Over the next several weeks, Charlie's Nasties will be giving readers previews of the 2008 Irish opponents.
2007 record: 4-8
2007 conference record: 3-6
Returning starters: 9 on offense – 11 on defense
Despite downing the Trojans in a massive upset last year, Stanford only finished ahead of the 4-9 Washington Huskies in the PAC-10. Jim Harbaugh, despite scaring every potential recruit’s mother by playing two injured quarterbacks against the Irish last season, is taking the necessary steps to begin moving this team in the right direction.
"Of our accomplishments in 2007, first and foremost is that we have begun to change the football culture to one that appreciates competitive, winning football," Harbaugh said, adding that the team’s one goal for this season is to bring a physical presence, especially along the offensive and defensive lines.
The defense returns 12 players that have at least 4 starts, the offense returns plenty of experience at nearly every position besides receiver, and if these developing players can buy into their coach’s winning mindset, better days could be ahead for the Cardinal.
However, if Stanford wants to be competitive this year, they need to settle on their starting quarterback. The capable (1,100 yards and 5 tds in 6 starts) but inconsistent (9 ints) Travita Pritchard looks like the frontrunner to start in the opener against Oregon State, but transfer Jason Forcier and Alex Loukas will look to keep the quarterback carousel moving if Pritchard falters early on.
The reason that Stanford must settle on a quarterback early to be successful is that the team does have some tools that can be used to win this season. Center Alex Fletcher is on the Outland Trophy watch list, and the quarterback will likely have two solid receiving options in TE Anthony Kimble and WR Richard Sherman. Fletcher will also be joined with three returning starters along the O-line, so the signal caller should have time to throw.
Senior Anthony Kimble will get the first chance at running back, but if injuries continue to plague him, Stanford has other backs with 105, 64, 12 career carries to rely on. While Stanford isn’t lacking experience at this position, they are still lacking something; Irish Eyes lists the Cardinal rushing attack as the 9th strongest on ND’s schedule. Not exactly the type of stuff that keeps a defense up at night.
A legitimate darkhorse All-American candidate (hey – just cause it’s from a Stanford message board doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen…) returns at the defensive end position in senior Pannel Egboh, who racked up 13.5 tackles for loss last season. Egboh will be joined by junior Erik Lorig in what seems to be a good combo at defensive end. However, even our enthusiastic Stanford fan admits that the position is fairly weak behind them, so if Notre Dame can get the ground game going early, we should be able to wear down the defense as the game goes on.
It would be nice if the Irish line can handle the defensive line, because according to the same message board poster, they should have their hands full with the linebackers:
“In all, I actually think it ranks with USC and Cal as one of the better linebacker groups in the country. If you had me rate Stanford's position groups, I'd put most in the bottom couple of the conference with OL, RB, and DE better than that and maybe closer to middle of the pack. But linebacker I don't think the question is whether it's top half of the conference, it's whether it's top 20 or 25 in the nation.”
Stanford returns experience at every position on defense in 2008, but the unit ranked 98th in the country in total yards allowed (435.5), so they have a lot of room to improve. Harbaugh lured experienced defensive coordinator Ron Lynn out of retirement to shore up a unit that was capable of confusing the likes of Cal and USC last season under Scott Shafer. When a team returns a lot of talent at any position, there is an opportunity for a big jump in production, but Stanford has a considerable ways to improve on this side of the ball, and Cardinal faithful shouldn’t expect much more than a top 50 defense next year.
The bottom line is that a Notre Dame team that struggled mightily throughout a disastrous 2007 campaign was able to beat the Cardinal in Palo Alto by a deceivingly decisive margin of 21-14, and both teams are essentially returning most of the same young players that played each other last year. While Notre Dame had the more severe losses of Carlson, Laws, and Zibby, there isn’t any reason to believe that the Irish won’t win again this season in South Bend. Notre Dame takes this one 24-13.
2007 conference record: 3-6
Returning starters: 9 on offense – 11 on defense
Despite downing the Trojans in a massive upset last year, Stanford only finished ahead of the 4-9 Washington Huskies in the PAC-10. Jim Harbaugh, despite scaring every potential recruit’s mother by playing two injured quarterbacks against the Irish last season, is taking the necessary steps to begin moving this team in the right direction.
"Of our accomplishments in 2007, first and foremost is that we have begun to change the football culture to one that appreciates competitive, winning football," Harbaugh said, adding that the team’s one goal for this season is to bring a physical presence, especially along the offensive and defensive lines.The defense returns 12 players that have at least 4 starts, the offense returns plenty of experience at nearly every position besides receiver, and if these developing players can buy into their coach’s winning mindset, better days could be ahead for the Cardinal.
However, if Stanford wants to be competitive this year, they need to settle on their starting quarterback. The capable (1,100 yards and 5 tds in 6 starts) but inconsistent (9 ints) Travita Pritchard looks like the frontrunner to start in the opener against Oregon State, but transfer Jason Forcier and Alex Loukas will look to keep the quarterback carousel moving if Pritchard falters early on.
The reason that Stanford must settle on a quarterback early to be successful is that the team does have some tools that can be used to win this season. Center Alex Fletcher is on the Outland Trophy watch list, and the quarterback will likely have two solid receiving options in TE Anthony Kimble and WR Richard Sherman. Fletcher will also be joined with three returning starters along the O-line, so the signal caller should have time to throw.
Senior Anthony Kimble will get the first chance at running back, but if injuries continue to plague him, Stanford has other backs with 105, 64, 12 career carries to rely on. While Stanford isn’t lacking experience at this position, they are still lacking something; Irish Eyes lists the Cardinal rushing attack as the 9th strongest on ND’s schedule. Not exactly the type of stuff that keeps a defense up at night.
A legitimate darkhorse All-American candidate (hey – just cause it’s from a Stanford message board doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen…) returns at the defensive end position in senior Pannel Egboh, who racked up 13.5 tackles for loss last season. Egboh will be joined by junior Erik Lorig in what seems to be a good combo at defensive end. However, even our enthusiastic Stanford fan admits that the position is fairly weak behind them, so if Notre Dame can get the ground game going early, we should be able to wear down the defense as the game goes on.It would be nice if the Irish line can handle the defensive line, because according to the same message board poster, they should have their hands full with the linebackers:
“In all, I actually think it ranks with USC and Cal as one of the better linebacker groups in the country. If you had me rate Stanford's position groups, I'd put most in the bottom couple of the conference with OL, RB, and DE better than that and maybe closer to middle of the pack. But linebacker I don't think the question is whether it's top half of the conference, it's whether it's top 20 or 25 in the nation.”
Stanford returns experience at every position on defense in 2008, but the unit ranked 98th in the country in total yards allowed (435.5), so they have a lot of room to improve. Harbaugh lured experienced defensive coordinator Ron Lynn out of retirement to shore up a unit that was capable of confusing the likes of Cal and USC last season under Scott Shafer. When a team returns a lot of talent at any position, there is an opportunity for a big jump in production, but Stanford has a considerable ways to improve on this side of the ball, and Cardinal faithful shouldn’t expect much more than a top 50 defense next year.
The bottom line is that a Notre Dame team that struggled mightily throughout a disastrous 2007 campaign was able to beat the Cardinal in Palo Alto by a deceivingly decisive margin of 21-14, and both teams are essentially returning most of the same young players that played each other last year. While Notre Dame had the more severe losses of Carlson, Laws, and Zibby, there isn’t any reason to believe that the Irish won’t win again this season in South Bend. Notre Dame takes this one 24-13.
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