The Stanford Cardinal’s head into Saturday night’s match up against UCF following a major upset at the hands of the Northwestern Wildcats. However, the same can be said for the Knights to a smaller degree after the loss to FIU last Thursday. Both programs will be giving it their all under the lights in Stanford Stadium to avoid a dreaded 0-2 start.
Given the Knight’s struggles defensively last week against the two-headed rushing attack of Alex Gardner and Anthon Samuel for FIU, Stanford is very likely to feature their star sophomore running back Christian McCaffrey.
Christian McCaffrey, the son of former Pro Bowl wide receiver Ed McCaffrey, can be considered the X-factor for the Cardinal week to week in the run game and on special teams as a returner. The multi-talented sophomore was named to the Maxwell and Hornung Award watch lists and was the lone bright spot last week for Stanford when he totaled 171 all-purpose yards (fumbled once) at Northwestern. It will be up to Thomas Niles and the rest of the Knight’s front seven to create push and limit holes for McCaffrey on Saturday.
The Cardinal’s passing game leans heavily on two fifth year seniors quarterback Kevin Hogan and wide receiver Devon Cajuste. Hogan was mostly ineffective against Northwestern and questions about his ability to lead the team to more Pac-12 success have started circling. If the Knights can get out to an early lead and force Hogan to pass more often, they could force mistakes out of the fifth year senior.
The dangerous part of that strategy comes with the aforementioned wide receiver Devon Cajuste and junior tight end Austin Hooper. Cajuste’s size and speed combination causes match up nightmares for opposing offenses as he averages 18.5 yards per catch in his career, but his roller-coaster play has been an issue for him throughout his career. The redshirt senior wide receiver is also just one game removed from an ankle injury and is being slowly worked into the game plan.
On the other hand, junior tight end Austin Hooper’s stock is skyrocketing and is the latest in a long line of Stanford tight ends to make an impact following the likes of Coby Fleener, Zach Ertz, and Levine Toilolo.
Hooper led Stanford with 45 receiving yards against Northwestern and is the odds on favorite to lead the team in receiving yards this season. Standing tall at six foot four inches, Hooper will give the Knight’s linebackers a lot of trouble over the middle and he will be called upon a lot by Kevin Hogan as the game progresses.
Defensively, Stanford has been a juggernaut for the better part of a decade under Jim Harbaugh and current head coach David Shaw. However, similarly to the Knights, the Stanford defense only returned four starters from the previous season. Never was that more prevalent then during the Northwestern game as the Wildcats led in time of possession heavily as the game wore on and ran an average of 4.2 yards per carry throughout the game.
Blake Martinez is the lone outlier on the Stanford defense to look out for after leading the team in tackles a season ago. Martinez continued that trend Saturday, recording 14 tackles (7 solo, 7 assisted) in the loss to the Wildcats.
The Knight’s offense can work around Martinez and capitalize on the young Cardinal defense through the air and the ground. Saturday’s game has the makings to be an offensive shootout that will afford the winner a new outlook on the season ahead and leave one program licking its wounds yet again at 0-2.
Photo Credit: Nick Russett
