Last season's woes can be chalked up to inexperience. The Cardinal started from scratch using several underclassmen, and it showed with little overall production on both sides of the ball. Obviously the hope is for the light bulb to go on for the young players and for the experience to turn into wins.
There's talent work with as QB Trent Edwards leads an offense with excellent potential. Stanford would have liked to bomb away last year stretching the field so the running game could have holes to run through, but the quarterbacks didn't get time, the receivers didn't make too many big plays, and great running backs Kenneth Tolon and J.R. Lemon were bottled up. On the defensive side, the nation's worst pass defense has to improve by leaps and bounds and a pass rush needs to develop, but there's hope there too with nine starters returning.
The Pac 10 is a tough place to try and get healthy in a hurry, but Stanford can be a thorn in the size of several teams with bowl hopes with just enough overall talent to pull off some surprises. Even with 14 returning starters this will be another season of learning with an eye on next year when everyone should mature. However, if things don't go well, there might be a new coaching staff inheriting all the experience.
The Schedule: This could be brutal for the Cardinal with five of the last seven games on the road and USC and Washington coming to Palo Alto. Missing Arizona hurts any hopes of a winning record. Winning the first two games is an absolute must since the Cardinal should be the underdog the rest of the way.
Best Offensive Player: Sophomore WR Mark Bradford. Bradford exploded as a true freshman catching 37 passes for 587 yards and three touchdowns averaging 15.9 yards per catch. He has tremendous promise with good size, great hands and outstanding speed.
Best Defensive Player: Senior FS Osiomogho Atogwe. It will be a bit of an upset if Atogwe doesn't lead the Cardinal in tackles for a third straight season. He's a big hitter in run support and one of the team's only proven pass defenders.
Key player to a successful season: The offense isn't going anywhere if there isn't more production from the quarterbacks. Stanford signal callers completed a woeful 47.6% of their passes last year with 12 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. Trent Edwards has the starting job all to himself now that Chris Lewis is gone, and he has to live up to his high school hype after throwing four touchdown passes and nine interceptions as a freshman.
The season will be a success if ... Stanford finishes with a winning season. This will be hard without Arizona on the slate, but the goal has to be to better the four wins of last year. That's possible with a more experienced team that needs at least two Pac 10 upsets along the way.
Key game: Nov. 20 at California. Jeff Tedford has quickly built a top 20 program over in Berkeley making life difficult on The Farm. A win over the arch-rival would do wonders to ease Cardinal fans' pain over losing the last two games to the Bears along with its standing as the best college team in the Bay Area.
2003 Fun Stats:
- Third quarter scoring: Opponents 63 - Stanford 33
- Fumbles: Opponents 33 (lost 18) - Stanford 14 (lost 8)
- Penalties: Opponents 102 for 843 yards - Stanford 87 for 761
There's talent work with as QB Trent Edwards leads an offense with excellent potential. Stanford would have liked to bomb away last year stretching the field so the running game could have holes to run through, but the quarterbacks didn't get time, the receivers didn't make too many big plays, and great running backs Kenneth Tolon and J.R. Lemon were bottled up. On the defensive side, the nation's worst pass defense has to improve by leaps and bounds and a pass rush needs to develop, but there's hope there too with nine starters returning.
The Pac 10 is a tough place to try and get healthy in a hurry, but Stanford can be a thorn in the size of several teams with bowl hopes with just enough overall talent to pull off some surprises. Even with 14 returning starters this will be another season of learning with an eye on next year when everyone should mature. However, if things don't go well, there might be a new coaching staff inheriting all the experience.
The Schedule: This could be brutal for the Cardinal with five of the last seven games on the road and USC and Washington coming to Palo Alto. Missing Arizona hurts any hopes of a winning record. Winning the first two games is an absolute must since the Cardinal should be the underdog the rest of the way.
Best Offensive Player: Sophomore WR Mark Bradford. Bradford exploded as a true freshman catching 37 passes for 587 yards and three touchdowns averaging 15.9 yards per catch. He has tremendous promise with good size, great hands and outstanding speed.
Best Defensive Player: Senior FS Osiomogho Atogwe. It will be a bit of an upset if Atogwe doesn't lead the Cardinal in tackles for a third straight season. He's a big hitter in run support and one of the team's only proven pass defenders.
Key player to a successful season: The offense isn't going anywhere if there isn't more production from the quarterbacks. Stanford signal callers completed a woeful 47.6% of their passes last year with 12 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. Trent Edwards has the starting job all to himself now that Chris Lewis is gone, and he has to live up to his high school hype after throwing four touchdown passes and nine interceptions as a freshman.
The season will be a success if ... Stanford finishes with a winning season. This will be hard without Arizona on the slate, but the goal has to be to better the four wins of last year. That's possible with a more experienced team that needs at least two Pac 10 upsets along the way.
Key game: Nov. 20 at California. Jeff Tedford has quickly built a top 20 program over in Berkeley making life difficult on The Farm. A win over the arch-rival would do wonders to ease Cardinal fans' pain over losing the last two games to the Bears along with its standing as the best college team in the Bay Area.
2003 Fun Stats:
- Third quarter scoring: Opponents 63 - Stanford 33
- Fumbles: Opponents 33 (lost 18) - Stanford 14 (lost 8)
- Penalties: Opponents 102 for 843 yards - Stanford 87 for 761
