The No. 8 Stanford Cardinal host the Kansas State Wildcats on Friday, September 2nd in a Pac-12 vs. Big 12 showdown. This is probably the biggest game of the opening two days. It will be the first-ever meeting between these two storied programs.
Stanford is coming off a 12-2 season in which it won the Pac-12 for the third time in the past four years. The Cardinal earned a spot in the Rose Bowl, where they dominated the Iowa Hawkeyes 45-16 to punctuate a fantastic 2015 campaign.
Kansas State was fortunate to even play in a bowl game last season as it needed a 24-23 home win over West Virginia in the regular season finale to become eligible. The Wildcats wound up getting crushed 45-23 by Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl.
Kickoff inside Stanford Stadium is scheduled for 9:00 EST Friday night with Fox Sports 1 providing the television coverage. Taking a look at the lines in Las Vegas, I find Stanford as a 15-point favorite over Kansas State with a total set of 47.5 points.
Stanford head coach David Shaw continues to do a tremendous job in recruiting. Despite returning just 12 starters last year, the Cardinal went 12-2 and beat Iowa by 29 points in the Rose Bowl. Now they return just 11 starters, but that’s not a big concern given the talent level on hand.
The biggest concern is replacing Kevin Hogan at quarterback. But senior Ryan Burns has been waiting his turn and is prepared to take over the job. He stands 6’5″ and 233 pounds and was a highly rated recruit as a high school player in Virginia, but he couldn’t find the field because of Hogan’s success.
The good news is that Burns will be handing the ball off to CHristian McCaffrey, who should have won the Heisman Trophy last year. McCaffrey broks Barry Sanders’ record for all-purpose yards in a season last year. He finished with 2,019 rushing yards and 645 receiving yards and was a beast on special teams as well.
The Stanford defense figures to be dominant once again with six starters back from a unit that gave up 22.6 points per game last year. The D only had three starters back last season, so improvement can be expected on this side of the ball. Look for the Cardinal to get back to the 16.4 points and 282 yards per game they allowed in 2014.
While the Cardinal are legit national title contenders, the K-State Wildcats finally look like they’re fading in the Big 12 under legendary coach Bill Snyder. They went just 6-7 last year and were blown out 55-0 by Oklahoma and 45-23 by Arkansas in the process. They were outgained by 118 yards per game overall and 153.6 yards per game in Big 12 play last year.
Now the Wildcats have just 12 returning starters and all kinds of questions on offense. Jesse Ertz was hurt last year, so he’ll be back, but he’s not going to have much success against this dominant Stanford defense. I expect this game to play out similar to the 45-23 Arkansas game and the 45-16 beat down Stanford put on Iowa, which was a much better team than Kansas State.
Stanford is 42-5 at home over the past seven seasons. It has won 15 straight non-conference home openers with its last lost coming to Notre Dame in 2007. The Cardinal have won eight straight home openers by an average of 27 points per game as well.
Stanford is 42-5 at home over the past seven seasons. It has won 15 straight non-conference home openers with its last lost coming to Notre Dame in 2007. The Cardinal have won eight straight home openers by an average of 27 points per game as well.
Plays on favorites of 10.5 to 21 points (STANFORD) – solid team from last season – outscored opponents by 10 or more points/game, in a non-conference game between two teams from major division 1-A conferences are 35-10 (77.8%) ATS over the last 10 seasons.
Stanford is 8-0 ATS as a favorite of 10.5 to 21 points over the last three seasons. The Cardinal are 49-24-1 ATS in their last 74 games overall, including 38-18 ATS in their last 56 home games.