Redshirt review: Offense
Record-setting running back Christian McCaffrey will return to The Farm in 2016, but a number of the Cardinal's top offensive players will be off to the NFL.
As a result, the likes of Trent Irwin, Francis Owusu, Greg Taboada, Bryce Love, Dave Bright, Brandon Fanaika, Keller Chryst and co figure to have more prominent roles in 2016. Additionally, members of the program's 2015 recruiting class who spent the year redshirting figure to see the first playing time of their collegiate careers next season.
Last week, Cardinal Sports Report caught up with Stanford offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren to discuss the progress of the redshirting freshmen.
WR J.J. Arcega-Whiteside: "J.J. has made some unbelievable plays. He's exactly what we thought. He's a guy that can go up and rebound the basketball on the fade routes. But the thing that we maybe didn't know J.J. would be able to do was come in and run routes as well as he has. He's done a great job of putting his foot in the ground and being able to come out of breaks. In addition to that he does run the fade route or any go route, he uses his body incredibly well, shields off a defender and has elite ball skills. He makes a ton of plays."
C Brian Chaffin: "Brian Chaffin has been an unbelievable leader for us. He's been great on and off the field with these young guys. We gave him projects during bowl practice and he and Nick Wilson had the first day. They came in and spent about six hours in the facility watching tape on Iowa's defensive line and really breaking them down. It's really the way Brian attacks everything in his life. How he's done on the field, he's a guy that doesn't have the length that Jack Dreyer does and you'd never know it. He does a phenomenal job getting his hands on people and continuing to run his feet in pass protection. And he's has some things in the run game that just give me a ton of optimism that Brian is going to be a heck of a football player for us."
OT Jack Dreyer: "Jack Dreyer has come a long way. He's a guy that's starting to understand his length and how to use it. He's got incredible length, obviously. He's a tall, tall guy. We've got to get him to play more bent and we've got to get him to use his punch every freaking time because when he does that you kind of see some of what we thought would come into play with Jack."
OG Austin Maihen: "Austin is getting better every day. He's a guy that we need to continue to work on his pad level and his confidence in pass protection. But when he knows what to do and goes full speed, once again you see the future is bright. He's kind of in the mold of several guys we've had here in the past where he needs an offseason with Turley very bad from a strength standpoint as well as a flexibility standpoint. And when you bring those thing into the way Austin wants to play, I think we're going to be pretty happy with the result there."
RB Cameron Scarlett: "Getting Cam back healthy and really seeing Cam at full speed in this month of December in bowl practice, we've seen some really good things out of him. I think it's been incredible work for him and it should be a great spring for Cameron Scarlett. Once again, the arrow is up. Everything is really encouraging with all these young guys and that's a good thing, not a bad thing, that's for sure."
WR/ATH Jabiari Tyler: "Jay has been electric. He's been so fun to watch. Any time we're off the field and the scout offense is going against the defense and we get to watch it, some of the big plays he's made, some of the plays downfield, it's just been incredible to watch Jay. He catches the ball so naturally. He's another guy that's a natural leader that people gravitate to. And you've seen him do everything form play scout team quarterback and run some double passes to play true receiver on that scout field. And even in our Friday scrimmages he's a guy that we love to get the ball to on a reverse. He would be hard to tackle in a phone booth, that's the bottom line with Jay Tyler."
FB Reagan Williams: "Reagan has been, I don't want to say a great surprise because that's almost an insult to the kid, but I don't know that we've had a fullback come into this program and be as violent with his body. And I wasn't here with some of our other guys early on - like when you talk about a Lee Ward I imagine he probably was, too. But Reagan has that defensive mindset where he's so aggressive downhill and he's had some of the best Friday scrimmage shots that we've had in a long time. It's been really fun to watch."
OG Nick Wilson: "Nick has an unbelievable ability to pull. Like a natural, innate ability to do an unnatural movement very naturally, if that makes sense. He pulls so square to the line of scrimmage and when he gets there he's able to generate unbelievable amounts of power. Nick has got to continue to work on pass pro and the biggest thing is Nick has to work on one thing per day in pass protection and just get better at that, whether it's hand placement today, whether it's getting to your post with your feet. But the things that Nick does in the run game right now are freaky."
With spring practice and fall camp (not to mention months of conditioning) still ahead, it's still to early to know definitively which of the aforementioned players will carve out roles in 2016. But there are a few who might have a leg up at this early stage.
"It's hard to rule out any of those guys (pushing for playing time next season) knowing that we do have that spring football ahead and all of training camp," Bloomgren said. "The one guy that I'd say has been really impressive and a guy that you could see playing now would be J.J. And then finding a role for some of those offensive linemen, those young offensive linemen. There are going to be one or two that play for us next year. Who it's going to be it's hard to say right now. But it will be fun to watch in spring ball as that goes on."
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