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Our last preview of the Stanford Cardinal looks at the Cardinal coaching staff and special teams.
Consistency is the name of the game with the Stanford coaching staff.
Of course, the Cardinal are still coached by David Shaw. Despite rumored NFL overtures, Shaw is still coaching in Palo Alto. That’s despite his overall conservative approach to the offensive side of the ball. Officially, Shaw is the Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football because Stanford has mastered an ability to name their coaching positions at donors’ requests.
Shaw is now in his ninth season at the helm for Stanford and he is the winningest coach in Cardinal history. He has a career .759 winning percentage overall and a .764 winning percentage in Pac-12 games.
Lance Anderson is now in his sixth season as the Willie Shaw Director of Defense. He also coaches the outside linebackers. Meanwhile, Tevita Pritchard returns for his tenth season on the Cardinal coaching staff. This is his second as Andrew Luck Director of Offense and his sixth season as the Kevin M. Hogan Quarterbacks Coach.
In fact, the newest position coach on the team is offensive line coach Kevin Carberry who is in just his second season with the Cardinal.
Clearly, consistency on the coaching staff has been one of the keys to the Cardinal’s success.
Moving to special teams, senior Jet Toner will handle the kicking duties for Stanford. He is 11 of 15 so far this season. He has struggled a little bit so far this year, missing field goal attempts from all ranges. His long so far is 51 yards.
Toner has kicked off 29 times with just 12 touchbacks. The lack of range explains why Darnay Holmes was able to take one to the house against the Cardinal last season. Look for the Bruins to have at least one big return tonight from either Holmes or Demetric Felton.
Freshman Ryan Sanborn is Stanford’s new punter this year. He’s punted 26 times in six games and is averaging 40.5 yards per punt with a long of 68 yards. That said, he’s still only had two touchbacks and just nine fair catches.
Sophomore Michael Wilson from Simi Valley will be returning punts tonight. So far, he has returned eight punts for 74 yards, an average of 9.25 yards per return. His longest return was 27 yards.
Wilson has also returned three kickoffs for 51 yards, but junior Connor Wedington has returned fourteen kickoffs and is averaging 28.2 yards per return. His longest was 60 yards. So, while he hasn’t taken one back for a touchdown yet, he is definitely a threat to do so.
That wraps up our final preview of tonight’s game.
Hopefully, the Bruins can finally end Stanford’s winning streak against UCLA.
Go Bruins!!!