Washington coach on Stanford preparation: 'We explained what a fullback is'
Stanford runs an offense that is considered somewhat “old-fashioned” these days.
The Cardinal run a hard-nosed, pro-style West Coast offense that has become increasingly rare in today’s age of spread systems across college football. With that in mind, Washington coach Chris Petersen was asked Monday about the challenge of preparing to play Stanford, especially on a short week (the teams play Friday night at Stanford Stadium).
Petersen, now in his fourth season in the Pac-12, quipped he made sure to sit his defensive players down and actually explain what a fullback is.
“I would like to play (against) something we’ve seen a whole bunch of where you get those carry over reps,” Petersen said. “There’s a lot of stuff (Stanford does) we haven’t seen anything like that, so we got to be able to get lined up correctly and play a fullback. We explained what a fullback is to our defense today. They were very intrigued.”
You don’t see too many fullbacks, especially in the Pac-12, but Stanford has four of them (Cardinal coach David Shaw once said Stanford is “trying to lead the nation in fullbacks”) and they do a heck of a job blocking for Bryce Love, who is second in the nation in rushing yards.
You’ll see a heavy dose of Love with senior fullback Daniel Marx leading the way Friday night against the Huskies. It’s a game with with College Football Playoff implications, writes our Pat Forde:
The Huskies have established themselves as the class of the Pac-12, but the Cardinal could be the Iowa of that league – much tougher at home than on the road. Stanford is averaging 20 more points and 178 more yards per game in Palo Alto, and should be excited to play just its fourth home game of the season thus far. Washington needs to not only win but accumulate some style points, and those may be hard to come by in what figures to be a slobberknocker game.
Stanford can play spoiler for the Pac-12’s CFP hopes while further complicating the Pac-12 North race between it, Washington and Washington State.
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
