[BostonCard]

From the ESPN blog, a brief piece on our first opponent

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/...nsas-state

What's at stake for Stanford? After last year's catastrophic 16-6 season-opening loss at Northwestern, the Cardinal fully understand the importance of a strong start to the season. Last year's setback likely cost David Shaw's team a spot in the College Football Playoff, and a similar slip-up to kick things off against Kansas State could inflict similar damage.

I'm hoping the game sets a positive tone for the rest of the season and for McCaffrey's H-man candidacy.

BC

[BostonCard]

From the ESPN blog, a brief piece on our first opponent

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/...nsas-state

What's at stake for Stanford? After last year's catastrophic 16-6 season-opening loss at Northwestern, the Cardinal fully understand the importance of a strong start to the season. Last year's setback likely cost David Shaw's team a spot in the College Football Playoff, and a similar slip-up to kick things off against Kansas State could inflict similar damage.

I'm hoping the game sets a positive tone for the rest of the season and for McCaffrey's H-man candidacy.

BC

[ColoradoTree]

I would agree with that.  I think people are still interested in Christian from last year and might tune into his first game of the year for that reason.  It's a 9pm Eastern kickoff on a Friday night, which isn't ideal, but at the same time, it's the only game of note in that timeslot. (Apologies to the Rocky Mountain Showdown between Colorado and Colorado State, but random columnists from small SEC towns aren't tuning into your game.)  Perhaps with it being the first week of the season, more college football writers will treat it as a national holiday and stay up late.  But if they don't last the whole game, here's hoping Christian blows the doors off K-State by halftime so everyone can go to bed early.

[ColoradoTree]

I would agree with that.  I think people are still interested in Christian from last year and might tune into his first game of the year for that reason.  It's a 9pm Eastern kickoff on a Friday night, which isn't ideal, but at the same time, it's the only game of note in that timeslot. (Apologies to the Rocky Mountain Showdown between Colorado and Colorado State, but random columnists from small SEC towns aren't tuning into your game.)  Perhaps with it being the first week of the season, more college football writers will treat it as a national holiday and stay up late.  But if they don't last the whole game, here's hoping Christian blows the doors off K-State by halftime so everyone can go to bed early.

[CTcard]

A couple of things in that article are a bit ... overstated based upon other things I have read.

Star Players: QB Jesse Ertz ...

Ertz returns from a knee injury that shelved him for most of last season, so there's optimism that the offense can rise above mediocrity ...

From other things I have read it seems not at all clear that Ertz will be their starting QB this year. Even if so, I am not quite sure what qualifies him as a star player.
His career stats:
Passing
0-0 for 0 yds. Yds/att undefined. QB rating undefined.
Running
7 rushes, 46 yards, 6.6 yds/carry, 0 TDs.
He played a little frosh year, got injured sometime during game #1 last year.

From another fan-preview I saw recently, at least some guy seemed to think Joe Huebener would be the starter.
His stats last year:
Passing
131-275 (48%), YPA 6.6, Rating 107.3 (that's not good enough to be ranked in the top 100)
Running
180 attempts, 613 yds, 3.4 yds/carry, 13 TDs

They do run a lot, and run the QB a lot. Huebener had the most carries on their team, but not the most yards. From what I remember, their style of offense is more like Oregon State (at least what OSU tried to do) than anybody else on Stanford's schedule. 


Overall, they appear to have lost a lot from a pretty poor offense in 2015. Apparently 4 returning starters on offense including losing 4 of 5 OL. The defense at least returns more experience, with 7 to 9 returning starters depending upon how you count. Thus I found the original article's description of their offseason storyline is optimism on offense in particular.

[CTcard]

A couple of things in that article are a bit ... overstated based upon other things I have read.

Star Players: QB Jesse Ertz ...

Ertz returns from a knee injury that shelved him for most of last season, so there's optimism that the offense can rise above mediocrity ...

From other things I have read it seems not at all clear that Ertz will be their starting QB this year. Even if so, I am not quite sure what qualifies him as a star player.
His career stats:
Passing
0-0 for 0 yds. Yds/att undefined. QB rating undefined.
Running
7 rushes, 46 yards, 6.6 yds/carry, 0 TDs.
He played a little frosh year, got injured sometime during game #1 last year.

From another fan-preview I saw recently, at least some guy seemed to think Joe Huebener would be the starter.
His stats last year:
Passing
131-275 (48%), YPA 6.6, Rating 107.3 (that's not good enough to be ranked in the top 100)
Running
180 attempts, 613 yds, 3.4 yds/carry, 13 TDs

They do run a lot, and run the QB a lot. Huebener had the most carries on their team, but not the most yards. From what I remember, their style of offense is more like Oregon State (at least what OSU tried to do) than anybody else on Stanford's schedule. 


Overall, they appear to have lost a lot from a pretty poor offense in 2015. Apparently 4 returning starters on offense including losing 4 of 5 OL. The defense at least returns more experience, with 7 to 9 returning starters depending upon how you count. Thus I found the original article's description of their offseason storyline is optimism on offense in particular.

[yvonne]

To answer the obvious question, he has three older sisters and no older brother.
http://www.kstatesports.com/sport/m-foot...6fde8f3a62

[yvonne]

To answer the obvious question, he has three older sisters and no older brother.
http://www.kstatesports.com/sport/m-foot...6fde8f3a62

[BigEasyCard]

To answer the obvious question, he has three older sisters and no older brother.
http://www.kstatesports.com/sport/m-foot...6fde8f3a62

Thanks Yvonne.  I actually did wonder about that.

Geaux Cardinal!

[BigEasyCard]

To answer the obvious question, he has three older sisters and no older brother.
http://www.kstatesports.com/sport/m-foot...6fde8f3a62

Thanks Yvonne.  I actually did wonder about that.

Geaux Cardinal!