Graduation important to Love
Coming back to play for Stanford as a senior was a difficult decision, Bryce Love said, but the main reason he did was to graduate on time.
He wants to be a doctor, and getting his degree in human biology in June 2019 was important to him. His hopes for the team also played a big part in his decision, he said in a conference call Thursday, his first public discussion of his decision since he announced it Jan. 16.
“To put it simply,” the Heisman Trophy runner-up said, “I wanted to graduate, and I wanted to come back and win games for the university and compete with my teammates one more year.”
He apparently didn’t get any specific feedback from the NFL on how high he would have gone in the draft next week. Still, he waited until the last possible minute before pulling out of the draft.
He said he discussed his options mainly with his family and coaches. “Obviously going to the NFL is a dream of mine,” he said, but “I felt like I had so much more to do at Stanford.”
The 5-foot-10, 196-pound tailback was one of the most exciting runners in college football last season. With 2,118 rushing yards, he was second in the nation (to Rashaad Penny of San Diego State) despite an ankle injury that sidelined him for a game and hampered him for the final six. He set an FBS record with 13 runs of at least 50 yards. His average of 8.1 yards per carry ranked fourth in the nation.
Love finished a distant second to Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield in the Heisman voting — Stanford’s fifth runner-up finish in the past nine years. He’ll be one of the favorites for the trophy this season.
“I don’t really pay attention to anything like that,” he said. “Last year, my goal was just to be the best version of myself for my teammates — to try to make the team the best version of the team that it can be.”
He wants to continue with that mind-set. He said he doesn’t know if his role will change at all in the Stanford offense, which returns its starting quarterback (K.J. Costello), almost its whole offensive line and tight ends, and all of its wide receivers.
“I’m just focused on doing my small role whatever that may be and accomplishing that to the best of my ability,” he said.
There’s nothing false about his modesty. Love doesn’t relish the spotlight, which is why he went through the entire spring football sessions without addressing the media on his decision to return. He thought the focus should be on the team.
For example, he said he’d like to catch more passes next season — he caught just six for 33 yards in 2017 — “not necessarily to showcase for (NFL) teams or anything like that, (but) just to open different possibilities for the offense, being able to show that versatility and make defenses respect that.”
As he rehabbed from his ankle and other, undisclosed injuries, he didn’t run the ball in any 11-on-11 scrimmages during the spring and took part in only a limited number of runningback drills.
His statistical goals, predictably, involve the team, which reached the Pac-12 title game but finished with a 9-5 overall record.
“I want to go 1-0 each week, and I want to win 13 games instead of nine,” he said. “I want to end up accomplishing the team goals that we have set forward.”