Having to bounce back from a loss isn’t something that Stanford football teams in the recent past have had to do often. But even in the wake of one of the toughest losses in recent memory to a bitter rival in USC, the team has bounced back and has begun practicing with more enthusiasm than ever in preparation for a date with Army on Saturday.
“The players are always more resilient than the coaches,” said head coach David Shaw. “We moved past it, we saw them come out here. The guys were flying around having fun. It was good to see.”
With Army’s triple-option offense and creative blitzing schemes set to come to the Farm, Stanford has needed to prepare a significantly different game plan than it did against USC, with the defense preparing for more cut blocks from undersized offensive linemen and the offense getting ready to recognize many unorthodox blitzes that Army might call.
And even though both sophomore quarterback Ryan Burns and freshman quarterback Keller Chryst have played in triple-option schemes in the past, it is junior safety Dallas Lloyd that has been playing most of the reps at quarterback with the practice squad to prepare the defense for Army’s style of play.
“A bunch of guys were a little perturbed because he’s done such a good job,” Shaw said.
On the defensive side of the ball, fifth-year senior defensive tackle David Parry mentioned at the press conference on Tuesday that the defensive line would not need to make too many adjustments to the increased number of cut blocks, but the linebackers would likely have a tougher time adjusting to Army’s blocking beyond the line.
That linebacking corps will likely see a strengthening this week with the return of sophomore inside linebacker Kevin Palma from injury and the continued progress of fifth-year senior outside linebacker Joe Hemschoot, who hopes to return in time for the Washington game.
On the injury front, senior running back Remound Wright also had a minor leg injury that required a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday but practiced well on Wednesday and will be ready to play against Army pending a check-in with athletic trainers.
There is also nothing wrong with senior kicker Jordan Williamson, as many fans have questioned after Shaw’s decisions to punt twice from inside the USC 35-yard line in the Cardinal’s loss on Saturday. At Tuesday’s press conference, Shaw reiterated his mindset that the defense would hold given the good field position resulting from those punts, and pointed to the heavy wind on the field against the kick as another contributing factor to his decision.
“Being 100 percent consistent is what we’re working on,” Shaw said. “Trying not to tweak too many things, trying not to change anything. When he’s smooth and consistent, he’s great. We’ve just got to get him back into that rhythm.”
Shaw also spoke about senior quarterback Kevin Hogan’s continued mastery of the offense, which has allowed him to move past simply collaborating with Shaw on play calls with the regular offense and on the two-minute drill to making the calls on his own when the offense chooses to present a no-huddle look, which was a new wrinkle that the Cardinal showed against USC last Saturday.
“[Hogan] took a lot of pride in it this spring,” Shaw said. “We’ll mix it in periodically. Maybe not every game, but we’ll mix it in.”
While Hogan will often receive the formation from Shaw during the no-huddle and works with a limited playbook, Shaw has stated that on some downs, the formation and play is completely up to Hogan and that the quarterback has the capability to audible into any play that he deems necessary.
Stanford will take on Army this Saturday at 2 p.m. at Stanford Stadium.
Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dpark027 ‘at’ stanford.edu.