By: Ben Leonard
Follow @ben___leonard

After a disappointing opening loss to Northwestern, the Stanford Cardinal (0-1) look to rebound against the UCF Knights (0-1) to open their home slate.

Stanford’s offense was held in check last week against Northwestern, struggling especially with running the ball (85 yards, 3.1 YPC), a hallmark of their brand of football. However, they shouldn’t have trouble running the ball, on paper at least: UCF’s defense struggled to stop the run in their season opener against lowly FIU, yielding 132 yards (4.2 YPC).

The Cardinal will need fifth-year senior quarterback Kevin Hogan to step up in his first home game of the season if they want to get back on track.Hogan ranks in the top 10 among active NCAA quarterbacks in efficiency, touchdowns, and yards. Historically, he’s been a much better signal-caller at the friendly confines of Stanford Stadium, posting a 163.97 quarterback rating at home as compared to 130.13 on the road.

Unlike Hogan, UCF quarterback Justin Holman didn’t struggle last week, throwing for 249 yards on 23 of 34 passing, with a depleted receiving corps that didn’t do him any favors. Before Saturday, no one on the roster had caught a touchdown pass. Look for Holman to throw to 6’3″, 237-pound wideout Tre’Quan Smith, who hauled in nine catches for 104 yards and a touchdown in UCF’s opener.

Both squads are unranked — an unfamiliar position for the Cardinal, who dropped out of the Top 25 after last week’s lost. Under current head coach David Shaw, the Cardinal are 27-4 against unranked teams, and 10-1 following a loss.

Saturday marks the Knights’ first game at Stanford — and in California — in program history. It’s only the Knights’ second contest against a Pac-12 team — their first was all the way back in 2002 against Arizona State.. The Cardinal are scheduled to return to play UCF just over four years from now, on September 14th, 2019.