Legends’ Take: ‘Stanford is a lot like Alabama’

When Andrew Luck decided to return for his senior season at Stanford, he was considered by many to be the Heisman frontrunner.

But after losing Jim Harbaugh to the NFL, sixth-ranked Stanford hasn’t looked quite as good as a year ago.

“I don’t know if they’re as good as last year’s Stanford team that was 12-1, but they’re almost as good,” said former UCLA coach Terry Donahue after calling their game against Arizona. “Luck is obviously a fabulous quarterback like everybody knows, and they’ve got a big, old physical offensive line and a pretty good back.”

Luck has completed 57-of-85 passes for eight touchdowns and one interception, averaging 262 yards passing per game. Luck hasn’t looked like a Heisman trophy so far in the young season, but he’s led the Cardinal to a 3-0 record.

“I think they deserve to be where we have them ranked and maybe a little higher,” Donahue said. “I don’t know where they will eventually end up, but Stanford’s a really solid team.

“The shocking thing about Stanford to me is how physical they play and how good they are on defense.  Now, they lost their best defensive player, Skov, during the game, a linebacker, and it looked like it was a serious injury.  But they are a surprisingly tough team.”

Stanford’s new head coach Dave Shaw announced Monday that Skov will miss the remainder of the season, dealing a crushing blow to the Cardinal defense. But one thing Harbaugh instilled at Stanford was toughness, and Shaw appears to be keeping pace.

“Stanford is more like Alabama than other teams not in the SEC,” former USC coach John Robinson said. “I mean, they’re running that same kind of offense – kind of that good old offense we used to run back Pre-Civil War days.”

Donahue says that Stanford will still be a contender in the Pac-12 this year, if not a national title contender.

“They may lose a game in the Pac-12, but they won’t lose two of them, I don’t think.”

Do you think Stanford can make a national championship run? Tell us in the comments below!

(Image courtesy of Flick, mgthompson)

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