In Rick Neuheisel's press conference this week (which, by the way, has horrible audio - it cuts out after the two minute mark) he mentioned the strategy we will need to employ in order to beat Stanford:
"We're going to have to score a lot of points."
Let's see. Stanford beat SJSU by 54 points. We beat SJSU by 10 points. I'm a North Campus major... but I think we might have a little problem scoring a lot of points. Will we consider throwing the ball?
"Would I like to throw more? Absolutely," Neuheisel said. But "everything in a game plan is based on situations."
Meaning "we'll just run the ball and hope we don't fumble." But I hope that Richard Brehaut gets a chance to showcase himself against Stanford.
Who else is hoping to give Stanford a run for their money?
That would be offensive coordinator Mike Johnson. When Jonathan Franklin went down with an injury on Saturday, Derrick Coleman stepped into his role and flourished. We also got to see Malcolm Jones pick up significant yardage, and Jordon James had two spectacular runs.
"I don’t worry about who is back there running," offensive coordinator Mike Johnson said. "You just call the runs and let those guys go. We’ve got a couple big backs and a couple of scat backs. We’ve got guys who can go in there and handle the load. If Johnathan is out, you definitely miss him, but I think the other guys are capable."
Jonathan Franklin felt that he could get back into the game, but he said all the right things about sitting and letting the other RBs get a chance to play.
"I was happy and excited to see Malcolm run the ball and Jordon being able to run the ball and Derrick showing what he can do," Franklin said. "We knew the run game wouldn't suffer just because one of us got hurt. The whole team has confidence is all of us. If it’s me, if it’s Derrick, if it’s Jordon James or Malcolm, we all believe in all of us."
As mentioned earlier, Rick Nehueisel would like to throw more this season. His quarterback for Stanford will be Richard Brehaut, but Neuheisel did not name Brehaut the starter for the remainder of the season.
"When you have good quarterbacks, or you feel like you have good quarterbacks, Richard's got the job, but I don't want to say the competition is over,' Neuheisel said. "Richard's in a great position to keep the job."
On the injury front, Damien Thigpen will probably redshirt this season due to a hamstring issue. Tony Dye, Andrew Abbott, and Kip Smith should return on Saturday. Jonathan Franklin, Sheldon Price, and Dalton Hilliard, who were injured in the OSU game, should also play on Saturday.
To end this on a lighter note, my favorite football player tweet of the day:
I Love Mondays! Cuz it's the day before Tuesday which is close to Wednesday which is before Thursday, then TGIF, all leading to GAMEDAY!
If a big man is excited, don't get in his way.
GO BRUINS.