The post-Andrew Luck era begins in college football as the No. 21 Stanford Cardinal host the San Jose State Spartans on Friday night. The game is scheduled for a 10:00 pm EST start time and it will be televised live on the Pac-12 Network. Currently the odds for the game have the Cardinal favored by 24 points.
Stanford begins the process of moving on after the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft decided to bolt Palo Alto. Head coach David Shaw seems to know what he is doing and even without some of the stars they've had the past few seasons. Tonight they welcome in San Jose State, a team that finished with a dismal 5-7 record a year ago. However, that was a bit of an improvement as the team went just 3-22 during the two previous seasons overall. Stanford won this game last year, also the season opener for both teams, 57-3 as the Cardinal marched to an 11-2 record overall. Josh Nunes has been given the quarterback duties for Stanford. His only passes attempted came back in the 2010 season. Senior running back Stepfan Taylor is expected to get the bulk of the carries for Stanford this season and should pace the offense. He has run for nearly 2,500 yards in the past two seasons and will be able to stable himself behind a big, beefy offensive line. Returning starters on that line include right tackle Cameron Fleming, left guard David Yankey and center Sam Schwartzstein. That alone is a pretty good situation for the Cardinal. Stanford also returns seven starters on defense.
SJSU has tabbed David Fales as the starting quarterback for the squad, he's a junior transfer from Monterey Peninsula College. He put up some decent numbers at Monterey, completing 61.8 percent of his passes for 4,635 yards and 37 touchdowns. The Spartans Travis Johnson was picked as the WAC defensive player of the year in the preseason as he totaled nearly 10 sacks last season to help San Jose State improve. This will be the final season in the WAC for San Jose State, as they will be joining the Mountain West Conference beginning next season.
Free Pick: Fales and the Spartans probably SHOULD get on the scoreboard tonight, but it's tough to tell exactly what Stanford is going to bring to the table offensively. I'm sure they will struggle a bit early on, but they are still favored by 24 points, which is a whole bunch. We're going to back Stanford in this game tonight because they are the bigger and better team overall and their defense will keep the Spartans from scoring too many points to cover. Stanford 48, SJSU 17
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