by Jerry Feitelberg

The Stanford Cardinal will open the 2015 football season against the Northwestern University Wildcats. The two teams will meet for the first time since 1994. Stanford is rated 21st in the nation by the AP poll and by USA today. Northwestern is not ranked. Kickoff will occur Saturday September 5th at 9am PT. Stanford leads the all-time series 3-1-2.

The Cardinal finished the 2014 record of 8-5 but won its last three games of the season including a 42-21 rout of Maryland in the Foster Farms Bowl. Stanford starts the season with the goal of winning the Pac-12 championship and returning to the Rose Bowl again. David Shaw  is in his fifth season as head coach and the entire full-time coaching staff has returned for the 2015 season.

Quarterback Kevin Hogan returns for his fourth season as leader of the Cardinal offense. Hogan needs just 45 yards to pass Andrew Luck as number one career rushing QB. Hogan  has completed 65 % of his passes and his pass efficiency rating is 148.3 He has churned out 7,431 yards of offense, which is an average of 200.8 yards per game. He has thrown for 6518 yards and 48 touchdowns. Hogan has a record of 24-8 as a starter. Stanford also has four proven tight ends in Austin Hooper, Eric Cotton,Dalton Schultz and Greg Taboada. Sophomore Christian McCaffrey, son of former Stanford wideout, Ed McCaffrey, will be the number one running back. Barry Sanders will also get a chance to show what he can do running the ball. Wide receivers Devon Cajuste, Rollins Stallworth and Michael Rector are ready to show what they can do to help bring the offense back to its former level of dominance. The offensive line has two new starters. Johnny Caspers will be the starter at right guard and Casey Tucker will be at right tackle. Kyle Murphy, Returning starters on the O-line include Kyle Murphy, Joshua Garnett and Graham Shuler.

One of the big question marks for the season will be the defense. Ronnie Harris is the most experienced player in the secondary and he started just three games last year. Alijah Holder and Alameen Murphy are battling it out for the other cornerback slot. It remains to be seen if the defensive backs will be as good as last year. Blake Martinez is returning to the inside linebacker position and other linebackers include Kelvin Palma Jordan Perez and Peter Kalambayi. Defensive lineman include Aziz Shittu, Harrison Phillips and Solomon Thomas.

College football is so hard to predict. Players are lost to graduation and no one knows how the new players are going to do. Stanford has a pretty solid nucleus of returning starters. Hopefully, the new guys will step up. Should be an interesting season.