Over its last 10 meetings against Washington, the Stanford Cardinal own a comfortable record at 8-2. Even at Husky Stadium, the Cardinal have been slim favorites since 2008, holding at 3-1 with the most recent loss in 2016, when Stanford lost by 38 points. At that time, Stanford was No. 7 in the polls, while Washington wasn’t too far behind at No. 10.
Heading into Week 10, there’s some caution tape surrounding Huskies RB Myles Gaskin as he tries to recover from a shoulder injury. It’s the same injury that benched him against Cal, who defeated Washington in Berkeley, 10-12. Cal is also the first to fall victim to a then-winless UCLA team, who won, 37-7, to snatch its first win of the season in Week Six.
RB Bryce Love
Stats vs. Washington: 18 carries, 71 yards, touchdown; 3 receptions, 18 yards
Player notes: Without Trevor Speights, David Shaw relied on a trio of effort led by Love, who had yet another questionable game, despite the number of carries. Love’s biggest gain of the game came late on a 12-yard gain, which then resulted in his fourth rushing touchdown of the season. Ben Burr-Kirven pretty much stripped Costello’s air game from underneath him, but Stanford, who are riddled with a laundry list of injuries, couldn’t get something started against someone like Jaylen Johnson.
Game Day grade: C+
Draft stock: Mid-second
Week 11 preview vs. Oregon State: At the moment, Stanford’s going through some literal growing pains. Week in and week out, people hope that Love bounces back, but his injured ankle is being more persistent at bothering him than Love is at not performing at his elite level. As for Love against Oregon State’s run defense, it’s one of college football’s worst – they allowed 838 yards to both Arizona schools and permitted another 305 against Cal.
TE Kaden Smith
Stats vs. Washington: 8 receptions, 107 yards, touchdown
Player notes: One would walk away with a smile from Smith’s performance against Washington; he fought hard for yardage and demonstrated endless courage against a scary defense. For most of the game, Smith was Costello’s go-to guy, but an Arcega-Whiteside injury made that even more of a possibility. This is also Smith’s second consecutive game with 100 yards receiving, matching him up to Zach Ertz – one of the greatest Stanford tight ends of all-time.
Game Day grade: B+
Draft stock: Mid-fourth
Week 11 preview vs. Oregon State: Last year’s Stanford-Oregon State game was unacceptable. For beginners, Stanford only had 12 first downs and won, 15-14. Smith, meanwhile, only had two receptions for 34 yards to a pass defense that gave 126 yards to then-Colorado WR Bryce Bobo a week beforehand. Oregon State did lose a lot of firepower on their defense from last year, so hopefully, Smith and Stanford can avoid a seriously embarrassing upset at Stanford Stadium.
OG Nate Herbig
Player notes: DNP due to injury
Game Day grade: N/A
Draft stock: Early sixth
Week 11 preview vs. Oregon State: Depending on Herbig’s health, Hamilcar Rashed‘s is the biggest threat to the offensive line. Prior to Week 10 against Southern Cal, Rashed has 10 tackles-for-loss. Along with Rashed, LB Shemar Smith is second on the team in total tackles with 50. Without Herbig, Stanford’s offensive line is noticeably weak, leaving Costello and Stanford’s trio of running backs to fend for themselves in the interior.
MLB Bobby Okereke
Stats vs. Washington: 11 tackles
Player notes: Okereke wasn’t able to blink in this game. Not only was Myles Gaskin on the active roster, but Jake Browning gave Okereke some trouble, as well. Truly, though, Casey Toohill stole the spotlight from Okereke, who couldn’t wrap himself around Washington’s run offense. Despite the 11 tackles, Okereke didn’t play aggressively as he’s done in previous weeks, which showed in the first half, but only saw slight teetering in the third and fourth quarters.
Game Day grade: B-
Draft stock: Late fourth
Week 11 preview vs. Oregon State: Jermar Jefferson is one of the best running backs in the nation and he’s not getting enough of the media’s attention. He already has over 1,000 yards rushing, along with two 200-plus-yard games against Southern Utah and Washington State.
Without Joey Alfieri, if he’s unavailable, Okereke’s really only Stanford’s better chance of stopping the run, while Sean Barton plays well in defending the pass.
CB Alijah Holder
Stats vs. Washington: 7 tackles, tackle-for-loss
Player notes: Man coverage usually isn’t a weakness of Holder’s, but his tackling is something that’s cost him some NFL Draft stock points. In this particular game, especially the first-half, Holder was almost invisible, allowing big gains that led to red zone visits for Washington. By the time Holder caught steam, it was too late for the Cardinal, who held Washington to six points in the second half.
Game Day grade: C+
Draft stock: Early fifth
Week 11 preview vs. Oregon State: The Beavers pass defense isn’t all that scary, recording only 1,942 yards and 11 touchdowns prior to Week 10. Timmy Hernandez, for example, has only 458 yards through nine games – that’s an average of a little over 50 yards per game.
Since Week 1 against Ohio State, Oregon State’s Trevin Bradford (vs. OSU: 104 yards, two touchdowns) hasn’t had much production. With replacement QB Jake Luton over concussed Conor Blount, though, Oregon State’s offense looked rather spooky against Colorado in Week 9.
Week preview stats provided by College Football Reference.
Game Day stats provided by NCAA.com.