A Look at Sun Bowl Opponent Stanford’s Season
The Pitt football team is set to take on the Stanford Cardinal in their season-concluding game in the Sun Bowl on Monday afternoon. The strange arc that Pitt’s season has taken is likely well-known to most Panther fans. However, there may be a lack of familiarity with Stanford as Pitt hasn’t played them since Jock Sutherland was leading the Panthers. Additionally, given the Cardinal’s location on the west coast, many of their games are on later than many east coast based Panther fans are able or willing to stay up to watch. Because of all of this, it’s worth taking a look back at Stanford’s season in advance of their post-season match-up. This way you can know more about the Cardinal beyond just what their record is when you watch the teams play.
For starters, Stanford went 8-4 on the season but this was a slight disappointment given pre-season expectations. Going 9-3 and winning the Pac-12 North last season with Heisman Trophy runner-up Bryce Love returning at Running Back, the Cardinal were ranked 13th in the preseason AP poll. There was every reason to expect them to contend for another division title, but they ended up going 6-3 in Pac-12 play, finishing 3rd behind Washington and Washington State.
Things started well for Stanford, with them opening the season with 4 straight wins. This included wins over USC, ranked 17th at the time, and Oregon, ranked 20th at the time. This hot start saw them rise to 7th in the AP Poll. However, the middle portion of their schedule proved to be rough going for the Cardinal, going 1-4 over the next 5 games to fall to 5-4. During this stretch, they suffered defeats to eventual playoff participant Notre Dame, eventual Pac-12 title game participants Washington and Utah, and Washington State, who was ranked 14th at the time. The losses to the latter three effectively knocked them out of the Pac-12 North Division race, with them dropping to 3-3 in conference play, at least 2 games behind both Washington schools who they had already played. Despite this, they finished the season strong rebounding to win their last three games against Oregon State, UCLA, and rival Cal to finish 8-4.
Overall, Stanford was a pretty average team across the board, finishing 3rd in the 6-team Pac-12 North. On offense they scored 29.6 points per game (63rd in FBS) and gave up 23.8 points per game on defense (43rd). Looking deeper reveals other season-long trends though. While these defensive stats could be considered above average, their yards per game figures are not as positive. They’ve given up 415.6 yards per game, which is only 79th in FBS. This is indicative of a defense that has something of a bend-but-not-break quality. On offense, despite having a former Heisman Trophy runner-up, they’ve been a very one-dimensional offense in favor of the passing game. They average 287.1 pass yards per game (20th), but only rush 108.3 yards per game (123rd).
Going back to Bryce Love, the Senior Running Back has had something of a disappointing season after a breakout 2017. He was forced to miss 2 games with an ankle injury, however that doesn’t account for his season yardage dropping from over 2,000 last year to only 739 this season. His average yards per rush cratered from 8.1 that year to only 4.5 this year. Despite this, Love is still a safe bet to be drafted by an NFL team in April. Because of this, he made the decision to skip the Sun Bowl to avoid risking additional injury and protect his draft stock. This should make the Cardinal’s one dimensional offense even more so, with the next leading rushers Trevor Speights and Cameron Scarlett each rushing for less than 300 yards on the season.
With their potent passing game, Stanford has generally been able to get away with being one dimensional. Junior Quarterback K.J. Costello has to be considered one of the best signal-callers in college football. His 66.4% completion rate, 3,435 yards passing, 8.7 yards per attempt, and 29 passing touchdowns are all in the Top 20 in FBS. His favorite target is J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, who’s 14 touchdowns are 3rd in FBS. The Senior receiver only needs 31 yards in the Sun Bowl to hit 1,000 yards on the season. The tandem even reached 300 passing yards and 100 receiving yards respectively in nearly half of their games (5).
Like most teams successful enough to qualify for a bowl game, Stanford had some memorable victories. Wins against USC and UCLA were notable for different reasons. A 17-3 win over USC early in the season seemed large at the time, as USC was ranked. While UCLA wasn’t very good this season, when Stanford met them it turned into a 49-42 shootout. The season-ending win against Cal was also a big deal as any rivalry victory would be expected to be. However, the most exciting game came in Week 4 when Stanford beat Oregon in Overtime. After being down 24-7 late in the 3rd quarter, the Cardinal surged back with the game going to Overtime tied at 31. They would score a Touchdown on their first possession, then stop the Ducks to win 38-31. This win put them at 4-0 and #7 in the country.
Stanford did not really have the season they were likely hoping for with so many great players returning from last year’s division-winning 9-win team. Especially after their hot start, expectations were probably sky-high in Palo Alto. However, the rough middle stretch doomed any hope they had of winning the conference or crashing the playoff. Additionally, despite having a star Running Back in Bryce Love, the Cardinal have instead relied on a prolific air attack to move the ball. Though the season didn’t go as expected or hoped for the Cardinal, one could argue that they were similar to Pitt (despite the division title) in this respect. Because of that, it’s appropriate that these two teams would meet for one last game this season.
*Stats courtesy of College Football Reference and ESPN
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