Stanford football: (Bryce) Love is all Stanford needs

Stanford football is looking to bounce back from a 9-5 season. They’ve got the talent, and the schedule to make a playoff run. Can they get the job done?

Stanford football under David Shaw really doesn’t need a ton of introduction. Every college football fan has a pretty good grasp on what Stanford football is all about. For the past decade or so, they’ve been a power run first team, that dominates in the trenches and with defense. David Shaw has become extremely good at building the perfect roster for that system.

2018 is no different in Palo Alto. The Cardinal return a massive chunk of their offense, and the defense, while a bit younger than usual, should be excellent as always. However, last season was a bit strange for Stanford. Despite winning the Pac-12 North, they finished with five losses, in a really odd 9-5 record.

They dropped games to USC (twice), SDSU, Washington State and TCU, and while those are all good teams, I can’t imagine they were satisfied with that finish. The good news is that they basically get to run it back. Almost every contributor on the offense is back. The defense has star power and some really exciting young players.

The schedule isn’t easy, but it’s not awful. If they find a quarterback and get a little better against the pass, this could be a double-digit win team. If they find a good quarterback and a top 20 defense, they could be headed for the College Football Playoff.