With the scent of oranges from January fading away, the Stanford football team wrapped up its first session of spring practices on Saturday afternoon. The Cardinal completed seven practices between Feb. 21 and March 5. Three of those sessions were open to the public, giving a first glimpse at the makeup of Stanford’s roster for next season.
Two storylines dominated spring practice: the battles for starting jobs at a number of positions and how coaching changes would affect the team in its first practices under new head coach David Shaw. So far, Shaw seems to have done well in coaching and motivating his players, sounding all the right notes about staying hungry and competitive following last season’s historic success. However, it is impossible to fully examine the ramifications of the coaching change at this early stage–we’ll have to wait until the fall to make a true estimate of Shaw’s head coaching abilities.
There has been one prominent position switch this spring, with redshirt sophomore running back Usua Amanam moving to defensive back. With a deep stable of halfbacks, including rising junior Stepfan Taylor and sixth-year senior Jeremy Stewart (who received a medical redshirt in the offseason) and two highly-touted running backs coming into the program next season as freshmen, the coaching staff decided to move Amanam to defense to take advantage of his athleticism and speed.
Stanford has several large holes to fill after it lost a good chunk of its starters to graduation and the NFL Draft. The Card’s most glaring deficiencies are along the offensive line and in the defensive front seven, where it lost a combined seven starters. There are also gaps at wide receiver, fullback and cornerback. Lastly, a heated competition is under way at quarterback, where three players are jockeying to sit behind redshirt junior Andrew Luck on the depth chart.
At offensive line, the main battle is at center, where Stanford must replace All-American Chase Beeler. There is no clear frontrunner between redshirt sophomore Khalil Wilkes and redshirt junior Sam Schwartzstein, though Schwartzstein was getting more time with the first team at the most recent practice on Saturday. At the other positions, the top contenders are redshirt senior Tyler Mabry, sophomore David Yankey and junior Kevin Danser.
On defense, junior Terrence Stephens looks like he will step into the hole at nose tackle left by Sione Fua, with juniors Ben Gardner and Trent Murphy battling to replace Brian Bulcke at defensive end. At linebacker, the two standouts so far have been redshirt juniors Alex Debniak and Max Bergen, who both saw decent playing time last season as well.
With senior Chris Owusu out of camp with an injury, the battle is mostly to grab the second and third wide receiver slots on the depth chart, following the departure of two of Luck’s favorite targets, Ryan Whalen and Doug Baldwin. So far, senior Griff Whalen and junior Drew Terrell have separated themselves from the rest of the pack, with junior Jamal-Rashad Patterson also playing a role. At fullback, redshirt sophomore Ryan Hewitt looks like the top contender to take over for Owen Marecic.
At cornerback, senior Johnson Bademosi and sophomore Barry Browning will probably play the two cover corner positions. Amanam, redshirt junior Quinn Evans and redshirt sophomore Terrence Brown will provide depth and see playing time in five- and six-defensive back sets.
Last but not least, the backup quarterback competition is ongoing between junior Josh Nunes and sophomores Darren Daniel and Brett Nottingham. Nunes looks like the current leader, taking the most reps on Saturday, but he has looked shaky and erratic, opening the door for the other two to sneak in. Daniel is more of a mobile, running quarterback, so he might be used in Wildcat formations or even converted to a receiver. Shaw stressed that the competition is completely open right now with no frontrunner, but with the way the quarterbacks were throwing on Saturday, Stanford fans should be happy that Luck passed up the NFL to return for his senior season.