Music to listen to: Welcome Home (Sanitarium) by Metallica
State of Stanford football: As a Vanderbilt fan, I’ve usually pulled for fellow private schools in major conferences playing football such as Northwestern, Wake Forest, Duke and a few others over the years. However, the one school that has proven to be the top program in this group has been Stanford and by a significant margin. The peak periods of the school have always been tied to elite quarterbacks such as Jim Plunkett, John Elway (my favorite quarterback of all-time) and more recently Andrew Luck. However, the Cardinals must now replace Luck, numerous receivers and two All-America offensive linemen.
What I like: The Cardinal have the benefit of running back Stefan Taylor returning to fold and helping the new quarterback ease into the season. The defense should be strong in the front seven with the return of potential All-Pac 12 linebacker Shayne Skov.
What I don’t like: Its hard to place new starting quarterback Josh Nunes in either category because no one has seen the junior in prolonged action and anyone replacing Luck will be looked at as a negative sight unseen. What’s more glaring are the holes at offensive line. For all of Luck’s talent, the driving force of Stanford football the past four seasons under Jim Harbaugh and now David Shaw has been a power running game led by elite linemen. Losing David DeCastro and Jon Martin from the o-line will be a significant blow to the team identity. The secondary must also show improvement.
Uniform/Mascot Grade: C
Sometimes its good to keep it simple and that’s exactly what the Cardinal do with the uniforms, which I respect. I would be intrigued with more all-red looks during home contests. The incorporation of black into the uniforms have been disappointing to me because it takes away from the excellent shade of red the school has. The grade was marked down a full letter because of the mascot. Its embarrassing that an institute like Stanford can’t develop a mascot of its own and must rely on the band to incorporate a deformed tree to be the symbol of the school. How does this happen?
Schedule:
9/1 San Jose State
9/8 Duke
9/15 USC
9/27 at Washington
10/6 Arizona
10/13 at Notre Dame
10/20 at California
10/27 Washington State
11/3 at Colorado
11/10 Oregon State
11/17 at Oregon
11/24 at UCLA
The Cardinal should be 2-0 heading into its swing game against a consensus preseason top-five squad in USC. If Stanford can find a way past the Trojans, a contest at Oregon on 11/17 may determine the winner of the Pac-12 North. The Washington game presents a tricky prospect because the contest will take place in Seattle but the rest of the schedule seems manageable and has 10-win potential.
Current/Former Co-Ed that I would like to attend a box social with:
There were several candidates for this one including Sigourney Weaver and Logan Tom but I’ll take Megyn Price who was on one of the most underrated television shows of the past decade, Grounded for Life.
Final thoughts: Everyone will look for a drop off this season for the Cardinal with the departure of Luck. However, the improved recruiting and continuity of head coach David Shaw promoting the same principles set forth by previous head coach Jim Harbaugh, Stanford is firmly entrenched as the third-best team in the Pac-12 with the potential of beating Oregon or USC on any occasion.
Prediction: 9-3, 6-3 Pac-12
Those are my thoughts, what are yours?
Preseason Top-25:
The Sports Inquirer 
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