{"id":17070,"date":"2011-08-12T13:30:18","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T18:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17070"},"modified":"2011-08-13T08:05:44","modified_gmt":"2011-08-13T13:05:44","slug":"2011-stanford-cardinal-college-football-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/2011-stanford-cardinal-college-football-preview-17070\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 Stanford Cardinal College Football Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stanford Cardinal<\/strong>
\n2010 record:\u00a0 12-1 overall, 8-1 conference<\/strong>
\n2010 Bowl Game: 40-12 win over Virginia Tech in Orange Bowl<\/strong>
\n2010 ATS:\u00a0 8-4-1<\/strong>
\n2010 O\/U:\u00a0 7-6<\/strong>
\nReturning starters:\u00a0 11 total (5 on offense, 6 on defense)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Stanford<\/a>
Stanford Cardinals QB Andrew Luck is a lock to be the No. 1 player taken in the upcoming 2012 NFL Draft<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the month of August, our team of writers will be previewing the top teams heading into an exciting 2011 campaign.\u00a0 The college football handicappers at Maddux Sports are also preparing and have season-long packages readily available for clients.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s head to Palo Alto, California and check out life on campus without former head coach Jim Harbaugh, as David Shaw takes over.<\/p>\n

Offense<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Quarterback Andrew Luck skipped out on being the No. 1 pick of this year\u2019s NFL draft and returns after leading the school to a record 12 wins last year, including a dominating 40-12 win over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl.<\/p>\n

Luck completed an incredible 70.7 percent of his passes last year and it remains to be seen if he\u2019ll show signs of missing Harbaugh on the sidelines in 2011.\u00a0 He actually connected on 75.9 percent of his passes for 19 touchdowns over his last eight games of 2010.<\/p>\n

A go-to receiver will need to step up after the losses of Doug Baldwin and Ryan Whalen, who combined for 99 catches and 1,296 yards and 11 touchdowns a year ago.\u00a0 Tight end Coby Fleener could be the early answer, but senior Chris Owusu is the most likely candidate as the season progresses.<\/p>\n

The running game is in good hands with junior Stepfan Taylor, who ran for 1,137 and 15 touchdowns.\u00a0 He became the first sophomore in program history to rush for over the 1,000-yard mark since 1978.<\/p>\n

Three starters from the offensive line are gone, but the good news is that the two remaining left behind are first-team All-Pac-10 selections.\u00a0 The Cardinal gave up just six sacks a year ago, ranking second nationally to only rush-oriented Air Force.<\/p>\n

Defense<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The word out of camp is the defense is expected to be as strong if not better than last year\u2019s group that finished first in the conference in scoring defense.<\/p>\n

Defensive end Matt Masifilo started all 13 games a year ago and led the entire line in tackles, as the rush defense allowed just 120.9 yards a game in 2010.<\/p>\n

A strength is expected to be found at linebacker, as juniors Shayne Skov and Chase Thomas are back.\u00a0 Skov led the team in tackles and was an effective pass rusher in tallying 7.5 sacks.<\/p>\n

The 2010 interception leader for the Cardinal, Delano Howell will be patrolling from his strong safety position, as the secondary unit is experience.<\/p>\n

Special Teams<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The team lost one of the nation\u2019s best kickers in Nate Whitaker, but his younger brother will take over the responsibility.<\/p>\n

Punting is really an afterthought for a squad that possesses next year\u2019s top pick in the NFL draft, but someone will have to come to the forefront before the season opener against San Jose State.<\/p>\n

The return game is likely to help Stanford win the field position battle each week, as Owusu is a talent on kick returns, while Drew Terrell is dynamic on punt returns.<\/p>\n

Against the Spread<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Stanford surprised many handicappers in 2010 by posting a 5-1 ATS mark as a road favorite.\u00a0 Due to being overvalued in the eyes of professionals this year, it may be a good idea to go against them early in games at Duke, Arizona and Washington State.<\/p>\n

Bet On<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Facing San Jose State in the season opener is a money-making opportunity due to the Cardinal covering five straight in the series. \u00a0The college football lines page is a must-see for the entire 2011 campaign.<\/p>\n

Fade Away<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Playing on the road against Oregon State is a nightmare for any Pac-12 team, especially this one, dropping six of the last seven meetings against-the-spread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stanford Cardinal 2010 record:\u00a0 12-1 overall, 8-1 conference 2010 Bowl Game: 40-12 win over Virginia Tech in Orange Bowl 2010 ATS:\u00a0 8-4-1 2010 O\/U:\u00a0 7-6 Returning starters:\u00a0 11 total (5 on offense, 6 on defense) Over the month of August, our team of writers will be previewing the top teams heading into an exciting 2011 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[2046,5261,5257,5256,5259,2528,5258],"class_list":["post-17070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-andrew-luck","tag-chase-thomas","tag-chris-owusu","tag-david-shaw","tag-palo-alto","tag-stanford-cardinal","tag-stepfan-taylor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17070"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17111,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17070\/revisions\/17111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}