Stanford football: Can Cardinal bounce back from injury-riddled 2019?
Expect bounce back from traditionally-strong defense
Stanford was not itself as a program in many ways last season and not having a good defense was one of them. The Cardinal had one of the worst defenses in the conference and it’s going to be tough to climb back to the top of the conference with so much inexperience in the front-seven.
Thomas Booker is going to be the leader on the defensive line and he is returning after a four-sack season a year ago. Thomas Schaffer did not play a lot last year, but is going to be counted on to help fix one of the worst pass rushes in the conference. Dalyn Wade-Perry is going to get the nod at nose tackle and he is another player that is just not very experienced, but will be counted to lead the line up front.
Linebacker is another group that is relatively inexperienced, but it will have senior leadership with the return of the teams second-leading tackler Curtis Robinson who had 64 tackles and two sacks last season. Gabe Reid will be the other returning starter and he had a decent season with 44 tackles and two sacks. Jordan Fox and Ricky Miezan will round out the unit and they only combined for 22 tackles last season so they will be the guys to watch.
Much like the defensive line, the linebackers are just very inexperienced and that could spell problems for a typically tough run defense.
The secondary was thought to be facing some inexperience of its own, but one of the best defensive backs in the whole country, Paulson Adebo, decided to come back for his senior season and his return should help boost what was one of the worst passing defenses in the nation.
Malik Antoine and Kendall Williamson should be one of the best safety tandems in the Pac-12 and hope that they can improve upon their interception numbers from a season ago, where neither player recorded a pick. Kyu Blu Kelly will be starting on the opposite corner and help round out what should be an experienced unit that will be the strength of the defense after the front seven was ravaged by departures.