Stanford football has released their depth chart in advance of Saturday’s game at Notre Dame. Below is a quick breakdown and a few thoughts. For the full depth chart click here.
On Friday, Stanford released the following statement providing an update on the availability/unavailability of a few players:
Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football David Shaw announced today that CB Kyu Blu Kelly and OT Myles Hinton are both expected to return to action Saturday at Notre Dame (4:30 p.m. PT, NBC) after missing last week's game.
Additionally, starting LT Walter Rouse and RG Levi Rogers will miss Saturday’s game due to injury. It is expected that junior Myles Hinton will start at left tackle in place of Rouse (who has started 34 straight games), sophomore Jack Leyrer will start at right tackle, and junior Drake Metcalf is expected to make his first career start in place of Rogers.
From what CardinalSportsReport.com has learned about the injuries of both Rouse and Rogers, both guys should be week-to-week. Rouse the more likely of the two to be back for next week’s game against Arizona State. More details on the message board.
Getting Hinton back is huge and Leyrer has played well up to this point, so those two guys are certainly capable of filling in. Drake Metcalf is the backup center, so him sliding into the guard spot should be interesting.
As for Kelly, he’s the top defensive back on the entire team, so his return is big as well. He was expected to only miss one week, but it’s nice for Stanford to have the confirmation that he will indeed be back.
Couple other notes: Shield Taylor once again is starting at fullback. Jay Symonds is still out. And then once again, wide receiver Bryce Farrell is not found anywhere on the depth chart. He was previously returning kicks, but he appears to have been demoted from that role. It feels like a coaches decision and not an injury with him.
And then this isn’t relevant to the depth chart since he’s missing the year, but Stanford junior running back E.J. Smith posted on social media that he underwent right knee surgery this week. Initial word that I received on the injury indicated a collarbone/shoulder injury and that surgery would be required, but it appears as though it was his right knee that required surgery. So that’s the latest there.
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