving: Yet to be seen.
Returning: Kevin Hogan, Evan Crower, Ryan Burns, Keller Chryst. Maybe.

When quarterback Kevin Hogan announced this week that he'd be returning to Stanford for another year, bypassing the NFL draft and putting to rest those groundless transfer rumors, everything changed for the Cardinal.

Remember the offensive display Stanford put on to close out the 2014 season? In a three-game stretch against Cal, UCLA, and Maryland the Cardinal scored 114 points and averaged 422 yards per game, but most importantly, it looked like the old Cardinal again. Now that Hogan has decided to stay, we know that the offensive group that finally gelled at the end of 2014 will return almost intact in 2015. (Remember, departing senior wide receiver Ty Montgomery was injured early in the Cal game and didn't play again.)

But this is supposed to be about the quarterbacks, so let's focus on Hogan. Because of when Hogan ascended to the starting position -- immediately after Andrew Luck and immediately before Keller Chryst, the player some assume will be next great Stanford quarterback -- he will likely never get the appreciation he deserves. He'll never eclipse Luck, and it's impossible to compete with someone who hasn't yet stepped on the field, but Hogan has already done enough to merit consideration as one of the best quarterbacks in Stanford history.

Position Pulse: Running Backs

In this series leading up to next month's National Signing Day, I'll examine the state of each position, including discussion about players who won't be back, players who are returning, and players you might not know yet. I'll also use a simple four-point system to give my assessment of the pulse of the position: Racing, Steady, Faint, or Flatlining.

Leaving: Ricky Seale
Staying: Christian McCaffrey, Barry Sanders, Remound Wright, Kelsey Young
Arriving: Cameron Scarlett

The Cardinal failed to produce a thousand-yard rusher for the first time since 2007, something which wasn't a huge surprise considering the roster composition, but I don't think anyone would've guessed that no runner would gain as much as a hundred yards in any single game. I don't know if anyone will get to a thousand yards in 2015 since there probably won't be single workhorse in the backfield, but I absolutely guarantee that either Christian McCaffrey or Remound Wright will crack the century mark at some point.

If the final three games of the 2014 season showed us anything, it's that the coaching staff has finally settled on the Thunder and Lighnting combination of Thunder Wright and Lightning McCaffrey. Wright established himself as a powerful inside runner, scoring nine touchdowns over those three games, and McCaffrey lit up the sky like a comet, shining especially bright in the bowl game as he averaged more than eight yards a carry.

McCaffrey is not just the most exciting player on the roster, he's the most exciting player to pull on a Stanford jersey since... Glyn Milburn? He's a threat to score whenever he touches the ball, and his versatility allows the coaching staff to use him creatively. This year he lined up as a standard tailback, as an H-back closer to the offensive line, in the slot, split out wide, and as the trigger man in the wildcat. He ran pass routes and took handoffs from each of those positions, usually running outside the tackles, but during the season David Shaw hinted we'd eventually see him running between the tackles once he put on a few pounds; he gave us a taste of that against Maryland. The future is bright for young McCaffrey. Heisman bright.

With Kelsey Young and Barry Sanders still around to fight for the carries left behind by Thunder and Lightning, it's likely that any running backs that sign with the Cardinal next month will redshirt in the fall. Even so, Shaw might be tempted to get Class of '15  commit Cameron Scarlett out on the field sooner rather than later. At 6'1" and 210 pounds, Scarlett has the size that was lacking in Stanford's 2014 backfield, and he's certain to develop into a great back for the Cardinal, but a recent knee injury means we probably won't see him on the field until 2016 after Wright, Sanders, and Young have moved on. 

Position Pulse: Steady. Expect good things from this group.