Tuesday’s Stanford football press conference brought many answers to the final loose ends that remained before the start of the season on Saturday — including the long-awaited confirmation that senior wide receiver Ty Montgomery is ready to play and will start against UC-Davis.

According to head coach David Shaw, the team’s medical staff cleared Montgomery to play on Monday, and the offensive playmaker will not be restricted or held back in any way against the Aggies after his full recovery from a shoulder surgery that had jeopardized his status.

“I don’t think any of us doubted that Ty was going to play,” said senior quarterback Kevin Hogan. “He’s been looking unbelievable all of camp since the first day. We didn’t notice any kind of rust at all. Which is kind of scary.”

In addition, Shaw announced that senior Ronnie Harris, not junior Alex Carter, will likely start at cornerback alongside junior Wayne Lyons due to Harris’ solid fall practices and Carter’s recent return from a nagging hip injury.

While Harris will start, Shaw expects Carter — last year’s starter — to be in the game for an approximately equal number of snaps.

“I think 21 [Harris] has earned that right because of how well he’s practiced, but we all know what Alex Carter’s ceiling is: ridiculously high,” Shaw said. “We’re going to work him in there relatively early in the game.”

Among the other defensive backs, fifth-year senior Kyle Olugbode will start at free safety but will split a significant amount of time with juniors Zach Hoffpauir and Kodi Whitfield, who both had stellar fall camps.

“I feel so comfortable now, because we have to play all of those guys in every single game because of the up-tempo offenses,” Shaw said. “The last two positions you want to be tired are your corners and your safeties.”

Shaw also announced that Hoffpauir, Lyons, Olugbode and senior safety Jordan Richards were going to be the Cardinal’s primary rotation at the nickelback position heading into the season.

Finally, Shaw stated that true freshman running back Christian McCaffrey would also see playing time throughout this season at both tailback and on special teams, when he will likely be called on to spell Montgomery at kickoff returner or Barry Sanders at punt returner.

Among the freshmen, Shaw also expects cornerback Terrence Alexander and fullback Daniel Marx to play this season.

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With the Cardinal opening the season against an FCS team, Shaw was also eager to firmly set aside the notion that Stanford was taking the first game of the season for granted and already focusing for the Week 2 tilt against the Trojans.

“I’ll answer a couple of questions before they’re asked,” said Shaw to open the press conference. “No, we’re not looking forward to USC.”

Not after 2005, when the Cardinal were caught looking ahead and fell victim to an embarrassing 20-17 defeat the last time UC-Davis paid a visit to The Farm, leaving Shaw — then an assistant coach for the Baltimore Ravens — with a “pit in [his] stomach.”

According to Shaw, this week will be about the excitement of seeing some of his first-time starters — particularly the offensive line and running backs — making real impacts and playing the game instead of just participating in practice scrimmages and drills.

“I’m fascinated about [senior tailback] Kelsey Young — we haven’t seen him play running back since his freshman year, and really, even then, since his senior year of high school,” Shaw said. “But he’s had a great training camp. I want to see him do it under the lights. We haven’t seen [junior tailback] Barry [Sanders] in a couple of years. There’s a lot of guys that we’re excited about getting out there playing football for us.”

A lot of that excitement stems from the running backs, but the return of Hogan for a second full season as starting quarterback, the return of all of the playmakers at wide receiver and the emergence of Eric Cotton and the sophomore tight end corps breeds a lot of excitement as well.

“I think you’ll see a combination of the past three years [on offense],” Hogan said.

The senior signal-caller expects the tight-end sets of 2011, the intermediate passing of 2012 and the deep passing threat of 2013 to bring the Cardinal offense to new heights. Meanwhile, Shaw also reiterated his confidence in Hogan as the leader that can make that happen.

“He’s a stabilizing agent; he’s no longer the young guy in the huddle now,” Shaw said. “The confidence that he has, the other guys feed off of it.”

Hogan and the Cardinal will begin their 2014 campaign against the Aggies on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Stanford Stadium.

Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dpark027 ‘at’ stanford.edu.