Marecic's Mark
Despite falling behind early in Saturday’s mistake-ridden loss
at Notre Dame, the Cardinal still ran the ball effectively. It’s been a
trend that appears to be taking hold—Stanford has averaged 204 rushing yards
over its last three games.
A big topic of discussion during Tuesday’s press
conference was the success of the run game, and while players and coaches
alike cited a lack of injuries and an improved offensive line as key
factors, they also made sure to praise one of the team’s more
unsung heroes: fullback Owen Marecic.
“He epitomizes football player,” Tavita Pritchard said. “He doesn’t say
much, he just hits people.”
“How wide can
I make my hands?” Offensive coordinator David Shaw said when he was asked
to describe the impact Marecic has made this year. “He’s an outstanding
fullback, not a good fullback.”
“[He’s] one of the best pure football players I’ve played with,” running back
Anthony Kimble said. “As a running back you can’t ask for a
better fullback to run behind.”
“He just likes to hit people,” Toby Gerhart added. “He doesn’t
ever complain [about not getting carries]. He’s been huge to this offense
and huge to our success.”
It’s great to see the sophomore get heaps of credit at a position typically unheralded.
It’s unnatural for the normal football fan (and even casual observers like myself, whose
understanding of football ends at Madden ’09) to pay attention to the blocking
that’s going on during the middle of a play, so it takes insight
from players and coaches to better understand the impact Marecic has made
this season for the Cardinal.
Center Alex Fletcher also talked about
the recent success of the run game, talking about the offensive line’s
improvement under Coach Chris Dalman.
“A lot of it is that we’ve had
a healthy Toby Gerhart and Anthony Kimble,” he said. “We’ve [also] been able to
give the team a cushion. No one’s getting pushed back on the O-line.
That’s the biggest difference. We’re getting movement. Obviously the O-line has done a
great job, but Marecic and [tight end Jim] Dray were great against
Notre Dame last week [too].
“You look
at Trent Edwards now, we could have done a lot better for him.
We could have done better for a lot of guys,” said Fletcher, referencing
the O-line’s past woes. “I think we’re finally coming around. A lot
of it is our attitude.
“It’s not even close,”
Fletcher said of the difference Dalman, who played in the NFL up until
2000, has brought to the line. “He has the most modern technique
that you could teach anybody.”
Fletcher’s comments seem
to be emblematic of the change we’ve seen since Harbaugh took the
helm nearly two years ago.
Looking ahead
Another hot topic at Tuesday’s conference was, obviously, this
weekend’s homecoming match-up with the 4-1 Arizona Wildcats. The public has thought for
years that the Wildcats were on the verge of a breakout season under
Coach Mike Stoops, and from the way things look so far, this
just might be that year.
Arizona is averaging more than 43 points a game, good for eighth in
the NCAA. Their schedule hasn’t been much of a test, but that’s
still a lot of points.
“We’re confident in our offense,”
Gerhart said. “As an offense, we have to be prepared to outscore
them, so whatever that takes.”
“It’s
a big challenge,” safety Bo McNally said. “[Willie] Tuitama’s an experienced quarterback and
he does a lot of good things. All we need to do is
focus on us. As a secondary we felt like we let the
team down this past week.”
Tuitama has been a beast at
quarterback this year, throwing for 13 touchdowns and only two interceptions at a 66
percent completion rate. As McNally said himself, the secondary was one of the
weak links against the Irish this past weekend, so it’s going to be
interesting to see whether or not the Cardinal pass defense steps up
to the challenge on Saturday.
Fletcher also spoke of the Wildcats’
defense, an often underrated unit.
“[They’ve got] speed. Arizona always
has a top-three defense [in the Pac-10],” Fletcher said. “The reason I say
that is just the overall speed. Coach Stoops always has a really good
defense, a fast defense and a physical defense. It’s gonna be a
challenge, and they play hard.”
Coach Shaw subbed for Coach Jim Harbaugh,
who missed Tuesday’s conference for personal reasons. Shaw hopes that the homecoming
morale boost will help Saturday.
“We’d love some home cooking,” he said. “We’ve got kids
coming back, alums coming back.”
Antoine
Cason—the ‘Cats star cornerback last year and a first-round pick in the 2008
NFL Draft—might be gone, but that’s not holding back Arizona, off to
its best start in years.
“They are very good,” Shaw said.
“They have been very successful. They might not have the marquee guy
but they play very well.”
Finally, Saturday’s game against the Wildcats is notable as it kicks
off the second half of Stanford’s season. Though the Cardinal has lost a few
winnable games so far, the consensus is that the team is right
where it wants to be.
“We’re
getting close,” Shaw said. “We’re on the verge. But once again, it’s
on us to play consistent.”
“Get three wins
to get to a bowl,” cornerback Kris Evans said. “Try to win
six games if we can.”
“We’ve
shown that we can be better than 3-3,” McNally said. “The bottom
line with us is consistency.”
“We’re set,” Kimball said. “We’re still contention for a bowl game. It’s
all about the next six.”
They all said it. Six more games. Win
three get to a bowl.