Wednesday roundtable: Who will shine at Spring Game?

With the football Spring Game coming up this Saturday, Stanford fans will get the chance to see the 2015-16 edition of the Cardinal (minus some incoming freshmen and other guys missing spring practices) for the first time. We asked football writers Do-Hyoung Park, Vihan Lakshman and Shawn Tuteja: Which player, old or new, is going to make the biggest impression at Spring Game? In addition, we also asked them to make a prediction for how things will play out on Saturday.

Do: I’m not going to lie: I fully expected 2015 to be the year of Keller Chryst. (Not even too) deep inside, I kind of wanted Kevin Hogan to leave after last season so that I could see the heralded quarterback of the future before my four years at Stanford were up. I didn’t end up getting my wish — this is Hogan’s team for 2015.

And guess what? I actually couldn’t be more thrilled.

Senior Kodi Whitfield (left) will need to step in with Dallas Lloyd to solidify the Stanford secondary for the 2015 season. (GRANT SHORIN/stanfordphoto.com)

I’m unbelievably excited to see Stanford’s offense in action this season, and Hogan is the perfect guy for the job. He’s mastered one of the most complicated, diverse playbooks in the country and has three years of experience in the toughest conference in the nation under his belt. He’s continued on the tear that he showed at the end of last season with great polish and poise at spring open practices (for all that’s worth, anyway). And most importantly, he has one of the most ludicrously stacked receiving corps in the country to work with.

There is not a single defense in the country that can cover a combination of Devon Cajuste, Michael Rector, Austin Hooper, Greg Taboada, Eric Cotton and Dalton Schultz on the same play. It’s actually just not fair to defenses — Stanford has four NFL tight ends and one of the best possession receivers in the country. Remember what Hogan did having Zach Ertz as a safety net his freshman year? He now has at least three safety nets on every play. And he’s matured immeasurably as a leader since then. This will be the year of Kevin Hogan. I’m actually giddy about how good Stanford’s offense can be this year.

And that starts at this year’s Spring Game. I’m going to say that the offense will decimate the defense — I don’t think it’ll even be close. Air Hogan will take flight, and I think he’s going to pick apart every defense he sees this year — starting with his own. He’s going to score a touchdown on every offensive drive that he leads on Saturday. From an aggressive pessimist like me, I think this is pretty unprecedented.

Vihan: I’m going to cheat a little bit and pick two players who will turn some heads at Spring Game: Kodi Whitfield and Dallas Lloyd. In my defense, you can’t help but lump these two together: Both started their careers on offense (Whitfield as a receiver, Lloyd as a quarterback) and now look poised to take over the two vacant safety positions. Head coach David Shaw went out of his way to praise the duo after Saturday’s open practice, and — with notorious DB-whisperer Duane Akina in their corner — it would not surprise me to see Whitfield and Lloyd turn in a solid performance and anchor the back line of the defense.

As for a bold prediction, I’m going to join Do and predict that the offense will finally emerge victorious behind a devastating running performance. Christian McCaffrey has added almost 10 pounds in the offseason and completely ripped the defense apart at times during the first session of spring ball. Throw in Barry Sanders having an outstanding spring session — the best of his career — and the return of last season’s leading rusher Remound Wright from his absence, and it’s hard for me to see the defense holding on for the full scrimmage, especially with only four active defensive linemen. The offense wins comfortably behind a big day from McCaffrey.

Shawn: While it’s easy to point to the defensive line as the area that Stanford may be weakest at right now given all of the injuries, I’m very interested to see how this year’s secondary will look. Jordan Richards, Alex Carter, Wayne Lyons and Kyle Olugbode will not be in uniform this coming season for various reasons, and Zach Hoffpauir will miss the game as a result of baseball. In particular, I’m interested to see how Terrence Alexander fills the void left behind in the secondary.

Alexander, who came to Stanford as a four-star recruit from Louisiana, was asked to play immediately and in important moments last season. However, this will be his first season to start on defense, and given the lack of experience in the secondary and the newfound confidence in passing on offense, I look for the coaching staff to test Alexander early and often in the game. Alexander will match up against a number of stellar Stanford receivers, including Devon Cajuste and Francis Owusu.

I think Alexander will win some of these matchups and hopefully instill some confidence into a secondary that certainly must be prepared for the pass-heavy Pac 12. In terms of a prediction, I’ll refrain from picking “offense” or “defense,” as I’ve never been a fan of the format of our Spring Games.

Rather, I’ll predict that clock on the scoreboard stays functional throughout the entire scrimmage this year and that attendance eclipses 5,000.

Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dpark027 ‘at’ stanford.edu, Vihan Lakshman at vihan ‘at’ stanford.edu and Shawn Tuteja at sstuteja ‘at’ stanford.edu.