Stanford look to improve the little things in limited spring practices

Stanford's first session of spring practice ended Sunday and the main storyline was the same as this time last year: Injuries. The Cardinal are shorthanded with fewer than 40 players -- scholarship and non-scholarship combined -- available for the first six practices.

With that in mind it's not a good idea to try to draw too many big-picture conclusions from watching four open practices of mostly individual drills and interviews with several coaches. Head coach David Shaw and his staff reworked the practice schedule and put the focus on improving technique and deemphasized team periods with full contact.

"I like where we are," he said Sunday. "We've been banged up, but we've had a lot of individual work. It's great to see our young guys get a lot of technique work and we've seen the improvement just in six practices. We've kept our schemes down to get better at what we're doing. So many guys are stepping up and playing at a high level. It's been really good."

Cardinal Sports Report takes a look at some of the top newsworthy items from Stanford's spring to this point.

The former five star and top-10 overall recruit in 2017 is the best quarterback prospect Shaw has recruited to Stanford. And he has been battling injuries since before he arrived on The Farm.

When he was practicing last year his performance caused coaches to unconsciously smile when asked how he was doing. Then he got hurt again and it was uncertain how much he'd do this spring. He participated in every open practice, taking reps in team drills and 7-on-7. He looked good with his easy, compact delivery and often pinpoint accurate passes.

"I was excited to see Davis Mills took some seven-on-seven reps today," Shaw said March 2. "Didn't know he'd be there, yet. He did a good job. He felt good, felt comfortable. It's nice to see he's a little ahead of schedule. We're not going to push it too far. He can get more reps tomorrow or next week and get ready for more intensive work in the second session."

KJ Costello is the starting quarterback for Stanford and one of its strongest leaders. It's good for any competitor to be pushed in practice when he sees someone else throwing at a high level.

It's great for Stanford's long-term future that Mills will have an entire offseason of work, even if it's light at times, for the first time at Stanford. He'll enter the season as the No. 2 quarterback and the Cardinal hope there will be opportunities for him to get experience.

"We have obviously have some health issues with the number of guys out there," said offensive coordinator Tavita Pritchard Sunday. "I thought the story of the first session was guys filling in spots they don't necessarily play that allowed us to practice."

This is the second straight year Stanford was forced to make significant changes to how it held spring practices. What grabbed headlines a year ago was that then walk-on Jack Richardson was the only healthy quarterback. But there were several other positions impacted by injuries that spring as well, especially defensive back where players such as Alameen Murphy had to fill in at multiple spots.

This year Stanford has all of its quarterbacks available (KJ Costello, Davis Mills, Jack West, Jack Richardson and walk-on Dylan Plautz) but has the same number of fully cleared offensive linemen practicing. (Dylan Powell is working in individual drills but not in full contact.)

It's bordering on pointless to judge the team sessions when tight end Tucker Fisk is playing right tackle (and doing it well, actually), walk-on Grant Pease is playing left tackle instead of All-American Walker Little, and only two scholarship receivers are practicing (Connor Wedington and Michael Wilson). Cameron Scarlett isn't in the backfield, either.

On defense there are a number of young players missing valuable opportunities to get better. Freshman edge rusher Andres Fox and freshman safety/nickel Kendall Williamson come to mind as top examples of guys who will be counted on to play major roles this season but didn't practice in the first session.

How uncertain is the inside linebacker position right now? For the second time in three years Shaw told reporters that an outside linebacker with multiple years of only playing and practicing that position asked for a chance to play inside. The Cardinal hope Curtis Robinson fares better there than the Joey Alfieri experiment.

Defensive coordinator Lance Anderson shared Saturday why he thought Robinson can stick at his new position: "He's smart. He picks up the game fast. That's why he got onto the field some as a true freshman as an outside backer. Coach Hansen has talked a lot about how fast he's grasping the inside backer stuff. Now, seeing it and being able to react is another thing. He's making great progress there. Curtis is so athletic. He can run, he's physical. If we can keep him healthy it's going to be a great spot for him."

Robinson redshirted last season and unlike Alfieri didn't have much success as an edge rusher in his first two years. If he is still at inside linebacker in August then that almost certainly means the staff considers him a favorite to start.

Who lines up next to him will be a rotation of players. Andrew Pryts may be on the field for the first play of a game, but expect redshirt freshmen Ricky Miezan and Jacob Mangum-Farrar to get more playing time as the season progresses. They're exciting athletes and as soon as they consistently know where to direct that ability on the field good things will happen.

The available group of linemen the past two weeks does not at all resemble a likely starting five for the season. Instead of any focus on how the group did as a unit position coach Kevin Carberry spent most of each practice drilling Foster Sarell, Drew Dalman, Powell (who was held out of contact drills), Henry Hattis and Pease.

"They don't have any choice but to get a lot of reps," Shaw said. "(You) see Drew get so much better and do some guard and center. Foster Sarell is doing guard and tackle. Henry Hattis has gotten better and better, and has a great, physical punch. He has gotten much better in pass protection. You see guys getting comfortable. Grant Pease, our non-scholarship guy, is getting a lot of work and doing guard and tackle. He's doing really well and getting better.

"We pulled back on the complexity of what we do so that we can really focus on some of the details in the little things in each guy's individual job."

Carberry didn't get a full offseason with the team last year and the offensive line struggled through neverending injury problems and inconsistent performances during the season. This year offers a chance for a fresh start, Shaw said.

"We also had so many older guys ... and a lot of guys who were banged up and trying to get through all of that it was almost like, 'Who's healthy this week and who is going to start this week?" he said. " 'What can we do schematically that they can accomplish on the field?' It felt like a lot of triage during the course of the year. Whereas now we feel like we can build it from the ground up. We have a bunch of young guys, some guys with experience, some guys withy not very much -- what do they do well and how can we get them to improve? We're not so scheme heavy right now, we're just trying to get better individually. I think we are."

Every year new leaders have to take over the job from departing players. Costello is the only returning captain and several people are emerging as candidates, such as Cameron Scarlett, Colby Parkinson, Malik Antoine, Casey Toohill and others.

Parkinson gained eight pounds and the 6-7 tight end is noticeably bigger after winter conditioning. Those six weeks are a crucial part of the transition from last season to a new dynamic among the remaining players.

"We had to come together for all of our runs and our lifts," he said after a practice. "That was something that the training staff implemented. I really saw the guys start to respect each other more and more as the training period went on. I think that's something that's going to benefit us down the road when it comes to those tight games or starting fast at the beginning. We're going to need that unity that we developed in the last six weeks.

"It has been awesome to see across the board the cohesiveness in the position groups. Something we implemented is having leaders within each group and then developing those bonds. Like Thomas (Booker) was saying (nearby in another interview) those young inside linebackers are awesome. They're going to be something special to watch. It's going to be a fun year."