STANFORD, Calif. – Bryce Love's availability for Thursday night's contest at Oregon State likely will be a game-time decision.
David Shaw, Stanford's Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football, said Tuesday that Love, the nation's leading rusher, is "day to day."
"We'll see how he is later in the week," Shaw said. "He's not practicing right now, but we'll give him a couple of days and see how he is. Hopefully, Bryce can go. If he can't, fine. He'll go next week, hopefully."
Love leads the FBS in rushing yards (1,387), yards per carry (10.27), and rushing yards per game (198.1). He should continue to lead in all three categories whether he plays or not.
Already, Love's 1,387 rank sixth all-time at Stanford for a single-season. His career total of 2,396 yards rushing is No. 9, though the junior is in his first season as a full-time starter.
He is averaging 8.71 yards per carry for his career, which would be an FBS record if he reaches the minimum 300 carries. He has 275. Glenn Davis of Army (1943-46) -- Mr. Outside to teammate Doc Blanchard's Mr. Inside -- holds the FBS record at 8.26. The FBS record for yards per carry in a season (minimum of 100 carries) is 9.63 by Houston's Chuck Weatherspoon in 1989 -- another mark in jeopardy.
How much practice time this week would Love need to be ready?
"Zero," Shaw said. "None. He's played a lot of football in his two and a half years for us. He knows what we do and how we do it. If it takes us to game time and he's ready to go, then he'll go out there and play. I'm not worried about that."
Oregon State will be playing its second game since head coach Gary Andersen abruptly stepped aside. Cory Hall is the interim head coach and former Stanford assistant coach Dave Baldwin remains in his third year on staff, coaching tight ends.
The midseason coaching upheaval could make the Beavers less predictable. In its first game under Hall, Oregon State gave Colorado all it could handle before falling short, 36-33.
"It's an energized football team," Shaw said. "They play really hard, they play fast, they have a variety of things that they do and they'll have a week and a half to get ready for us. We'll have our antenna up knowing that there may be some things that are different and we'll have to adjust to."
Stanford's offense has improved continuously since the 17-14 loss to San Diego State dropped the Cardinal to 1-2. Since then, the Cardinal has won four straight and controls its destiny in the Pac-12 North, which it co-leads with a 4-1 record.
"It boils down to one thing for me, the continual progression of the offensive line," Shaw said. "The better we are up front, the better our running game is. The better we are up front, the more comfortable our quarterback is in the pocket and the more guys are downfield making plays."
In two weeks, Stanford will be facing a dreaded short week -- a Saturday (Nov. 4) game at Washington State at a still undetermined time, followed by a Friday night home game (Nov. 10) against Washington. Television demands unusual schedule accommodations, and late kickoffs, sometimes with less than a week's notice.
"It's hard to win games against your conference opponents, especially when you start adding in late-night games, followed by short-week late night games," Shaw said. "They're difficult on the coaches, difficult on the players. We're creatures of habit. We get into a rhythm. When you disturb that rhythm and you add in travel, and you add in a lack of sleep ... Those are difficult things we put on ourselves.
"It's part of our contract with our media partners, but you can't say it doesn't affect the games, because it does. You ask any football coach and they'll say, 'We'll play all our games on Saturday at 1 o'clock.' It would be great if we had some more influence on that, to normalize our schedules.
"We tend to forget these are young people. They're in school. Their health, their well-being are important to us. But we put that on a shelf periodically because they want us to play at 7 o'clock on six-day notice. On the road. Those are hard games to win.
"But we'll adjust and we'll do the best we can to get the guys ready on short weeks or late nights, because that's the road that we have in front of us."
Stanford is No. 17 nationally in turnovers gained, with 15. Eleven are on interceptions and four on fumble recoveries. Last season, Stanford totaled 20 turnovers, in 13 games.
The increased rate of 2.14 turnovers gained per game this season to 1.54 last season has been a point of emphasis.
"We've put more time into creating turnovers on defense," Shaw said. "We've worked so many drills and put such an emphasis on it, and worked on ball drills with all of our defensive players. It's great to see all that work pay off."
Freshman Connor Wedington has found a home as a receiver after starring as a four-star running back at Sumner (Wash.) High. Besides his 17 catches for 168 yards, and two rushes for 52 yards, Wedington has proven to be a strong blocker.
"He's a football player," Shaw said. "Anything we ask him to do, he'll work his tail off to get good at it. I think he's a natural receiver, but there are other things he can do from the backfield, which we'll get to at some point in his career here. He's very versatile, very physical, and strong, and very aggressive. His versatility will be really exciting to see for the next few years."
On Friday, defensive tackle Harrison Phillips was in Sacramento, working with elementary school children from the Playmakers Organization, which is dedicated to mentoring at-risk minority youth. During that visit, he was surprised by Allstate agent Jordan Beck, who presented Phillips with the Good Works Award for Phillips' dedication to community service.
"I'm very grateful to him for being such a good example of how, if you set your mind to it and want to be great in football and want to be a great student, and make a difference in the community, you can," Shaw said. "That's impressive."
Inside linebacker Joey Alfieri will get another look at standout Oregon State running back Ryan Nall, an opponent he has faced since the third grade. Alfieri is from Portland and Nall from the Portland suburb of Sandy. They played at rival high schools: Alfieri at Jesuit and Nall at Central Catholic.
"He's always a challenge to go against," Alfieri said.
One reason the Stanford defense tends to improve as the game goes on is because of the adjustments that defensive coordinator Lance Anderson makes during the game. Anderson, who calls the defenses from the press box, solicits input from his players, whether they're old or young, or playing or not.
In a recent game, junior walk-on Ryan Beecher made some suggestions that Anderson utilized during the game.
"Coach Anderson really trusts us," Alfieri said. "We have guys across the board feeling comfortable talking to coaches and saying what they see."