STANFORD
INSIDE SLANT
Stanford continues its soft early-season schedule with an Oct. 1 home game against UCLA, and although the Bruins showed some life in their 27-19 road victory over Oregon State on Sept. 24, there are several reasons the Cardinal should blow by the Bruins.
First of all, the Cardinal, ranked No. 5 in the country, is clearly better than the Bruins, who are 2-2 after the win over the Beavers. The Bruins have been changing their starting quarterback almost every week, and even though Richard Brehaut probably will retain the starting job with his efficient showing against Oregon State, the Bruins quarterback position is a weakness, which limits UCLA's ability to exploit the only possible weakness in Stanford's defense, its pass defense.
Needless to say, Stanford, with Andrew Luck, will have a sizable advantage at the quarterback position.
Secondly, Stanford is coming off a bye, and teams traditionally play better when they have two weeks to prepare for an opponent. In Stanford's case, it has an extra week to incorporate Jarek Lancaster and A.J. Tarpley into the defensive scheme. They will share the responsibility of replacing linebacker Shayne Skov, who is out for the season after injuring his knee in the Sept. 17 victory over Arizona.
Third, Stanford is playing at home, and while the Cardinal crowd has never been considered intimidating, Stanford has lost only two of its past 20 home games dating back to late in the 2007 season. As good as Stanford is in general, it is particularly good at home.
Stanford is also home for its Oct. 8 game against Colorado, which, while better than expected, still looks like one of the weaker teams in the conference. That is followed by an Oct. 15 road game against Washington State, which is also better than expected but expectations were so low so for that they still should be much of a challenge for Stanford.
That should make the Cardinal 6-0 heading into its games against Washington, USC, Oregon State and Oregon, which is when Stanford will find out how good it is.
Against UCLA, the Cardinal figures to rediscover its identity as a physical running team, because it should be able to bulldoze the Bruins defense the way Texas did when the Longhorns piled up 284 rushing yards against UCLA on Sept. 17.
UCLA may have gained some confidence by beating Oregon State, but the Beavers are in a serious downward spiral that mitigates some of UCLA's accomplishment.
NOTES, QUOTES
—ILB Shayne Skov is a junior, so he is eligible to enter the NFL Draft after this season. There is no indication whether or not he will do that, but he may want to return to Stanford to show he is recovered from the knee injury. His draft status would be hurt by that health uncertainty if he turned pro after this season. Skov presumably will get this year of eligibility back, giving him two more seasons of college eligibility if he wants them.
—Stanford's 11-game winning streak is the longest active winning streak in the country.
—Freshman ILB James Vaughters, Stanford's highest rated recruit this year, may get more playing time in the absence of Shayne Skov, but he has also been playing a lot at defensive end in the Cardinal's nickel package, so he might end up playing more outside linebacker.
—Stanford is ranked No. 5 in both polls as of Sept. 25 and has been ranked in the top 10 a school-record 11 consecutive weeks dating back to last season.
SERIES HISTORY: UCLA leads 45-33-3 (last meeting, 2010, 35-0 Stanford).
SCOUTING THE OFFENSE: Although the Cardinal would like to get its offense going earlier in games, Stanford's offense has been pretty good overall, averaging 45.0 points, ninth best in the country. However, the Cardinal has done it against mediocre defenses in its first three games. The Cardinal ranks 36th in the nation in rushing, and the team would like to improve that, although its 5.4 yards per rushing attempt is pretty good. There is not much wrong with the Cardinal's passing game with Andrew Luck making the passes, and the tight end trio of Zach Ertz, Coby Fleener and Levine Toilolo has been exceptional. WR Chris Owusu has good numbers, but coaches expect even more from Owusu, who has dropped several passes and needs to be Stanford's big-play threat in the passing game. The offensive line has shown improvement, but it is a long way from being as dominant as last season's unit.
SCOUTING THE DEFENSE: The Cardinal's defense has been every bit as good as last season, when it was excellent. The only concern is whether it can maintain that kind of dominance without ILB Shayne Skov, probably its best defensive player who is out for the season as a result of a knee injury suffered in the Sept. 17 game against Arizona. The Cardinal ranks second in the nation in run defense, and it is first in yards yielded per rushing attempt, at 1.23. A lot of that has to do with the fact that Stanford has recorded 13 sacks. Stanford ranks seventh nationally in scoring defense, yielding 9.0 points per game, and one of the touchdowns Stanford yielded came with the Cardinal offense was on the field. DE Ben Gardner and OLB Chase Thomas have been the defensive standout performers so far.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "We know one person can't do Shayne's job alone." — Stanford ILB A.J. Tarpley, on the fact that he and Jarek Lancaster will be sharing the position previous occupied by Shayne Skov, who is lost for the season with a knee injury.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
THIS WEEK'S GAME: UCLA at Stanford, Oct. 1 — Stanford is 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the conference while UCLA is 1-3 and 0-1. Stanford beat UCLA 35-0 in Los Angeles early last season in a game that indicated which way the teams were headed in 2010.
KEYS TO THE GAME: It seems Stanford can only lose if it commits a number of turnovers, so avoiding mistakes is the No. 1 key. If the Cardinal can dominate the line of scrimmage the way it should, it should be able to control the game with its ground attack. If the UCLA quarterback — presumably Richard Brehaut — can make a big play early, it could give him confidence to have a productive game that enables the Bruins to stay in the contest. If the Cardinal sacks or hurries the Bruins quarterback a few times early in the game, it may lead to turnovers and destroy what chance the Bruins have. UCLA's Derrick Coleman rushed for 100 yards against Oregon State, so Stanford needs to shut him down early and force Brehaut to pass, because the Bruins would prefer to stay on the ground.
PLAYERS TO WATCH:
TB Stepfan Taylor — Taylor had a career-high 153 rushing yards in the Sept. 17 victory over Arizona, and he should be able to accumulate some big yardage against the Bruins' run defense as well.
ILBs A.J. Tarpley and Jarek Lancaster — They are the two players who will share the inside linebacker spot vacated by injured Shayne Skov. Arizona had success in the middle of the field both running and passing after Skov was injured in the second quarter of that game, so it's worth seeing how they hold up.
QB Andrew Luck — Luck probably won't put up breathtaking numbers, because the Cardinal will try to pound the Bruins with their running game, but he is likely to produce some big plays with play-action passes.
OLB Chase Thomas — Thomas is the team's best pass-rusher and leads the team in sacks with 3.5. But Shayne Skov was the team's other main pass-rushing threat, and with Skov gone, opponents may be able to devote more attention to controlling Thomas.
ROSTER REPORT
—Senior TE Coby Fleener has not missed any practices despite being knocked out of the Sept. 17 game with a head injury, so he will be available to play against UCLA and is likely to be a starter.
—Freshman DB Wayne Lyons is out with a foot injury, so he is likely to redshirt the season despite getting considerable playing time in the first two games.
—Junior ILB Shayne Skov is still attending position meetings with team despite being lost for the season with the knee injury.
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