Stanford offensive line opts for major challenges
Classroom life big draw for Hall, others
Stanford’s offensive line calls itself “the most interesting line in the world” because of its diverse array of personalities and academic majors, but it wasn’t the most productive last season. Although the Cardinal finished 10-3, their offense struggled in the first half of the season as teams geared their game plans to stop Christian McCaffrey, who still finished with 1,603 rushing yards. The offensive line also gave up an uncharacteristic 34 sacks.
Though McCaffrey is gone, four starters return up front as Stanford looks to re-establish its identity as a dominant team in the trenches. USA TODAY Sports recently sat down with senior left tackle A.T. Hall to talk about playing at Stanford and what makes its offensive line unique.
Q: Why were you guys the most interesting offensive line in the world last season?
A: Last year there was a big thing on that because of all the different majors we had. (Left guard) Dave (Bright) was biomechanical engineering. (Right guard) Johnny (Caspers) was I think environmental engineering, something that has to do with nature. And (right tackle) Casey (Tucker) is a philosophy major. I’m science, technology and society, and (center) Jesse (Burkett) is Japanese. If you look where else in the country, I don’t think you’ll find that and everyone having a different major and none being like sociology or communications or something down that path. When you look at the rosters of other teams when I scout, I go, “Wow, they’re all taking the same major.”
Q: What’s the science, technology and society major?
A: So, OK. Within science, technology and society, there’s a bunch of different paths. The one I’m doing is business, innovation and organizations, so especially in Sili- con Valley, it’s learning to develop a new product and innovate a product and be able to actually bring it to market and what you need to do to do that. A lot of it is product design, which I find really interesting, but I also wanted to get some of the business aspects to it as well, because if you just did product design, I wouldn’t learn about markets.
Q: Do you get any practical, real-world internship experience?
A: A lot of guys do. So during the summers, they always try to help us out. If you want to do one, they’ll get you one. I decided to take classes most of the time, but this next year, I really want to do that. I’m working toward getting one this upcoming summer. I feel like I need to do it at least one time before I go out into the real world.
Q: Was that what drew you to Stanford, some of those opportunities?
A: Yes, because my dad (Travis Hall) played in the NFL a long time (1995-2005), and my dad and my mom were always like football ends. Make a decision that’s going to help you later on in life, because once you stop playing and you don’t have a degree or a real set of skills, what are you going to do? If you’re not super big time, you can’t sell your image forever, so that was really the biggest thing that drew me here, and I put a high value on academics and wanted to learn something.
Q: One of the things I’ve seen at different programs, there’s a big separation between the athletes and the rest of campus. Not just academically, but socially. At so many schools they want to keep the athletes in the athletic building every minute they ’re not in class. It seems like that takes away from the experience. How is it here in terms of integrating with the rest of campus life?
A: Are you kidding me? Your freshman year, you don’t have a choice where you live. You fill out a questionnaire and they match you with roommates and put you into a dorm, and you just meet so many new people and get exposed to different ways of life. My roommates, one of them was from Colombia, one was from Saratoga, Calif. One was from San Diego, and I’m from Arizona. We didn’t know each other. My neighbor sold a piece of code for $17 million, and he’s like 18 years old. And he’s like, “Yeah, I just want to keep studying even though I’ve got plenty of money.” There was a girl who lived the other way who was on Shark Tank and sold her product. The people here are just incredible.
Q: It’s probably a different experience because at a lot of schools, football players walk around and they ’re sort of celebrities and everyone wants to talk to them about football.
A: I love it because the friends I chose here, the first question they ask me isn’t how’s football. It’s always like, how’s class or have you done your homework? Those are the types of people I like to put myself around, because realistically you spend 50, 60 hours a week doing football. And the cool thing I love about this place most is football players aren’t superstars here in the slightest.
Q: Even Christian McCaffrey?
A: He’s a little bit of a different animal because he was world renowned. But still, I had classes with Christian, and he was just another kid in class. Contributed like everybody else. Teachers didn’t favor him, didn’t dislike him. He was just a student like everyone else.
Q: Well, even if you don’t like to talk about football in your free time, I’ve got some football questions ( laughter). Last season a lot of people kind of had the sense that it was a disappointing season for Stanford, but you guys won 10 games. That’s kind of the standard that has been established here. Did it feel like a disappointing season to you guys?
A: It was disappointing in the fact that we set very, very very high goals. We had the talent and work ethic to go to the playoff. That’s how we thought about it, straight up. But there was a rough patch where we lost some games and everyone was down and it was tough. But we rallied. It was like, “Guys, what’s going on? We’re so much better than this.” And we got it rolling. We had a lot of guys who had never played before and it took them a little time and it clicked, and off we went.
Q: Why do you feel like you guys are in a good position to get back to the top of the division?
A: Until people can figure out how to stop us from running the ball, I don’t think we have any issues, and that’s something we take too much pride in. We won’t let someone stop us from running the ball ever. Until somebody can figure out how to do that, I think we’ll be fine.
Q: And (running back) Bryce (Love) got some experience being the No. 1 guy last year.
A: Bryce is a beast. I’m not worried about Bryce, and we’ve got running backs behind him that are going to be really, really good.
Q: What makes him a beast?
A: He’s elusive, got great vision. He’s obviously fast. Ridiculously fast. He carries himself well, knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s a junior but carries himself like a fifth-year guy. We’re going to run the ball real, real well. We’ve got some dudes up front who just want to destroy people.