Stanford football begins its 2017 season on Saturday with high expectations. Here are five bold predictions for the Cardinal campaign.
The 2017 season is right around the corner for Stanford football as the Cardinal are one of the few Power Five teams to start their season on Saturday. The season will open Saturday against Rice as the Cardinal begin their quest for a Pac-12 title.
In a conference that has its headlines dominated by programs such as USC, UCLA and Washington, the Cardinal look to be the dark-horse contender. Although, under David Shaw, Stanford has been no stranger to Pac-12 contention.
Stanford has the talent to compete with the big boys of college football and it’s only a matter of time before it pulls off an upset, or two, and makes a run at the Pac-12 Championship. This team isn’t going down easily, despite the loss of Heisman candidate Christian McCaffrey.
Let’s take a look at five bold predictions for Stanford in the 2017 season.
5. Defense sneaks back into top 10 nationally
Stanford has been known as one of the best defensive teams in college football over the past five years, or so. The Cardinal have been stymying opposing offenses left and right, but that all seemed to change during the 2016 season.
Although Stanford finished with a 10-3 overall record and 6-3 mark in conference play, it didn’t seem to have that same defensive dominance which helped make it one of the best programs in the country. In fact, the passing defense ranked 61st and the run defense was just 38th.
Fortunately, the unit brings back eight starters and five of them were underclassmen just a season ago. That youth an inexperience was a major contributor to the lack of success, but we can expect to see that change this season.
The Cardinal bring back a solid secondary and an even better front-seven. This unit looks to be gelling and Stanford will sneak back into the top 10 nationally in total defense in 2017.
4. Keller Chryst passes for over 3,000 yards
When you look at what Keller Chryst did in 2016, you can’t help but to feel as if he underperformed. However, he split snaps with Ryan Burns, and should have an even larger role as the elected starter for 2017. He’s going to be relied upon not only to be a leader, but to be a valuable contributor.
Entering his senior year, the former highly-touted four-star quarterback from nearby Palo Alto, Calif., has failed to live up to the incredible hype placed upon him prior to his freshman campaign. The expectations weren’t exactly fair, but he had the potential to be a star.
Chryst had to sit behind Kevin Hogan for a couple of years and then Burns stole some snaps last season. Now that he has the reigns of the offense, with Burns as his No. 2, Chryst will exhibit the confidence everyone expected of him early on. The 6-foot-5, 234-pound gunslinger has the ideal size, strength and ability to be Stanford’s No. 1 guy, and he will start acting like it.
Just last season, he passed for 905 yards with 10 touchdowns and two picks, but he attempted only 136 passes and completed about 57 percent of those. He will improve drastically to a 60 percent completion rate with just over 3,100 yards and 22 touchdowns. A breakout season is coming.
3. Bryce Love has monster season with 2,000 all-purpose yards
Bryce Love is going to have a huge year for the Cardinal. Not only is he taking over for one of the best running backs in school history, but he’s doing so with some solid production already under his belt.
In fact, Love finished the 2016 season with 779 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 7.0 yards per carry. If he can have that same type of success in 2017 with at least double the carries, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to see him go over 1,500 yards on the ground. Heck, he might get a good head start on that number against a lackluster Rice defense.
As for the 500 yards coming from the pass game, Love showed the ability to catch out of the backfield as a freshman, racking up 250 yards. However, he had just eight catches for 83 yards last season, but will have a nice bounce-back this year.
Love will catch 25 passes for 300 yards and have 1,700 yards on the ground. This is going to be a Christian McCaffrey-type season for his former backup.
2. Stanford upsets Washington
There are two teams in the Pac-12 currently receiving more attention than Stanford: USC and Washington. The Trojans are arguably the most talented team in the conference, bringing back guys like Ronald Jones II and Sam Darnold from a 10-win team in 2016.
Washington, on the other hand, has plenty of talent, but often gets overlooked in the 2017 College Football Playoff conversation because of the Trojans. However, the Huskies made the playoff in 2016 and return one of the best quarterbacks in all of college football: Jake Browning.
The Huskies are a preseason top-10 team while Stanford is ranked No. 14. The Cardinal will drop slightly after a Week 3 loss to USC, but will rebound with seven straight victories to improve to 8-1 on the year. That leads to a matchup with Washington at home and the Cardinal will likely be bordering on a top-10 team while the Huskies could very well be unbeaten and in the top five.
Stanford gets Washington at home which is already a major advantage, but the Cardinal will also be riding a heck of a win streak with a potential playoff berth on the line. Expect Stanford to play with plenty of motivation and shock the Huskies by a touchdown.
1. The Cardinal make a New Year’s Six bowl
After beating Washington to improve to 9-1 on the season, Stanford will then face California and Notre Dame at home. Even if the Cardinal lose one of those two games, they will finish the season with a 10-2 record and likely be second in the division.
Fortunately, I believe they beat Cal handily at home before facing an improved Notre Dame team. That will be a non-conference battle to end the year and even with a loss, they could tie for the division lead with Washington, but they would get the nod because of the head-to-head tie-breaker.
What does that mean? Well, Stanford would head to the conference title game to face USC, more than likely. I can’t see this team keeping up with a motivated USC team trying to make the playoff, so the Cardinal will drop for the second time of the year against the Trojans, but this game will be much closer than the first.
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Following the loss, the Cardinal will be either 11-2 or 10-3, making them a prime candidate to represent the Pac-12 in a New Year’s Six bowl game. A successful season for the Cardinal.