SANTA CLARA — This is the state of the Stanford football program: The Cardinal went 9-4 last year and walked away disappointed.
“The feeling after our bowl game, even though we won, we felt like we left a lot on the table,” safety Malik Antoine said Tuesday at Bay Area media day. “Going into this offseason, that was our theme. We had to take a lot from that game. We definitely have really, really high goals.”
As the Cardinal begins fall camp this week, not everyone agrees. Stanford was picked third in the Pac-12 North, behind Oregon and Washington, and barely ahead of Washington State.
That’s OK with Antoine, part of a Stanford program that has won at least eight games for a school-record 10 straight seasons.
“We kind of like coming from the shadows. I think Stanford does its best when we’re in that position,” he said. “Some teams are getting a lot more publicity, like Washington and Oregon. We don’t pay attention to that stuff.”
Here are five things we learned on media day:
Job 1 on offense will be to re-establish the running game that has been the backbone of the Cardinal attack. Stanford was 11th in the Pac-12 in rushing yards per game last season.
Injuries were a central issue, especially to running back Bryce Love, the 2017 Heisman Trophy runner-up, who was hobbled all season.
Love is now gone, but Cameron Scarlett and Trevor Speights combined to rush for nearly 600 yards and nine touchdowns last season and Dorian Maddox impressed the coaching staff last spring.
“We have some great running backs, guys who have played in big games,” Scarlett said. “Whoever’s in there has an opportunity to bring something different and special to the table.”
Two other possibilities are incoming freshmen backs Austin Jones and Nathaniel Peat, who combined to rush for more than 11,000 yards in high school.
Preseason All-American tackle Walker Little is the Cardinal’s only full-time returning starter on the offensive line, but coach David Shaw points out that six other players who played last season give Stanford greater stability up front.
“I’m very confident,” said Shaw, when asked about kick-starting the ground game. “Just having the depth on the offensive line, to where if a guy does get hurt we’re not going to be crossing our fingers and wondering, `What are we going to do?’ “
K.J. Costello was the highest-rated passer in the Pac-12 and became the first Stanford quarterback since Andrew Luck in 2011 to pass for more than 3,000 yards. And Shaw expects him to be better still this fall.
“It’s that fun part of having a quarterback who has played lot for two years. Now we’re trying to go from good to great, from knowing the offense to being the master of the offense, to truly internalize it,” Shaw said.
“Yes, he knows where everyone is. He also knows the timing of every route it so he should be able to coach the guys.”
Asked who on the Cardinal defense will surprise fans this fall, Antoine didn’t hesitate to name cornerback Obi Eboh.
“He had an amazing spring,” Antoine said. “He’s a really big, confident guy and I just think he’s going to turn a lot of heads and make a lot of big plays for us.”
Shaw told the story about how his wife was caught off-guard when she learned Stanford will play the nation’s toughest schedule this fall.
The Cardinal opens Aug. 31 vs. Northwestern before playing back-to-back road games vs. USC and a Central Florida team that was 12-1 a year ago. Then back home to face Oregon.
“It’s not about who we play,” Shaw said, “it’s about how we play.”
A year ago, Stanford started 4-0, including a home win over USC and a road victory at Oregon.
