Stanford:
Receivers beginning to round into form.
At Cal, the wide receivers are often featured soloists. At Stanford, they’re the rhythm section.
Sure, every once in a while, a Cardinal receiver makes a spectacular catch, like Francis Owusu’s amazing reach-around-the-defender grab for a touchdown against UCLA.
But though Cal has more pass attempts (407) than any Pac-12 team but pass-crazy Washington State (570), Stanford is last in the conference in attempts (251).
In Saturday night’s 118th Big Game, the Cal wide receivers will be busy running patterns. Stanford’s wideouts, as usual, will spend a lot of their time blocking. In terms of receptions, wide receivers Michael Rector (26), Devon Cajuste (18) and Francis Owusu (11) all trail tailback Christian McCaffrey (33).
On the Cal receiving chart, they would rank tied for sixth, eighth and 10th. The Bears’ Kenny Lawler has more touchdown catches (10) than the three of them combined (seven).
“We’ve had a lot of threescore leads and haven’t had to throw the ball,” head coach David Shaw said. “Those guys have been out there making touchdown blocks for Christian and for Kevin (Hogan) as runner.”
Rector, Stanford’s best deep threat, admits he sometimes thinks about what it would be like to play in a passing attack like Cal’s.
“Absolutely, you wonder about it,” he said, “but we came here for a reason, and that was to play great football and to graduate. Whatever the coaches want us to do, we’ll do. We pride ourselves on blocking. That’s what we’re here to do.”
Against Oregon on Saturday night, Rector had eight catches for 103 yards, easily the most productive performance by a Cardinal wide receiver this season. It was his career high for catches and would have been his high for yardage if a first-quarter catch on his tiptoes hadn’t been ruled barely out of bounds.
“Personally, I thought I was in, but I’m biased,” he said.
He hopes his big night is a sign of things to come in the Big Game. When Hogan completes passes to the wide receivers, he said, it “opens up the offense a little more,” Rector said. “We’re able to execute on a higher level, I think, when we’re throwing the ball a lot and running the ball well.”
Cajuste, the other starter, finally might be getting into form in a season that has been hampered by a lower leg injury. He says he started to feel like himself midway through the season. “I was finally able to push off my leg,” he said.
He missed the Washington State game with an illness and was hurt the following Saturday at Colorado. He had only two catches against the Ducks, but one was a diving grab on Stanford’s opening drive. In the final minute, he channeled Odell Beckham Jr., making a spectacular one-handed grab near the goal line but was ruled out of bounds.
“I’m still trying to grasp that I caught that ball, to be honest with you,” he said. He practices one-handed catches before practices, “but definitely not falling backward, diving away. It was kind of a surreal moment for me.”
Oregon cornerback Ugo Amadi was flagged for pass interference on the play — a bad call, Cajuste says — giving Hogan the opportunity to throw a touchdown pass to tight end Greg Taboada with 10 seconds left. But the try for a tying two-point conversion failed, and Stanford lost 38-36.
At practice this week, Cajuste said he felt as good as he has felt all year. “I finally have that kick, that spring in my step again,” he said. “I definitely feel I’m going to capitalize on that.”
Counting his redshirt year as a freshman, Cajuste is 4-0 against Cal and would love to be 5-0. “This is my last shot,” he said. “I’m suiting up for the Stanford Cardinal and going against the Cal Bears, so it’s huge.”