Five takeaways from Stanford’s Pac-12 Media Day
Pac-12 Football Media Day has come and gone. Head coach David Shaw as well as junior quarterback Tanner McKee and senior cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly represented Stanford and did a nice job of giving the nation a clear look at where Stanford is and what their goals are as they head into fall camp. I’ll have more content to come in the coming days, but for starters, here are five takeaways I have from Friday.
#1. Stanford is happy to start afresh with a normal offseason under their belts: A year ago, Stanford was entering the 2021 season having had to deal with COVID restrictions during their offseason. This prevented them from having a normal spring and offseason workouts. This year, they’ve had a normal spring, they had a spring game with fans in attendance, etc. Stanford feels confident that having a return to normalcy will do them wonders. Especially starting quarterback Tanner McKee, who for the first time in his career has had a normal offseason.
#2. The offense should be explosive: One of the big things David Shaw talked about on Friday was the confidence he has in the offense. McKee is going to have a lot of really talented weapons to throw to in Michael Wilson, Elijah Higgins, Benjamin Yurosek, Brycen Tremayne, and others. Not to mention running back E.J. Smith. If Stanford is going to have a bounce back year, it’s going to start with the offense being on point. Especially the offensive line, who really struggled last season.
#3. Having Kyu Blu Kelly back is huge: There’s a reason David Shaw brought the two players that he did to Pac-12 Media Day. Tanner McKee is the best player on offense and Kyu Blu Kelly is the best player on defense. If Stanford’s defense is going to have a bounce back year, Kelly is going to need to take that next jump and truly emerge into one of the top cornerbacks in the country. Kelly talked a lot about improving the mental side of his game and doing more to improve his ability to secure interceptions and get more pass break ups. If he does that, he feels like they should see more wins this year.
#4. Stanford is healthier than they were a year ago: Stanford dealt with a lot of injuries last season. While that’s not a good excuse for why last season went as bad as it did, it is a fact that this Stanford team is healthier than they were a year ago. They’re going to get a healthy Michael Wilson at wide receiver to start the season and a healthy Jonathan McGill at safety. Just having those two guys healthy alone is a big deal. They’re also hoping to have a healthy Brycen Tremayne for the full season as well. When talking about why Stanford is feeling confident about having a bounce back 2022 season, health is one of the things that they mention.
#5. Stanford feels fine with where they are in the college football landscape: With USC and UCLA leaving for the Big Ten and college sports currently in the wild west of the NIL era, Stanford is confident that they can weather these storms and that in truth, these haven’t even been storms for them at all. The reason stems from the fact that they recruit guys who value the Stanford experience and recognize the value that comes with a Stanford degree. Stanford really does feel like with their unique package of being a top-five global university while also offering college athletics at the highest level, things will work out for them and that they’re going to be fine in the long run. In the short term, they’re focused on making the Pac-12 better and continuing to be a beacon of light for the rest of the conference.
Note: Rivals is running a network wide promotion called KICKOFF2022. The offer is a FREE Trial of Rivals through the month of August for new users. Promo Code: KICKOFF2022 Offer valid through 8.06.22
To sign up for a free month of CardinalSportsReport.com and get insider coverage of Stanford’s August fall camp, click here and enter the promo code above.
To connect with CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook and Twitter, click here.
To connect with Ben Parker on Facebook and Twitter, click here.
