Cardinal light up the Knights
In a game Stanford had to win to avoid going into next week’s game at USC on a severe downswing, David Shaw eschewed his normally conservative approach.
The head coach had quarterback Kevin Hogan firing deep several times. The passes didn’t always connect, but a flea-flicker bomb to Michael Rector ignited the Cardinal to a 31-7 win over Central Florida on Saturday night in their home opener.
Stanford also unveiled a new offensive star. Freshman tailback Bryce Love had 135 yards receiving on just two catches. The Knights simply couldn’t catch him.
Meanwhile, Stanford’s defense was fired up over the ejection of lineman Aziz Shittu in the first quarter. Playing with just two defensive linemen almost exclusively the rest of the way, it nevertheless held the Knights scoreless for 58 minutes.. It forced two turnovers and didn’t allow the Knights inside the Stanford 35 until the closing minutes.
As cooler temperatures prevailed, Hogan warmed up. He completed 17 of 29 passes for a career-high 341 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Backups Keller Chryst and Ryan Burns both played in the final minutes.
Although Love’s speed helped Hogan’s stats, he would have had considerably more yardage if it hadn’t been for five drops by his receivers.
Hogan also hit Christian McCaffrey for a 7-yard touchdown in the third quarter, and Love broke loose for a 93-yard score on a screen pass in the fourth quarter. Barry Sanders scored on a 20-yard run before UCF scored on a 36-yard pass from third-string quarterback Tyler Harris to Tre’Quan Smith with 1:22 left.
Love also had a 42-yard catchand-run play to set up McCaffrey’s touchdown, and Stanford was on its way to its eighth straight win in home openers.
The visitors from Orlando, Fla., were hamstrung on offense after losing their starting quarterback in the opening minutes. Justin Holman lasted one brief series before he apparently injured his throwing hand and was replaced by freshman Bo Schneider.
Schneider completed just 7 of 19 passes for 46 yards before giving way to Tyler Harris midway through the fourth quarter. The Knights had little luck running the ball, netting just 62 yards on 28 carries.
In contrast to the opening loss to Northwestern, Stanford tried throwing deep several times. Late in the first half, in a scoreless game, Hogan gave the ball to Sanders, who pitched it back to Hogan. The Knights were thoroughly fooled, and Hogan hit a
wide open Rector for a 53-yard touchdown late in the first half.
Hogan soon moved Stanford back into scoring position. This time the drive stopped at the UCF 39, but Conrad Ukropina boosted the lead to 10-0 by booming a career-longest 52yard field goal with 52 seconds left in the half.
Stanford sustained a major blow when Shittu was ejected as a result of a targeting penalty. The Cardinal were already thin in the D-line as a result of Harrison Phillips’ season-ending knee injury last week.
On the play, UCF running back Taj McGowan was being tackled after receiving a pass when Shittu put his helmet into McGowan’s.
Stanford used a nickel defense with just two defensive linemen, Solomon Thomas and Brennan Scarlett, the rest of the half. Behind the running of McGowan and Schneider’s third-down passes to Akins, the Knights moved to the Stanford 36. But McGowan fumbled on a hit by Dallas Lloyd, and Scarlett recovered. Shittu eligible for USC: Because Shittu’s targeting penalty and ejection occurred in the first half, he won’t have to sit out the first half of next week’s game at USC. As it is, the Cardinal will be under the gun against the Trojans, who have scored 114 points in their first two games.