STANFORD, Calif. – A North Division title and Pac-12 Championship Game appearance are out of the question, but that doesn't mean Stanford doesn't have something to play for.
David Shaw, Stanford's Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football, described Stanford's goals succinctly: "Win this week."
The coach added, "For us to look any further than past the horizon is unnecessary."
One more victory will ensure bowl eligibility, and Stanford will extend its streak of consecutive bowl seasons to eight, an ongoing school record. Beyond that, a 10-victory season can still be reached if the Cardinal wins its final four regular season games and the bowl. Stanford has won 10 or more games eight times in school history, including five of the past six years.
However, sophomore strong safety Justin Reid articulated perhaps the best reasons of all, during the team's press conference Tuesday in advance of Saturday's contest against Oregon State at Stanford Stadium. The Cardinal is 5-3 overall and 3-3 in Pac-12 play.
"We still have an opportunity to come together as a team and show what we can be," Reid said. "I don't feel we've hit our full potential as a team yet.
"We've just got to get better every day, see what we can accomplish and not let the season go to waste by having a negative mentality."
Keller Chryst's first start at quarterback, in a 34-10 victory at Arizona last week, offered some promise, Shaw said. The coach noted some specific plays like a come-backer to Michael Rector, a couple of difficult throws to Trenton Irwin, the touchdown throw to Christian McCaffrey despite a heavy rush, and some of his scrambles that picked up yardage rather than settle for a sack.
"At times he played well," Shaw said. "But he played like a talented young guy making his first start. He can be more efficient. Our deep ball connections need to be there. But I loved that he rebounded from mistakes to stick to it and make positive plays. Keep in mind that everyone else is past the halfway point in the season and Keller's going on Week 2."
Chryst has shown incredible arm strength, though he has yet to connect on the deep balls. Still, his deep throws against Arizona were impressive.
"Both he and Ryan Burns can throw the ball 70-plus," Shaw said. "It's insane. He can flip it 50 without using his lower body and just do it all arm. But in a football game, you rarely throw the ball over 40, so it's the subtleties that are more important that arm strength. The good thing is, when you have the physical tools, now you're just looking at the nuances, the timing, coverage reading, last split-second decisions and ball-placement, etc. But he's got the physical tools.
"We just expect Keller to grow. We don't expect him to be Johnny Unitas, or even Kevin Hogan, right off the bat. That's unfair. What Kevin did last year, he built up through three years of playing."
With fifth-year Johnny Caspers out with injury and questionable for the Oregon State game, freshman Nate Herbig could get his second consecutive start at right guard.
Herbig is called "Big Island" by Caspers and although that is bit misleading -- Herbig is actually from Kauai and not Hawaii's Big Island -- the idea is on target.
Herbig is "by far," the biggest player Shaw has coached at Stanford, he said. Herbig is 6-foot-4 and weighed in during training camp at 358.
Herbig's thought, when looking at the scale?
"I need to lose weight," he said.
He's now down several pounds and ultimately wants to settle in at 325.
Already, his weight drop has Herbig feeling as if he has unhooked a trailer, he said. By dropping another dozen or so pounds, he feels as if he'll be able "to maximize my playing potential."
Against Arizona, he made some penalties and some mistakes, but led McCaffrey on a 6-yard touchdown run and forced a fumble on an Arizona interception that may have been the game's pivotal play. Arizona would have had possession in Stanford territory with a chance to tie in the second quarter. Instead, Stanford fullback Chris Harrell recovered the ball and ran for a few yards before he was downed. A Conrad Ukropina field goal ended the drive to give the Cardinal a 17-7 lead.
"I just ran full speed and threw my head in there," Herbig said. "I looked up and our guy was running with the ball, so I was happy."
Shaw like what he saw from Herbig.
"He was not perfect or completely clean, but he did some good things," Shaw said. "You saw how athletic he is at 300-whatever, you saw him physical, moving guys and being great at the point of attack.
"Nate is a football player. He loves football. He's passionate about it. He wants to learn, he wants to grow. He's physical, he's athletic. Our biggest thing in recruiting Nate -- there's nobody in high school who's his size. When he got to camp, we got to see with our own eyes, Yes, this is a big guy, but this is not a big slow guy. This is an athletic guy who is powerful and strong, but at the same time, coachable."
Oregon State is 2-6 overall and 1-4 in the Pac-12, but the team has shown progress under second-year coach Gary Andersen, whose side went 2-10 and 0-9 last year. A case in point was last week's 35-31 loss to Washington State, a team undefeated in conference play. The Beavers own a 47-44 overtime victory over Cal while rushing for 474 yards -- the fourth-highest total in school history -- with Ryan Nall gaining 221 of those on 14 carries.
"What you're seeing is Year 2 of a coaching staff," Shaw said. "Year 1 is a lot of thinking on the field. You've got guys who played in one system for a while and they're switching systems. Now, in Year 2, you see them playing better, making fewer mistakes, giving up fewer big plays, and making more plays offensively. They've been playing better and better as the season's progressed."
Shaw feels the Pac-12 is at a disadvantage by playing nine conference games. It's not that Shaw is against playing nine, it's that Power 5 conferences should be playing the same amount. Teams playing eight have extra flexibility to schedule a cupcake or two, while Pac-12 schools are knocking themselves silly.
"They're not playing by the same rules," Shaw said. "That's my stance. Nine games are fine, as long as the Big Ten, the Big 12 and the SEC play nine as well, because we're feeding into the same playoff system. The only thing that makes sense to me, is if we're all going into the same playoff system, let's play by the same rules."
Stanford cornerback Quenton Meeks was brought aside by Shaw on the sideline last week after being flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, and came off the field pretty heated. A short discussion seemed to calm Meeks down and a postgame hug reinforced Shaw's message.
"We've got to be smart about what we spend our energy on," Shaw said. "He understands that. We can't ever put anything in the hands of the official. We can't ever put anything in the hands of the other team by our post-play actions. He's one of our emotional leaders. We've got to place our time and energy after the play on our own teammates."
Reid, the sophomore out of Prairieville, Louisiana, has started five games this season and been impressive. He is known for knocking the ball out of the UCLA receiver's hands on a deep ball in the final seconds of a close game.
"When you have Justin, you have all the physical tools that you want to play the position -- length, speed, athleticism, aggressiveness, and he's a great tackler," Shaw said. "The thing that's been missing is experience. He's playing very well and he's playing very smart."
Reid grew up with LSU football. His father ran track there. His brother Eric Reid Jr., was an All-America safety there. Now, Eric Reid is a fourth-year safety with the San Francisco 49ers and was a 2013 Pro Bowler.
Eric's influence has been great on Justin. For one thing, Eric helped convince his little brother to come to Stanford, even over LSU.
"I love LSU," Justin said. "I grew up on LSU football. I still enjoy watching the Tigers whenever I get a chance -- I have friends on the team there.
"But my brother was one of the biggest people to encourage me to come here. You can go to the NFL from any school, but the opportunities that Stanford offers you after your NFL career is over, are endless. You can do almost anything you want to do."
Throughout his life, Justin, who is six years younger than Eric, has compared himself to his big brother.
"My thing was, I'm going to be better than him," Justin said. "That's my biggest motivation. I'm going to hit harder than him, I'm going to be better than him. I'm going to be faster than him."
That's fine with Eric, who has mentored Justin.
"I usually call him if I need some help with the coverage, because we actually run a pretty similar scheme," Justin said. "He gets to help me with things and teach me little tips and tricks that not everybody has available, which is really fortunate for me. Most of the time when we talk, we talk about things that aren't football. I know he gets asks 1,000 questions a day about how his team's going, so we usually talk about other things, like family."
There is a group of Stanford football players from Louisiana. Not surprisingly, they have bonded. Those from the Pelican State include junior cornerback Terrence Alexander, freshman cornerback Malik Antoine, senior receiver Taijuan Thomas, and sophomore receiver Jay Tyler.
They call themselves, "the Boot Boys." Think of the shape of the state and you'll know why.
With linebacker Joey Alfieri having a strong season, a game against an Oregon school always is special for the Portland native. It's the same area that has produced teammate Cameron Scarlett at running back, and former fullback-linebacker Owen Marecic.
"We've had really good success up there for two reasons, Shaw said. "No. 1, there's a tough brand of football played up there. It's a physical brand of football. You combine that with the fact that there's some really good schools up there.
"There's an academic component to those schools. They offer good classes, tough classes, honors and A.P. classes, and so we've been able to find guys like Joey and Owen Marecic from up there, that play our style of football, but are also bright intelligent kids that respond to great challenges in the classroom as well."