After a bye week to rest up and prepare for the heart of the Pac-12 schedule, the Stanford football team is echoing the same mantras that has helped it to the longest winning streak in the country, even though the team is now missing one of its biggest stars.

The No. 6 Cardinal (3-0, 1-0 Pac-12) suffered a major blow last weekend when junior linebacker Shayne Skov, the team’s leading tackler, was ruled out for the rest of the season due to a knee injury suffered in the first half of the Arizona game. However, the Cardinal players don’t expect to see any serious setbacks without their starting middle linebacker.

“I know our defense has other linebackers that are ready and willing to step up and step in where they’re needed on defense,” said junior tight end Levine Toilolo. “The whole defense is ready to put in the work to fill in any slack that there might be, but I think we have a good rotation and our linebackers are well prepared to step in.”

Sophomore AJ Tarpley and junior Jarek Lancaster will be asked to step in and are expected to split duties in order to fill Skov’s spot. Both players have yet to see the field much in their Stanford careers, with Lancaster contributing mostly on special teams last year and Tarpley not seeing the field in his freshman season.

But even though neither player has notched a significant amount of playing time so far, the linebacker corps has faith that both players can contribute right away, mostly because of the open competition for Owen Marecic’s inside linebacker job this past spring.

“It just kept everyone competitive, it meant that everyone’s staying sharp,” said redshirt senior linebacker Max Bergen. “It’s better if you don’t know who’s starting so everyone’s on top of their play at all times.”

That experience, coupled with a few small changes, should keep the Stanford defense strong, Bergen said.

“You’ve got to get more vocal, just get used to communicating with each other, which we already were through camp, but I think we’ll be just fine,” he said. “Tarpley and Lancaster are great players, and Skov’s still around to help us out.”

Skov’s nose for the football made the Stanford defense a deadly adversary on the ground, allowing only 36 yards per game rushing–the best in the entire country–so any replacements certainly have big shoes to fill. They will be challenged early and often as Stanford’s schedule now turns to a bevy of teams that love to keep the ball out of the air.

This week’s test will be the UCLA Bruins (2-2, 1-2), who, despite their lackluster record, can still move the football effectively on the ground. The Bruins rush for 214 yards a game thanks to their duo of Johnathan Franklin and Derrick Coleman, who have combined for 602 yards rushing and six touchdowns already. Last year, Franklin rushed for 1,127 yards–the 10th most in UCLA history–and was second team All-Pac-10.

The Bruins’ strong rushing attack means that the new linebackers will have to prove right away that they can continue the outstanding level of play that Skov started in the first three games of the season. Tarpley and Lancaster will no doubt be critical to the Cardinal’s success for the rest of the season as well, particularly because the toughest test remaining on Stanford’s schedule is No. 9 Oregon (3-1, 1-0), which rushes for 299.5 yards per game, currently sixth-best in the nation.

Of course, the new defenders will have an opportunity to mesh with the starters before that Oregon test on Nov. 12, and the Cardinal is determined to maintain the business-as-usual attitude that has it sitting as the only remaining undefeated team in the Pac-12.

“Honestly, into the season we just focused on worrying about ourselves every game, we’ve got to focus on what we have to do regardless of who we’re playing,” Toilolo said. “I don’t really know what [Stanford being the only undefeated Pac-12 team] says about the rest of the conference, we just have to worry about what we’re doing in practice and every Saturday.”