ON SATURDAY, STANFORD football opens a new decade against its biggest rival from the last decade, the Oregon Ducks.
The difference in this pandemic-delayed season is that no fans are permitted at Pac-12 games, silencing one of the conference's loudest venues, Eugene's Autzen Stadium.
"Part of me is going to miss that," said David Shaw, Stanford's Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football. "Going into that stadium, you love that feeling. They play White Stripes, that gets you fired up. You hear the crowd, the fans …
"But the other 80 percent of me is excited that our quarterback will actually be able to communicate and that our offense will be able to hear each other."
During the 2010s, Stanford and Oregon combined for seven conference championships and eight North Division titles. Seven times, the winner of this matchup won the division.
The Cardinal and Ducks split their past four meetings at Autzen, including their 2018 encounter when an 80-yard Joey Alfieri fumble return ignited a Stanford rally from a 24-7 third-quarter deficit to a 38-31 overtime victory. A historical footnote to Autzen, which opened in 1967: It originated with former athletics director Leo Harris, a Stanford football player under Pop Warner in the 1920s, and the bowl design was inspired by Stanford Stadium.
Joey Alfieri's fumble return ignited a Stanford comeback in 2018. Photo by Bob Drebin/ISIphotos.com.
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THE MOST REASSURING line of Shaw's press conference on Tuesday: "As of right now, we have no COVID issues on our football team," he said.
The conference allows for a traveling roster of 74, large enough for Shaw to be confident that if COVID cases do develop, Stanford has enough reserves to play.
"Our operations group and training staff has a really good plan for us, as far as being able to take players safely, minimize potential high-risk contacts based on how we room and how we go to the stadium, how we eat, and how we meet," Shaw said. "We're all on the same page to handle all the potential pitfalls of traveling and playing a sport during the pandemic."
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FOUR STANFORD PLAYERS will miss the season because of injury: fifth-year running back Dorian Maddox, junior inside linebacker Jacob Mangum-Farrar, sophomore cornerback Nicolas Toomer, and sophomore inside linebacker Tristan Sinclair.
In addition, projected starters Gabe Reid at outside linebacker and Kyu Blu Kelly at cornerback will likely be out for the game, as will outside linebacker Tangaloa Kaufusi.
Thunder Keck, a former walk-on who was awarded a scholarship last week as a senior, will start in Reid's spot. Salim Turner-Muhammad is listed as Kelly's backup, but Shaw said he has not yet decided on the starter.
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RECRUITING IS IN an NCAA 'dead period' because of COVID-19 precautions. That means recruits cannot take official visits or communicate with coaches while on campus for unofficial visits.
Shaw doesn't believe those restrictions will encourage a delay in college decisions. He fully expects most recruits will sign at the beginning of the early signing period on Dec. 16 rather than hoping restrictions will lift before the regular signing period begins on Feb. 3.
"Prospective student-athletes have gotten an opportunity to get to know their coaches, get to know other recruits, and get to know guys on each team," Shaw said. "Many of them are able to make informed decisions. Some may hold out to the second signing day, but I don't see drastic changes to the visiting policies."
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Austin Jones looks for yardage in last year's contest with Oregon. Photo by Grant Shorin/Stanford Athletics
THE PROMISE QUARTERBACK Davis Mills showed last season, not to mention his 504 yards passing against Washington State, shouldn't change Stanford's perceived run-first approach.
"We earned a running reputation around here for a decade and a lot of that was because we were playing games with leads," Shaw said. "But, for the most part, when the game was in doubt, on first and second down, we were balanced between run and pass."
Austin Jones, now a sophomore, will lead a running attack that was limited last year by injuries on the offensive line, but "the combination of being healthy and deep up front and at running back is going to help us get back to where we really want to be," Shaw said.
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IN SEPTEMBER, THE NCAA announced practices on Election Day would be prohibited for Division I athletes, the result of a movement initiated by former Stanford basketball player and assistant coach Eric Reveno, now an assistant at Georgia Tech.
"I'm really excited and glad that the NCAA pushed for this day off, for our student-athletes," Shaw said. "We know it's disruptive for everybody in-season, and my response to those who have an issue with it is: too bad.
"This is something we needed to make sure our young people knew what was important. It needed to be emphasized that we can't be a nation of just people who like to yell and talk at each other, that we have to exercise our rights to influence the course of our local and national government. I'm excited that we made this choice as the NCAA."