College Football: Top 30 breakout candidates for 2018 season

David Shaw may have mismanaged a couple of important games during the 2017 season. The most notable was a road game against a hapless Oregon State team which was without its head coach. He kept Keller Chryst in at quarterback even though the veteran gunslinger was struggling and left the talented sophomore KJ Costello on the bench.

That nearly cost the Cardinal the game which would have knocked them from the Pac-12 title race, but Shaw lucked into overcoming shaky play and Stanford squeaked out a tight win.

The head coach won’t be able to make that same mistake in 2018 with Chryst transferring out of the program, leaving the keys in the offensive ignition to Costello.

In 11 games as a sophomore, Costello got a few starts and finished with 1,573 yards and 14 touchdowns with only four interceptions and a 58 percent completion rate. He was clearly the best passer on the team, but was bottled up on too many occasions.

It’s time to let Costello loose on the Pac-12. Stanford may have found its next big star quarterback.