Stanford Cardinal 2017 NCAA Football Preview

College Football Predictions – Stanford Cardinal 2017 NCAA Football Preview

2016 Recap

2016 Record – 10-3

2016 ATS – 6-6-1

The Cardinal started the campaign with three quality wins over Kansas St, USC and UCLA. This was followed by back-to-back beat-downs courtesy of the state of Washington. The JUGGERNAUT Huskies took them behind the woodshed (44-6) and the Cougars followed with a similar whooping 42-16. However, Stanford ended up doing what Stanford does, and finished with another (yawn) 10-win season despite dealing with a lot of injuries and the early departure of star RB C McCaffrey before their bowl date with North Carolina. They were victorious in the Sun Bowl and head into 2017 looking like legit PAC 12 contenders yet again. <grabs popcorn>

2017 MEGALOCKS Opening Power Rating

PAC 12 – TBD

North Division – TBD

OFFENSE

QB Kellen Chryst looks to continue his solid play this season but will need to recover from a serious knee injury suffered in the Sun Bowl. MEGALOCKS PAC 12 INSIDERS tell us that he should be ready for fall camp. The Cardinal have highly-recruited specimen KJ Costello waiting in the wings.

Stanford will have to do without all-UNIVERSE RB Christian McCaffrey but have the luxury of RB Bryce Love ready to dominate behind a solid offensive line. Love averaged over 7 (!) yards per carry last season and should easily crack the 1,000 yard mark. As noted, the OL looks really good and should allow the Cardinal to pound the running game ALL NIGHT LIKE LUMBERJACK. The top-2 WRs from last season return to the mix but they do not appear to have a legitimate #1. Perhaps someone will emerge in that capacity during the season.

DEFENSE

Stanford will be without star DL Solomon Thomas (1st round NFL DC; leading tackler; sack and TFL leader in 2016) but do bring back 8 starters to a defense that is filled with really good players. The LB unit returns intact and they are all smart, talented and experienced. Their secondary returns 3/4 starters and should be a really tough group to negotiate for opposing QBs. We give Stanford a great shot at allowing less than 20 points per game (20.4, 22.6 last two seasons).

SPECIAL TEAMS

This is an area of concern as the Cardinal lose their excellent PK and deadly return specialist.

Potential ATS Trouble Spot

September 16 – at San Diego St. This game follows the yuuuuge match-up with USC and precedes a date with UCLA. PAC 12 SANDWICH, yo.

MEGAmazing Tidbits

Stanford has bagged 10+ wins in SIX of the past seven campaigns.

The Cardinal have had 34+ sacks in each of the past seven seasons. #PENETRATION

MEGALOCKS ATS Value Rating (10) 7.5

MEGALOCKS says:

Overall, we give the CARDINAL a 7.5 ATS Value Rating (Very Good) this season.

This team looks solid. Provided that QB Chryst (or a reasonable facsimile) is ready to go for the season opener it seems to us that Stanford will be in play for DEGENERATE NATION almost every week. The last time the Cardinal has a losing record vs the point spread was all the way back in 2007 ! That is seriously impressive. David Shaw is a MEGALOCKS favorite because he is smart, underrated and JUST WINS BABY.

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