Is Stanford this year’s Ohio State in terms of postseason rankings?
While it is hard to project Stanford into the playoff this early in the process, there are a lot of similarities between this year’s Stanford squad and last season’s Ohio State title team.
While Stanford has not endured the devastating quarterback injuries which made Ohio State a remarkable story last season, the path has been comparable for the Cardinal on a number of other levels.
Both teams lost early in the season, with the Buckeyes falling to Virginia Tech early in the non-conference schedule last season. Stanford lost at Northwestern in this year’s opener, and was just not able to get out of its own way on offense. In both of these contests, the two teams were body-snatched. They subsequently became entirely different entities after their respective defeats. They were lost in their non-conference stumbles, but found themselves in conference play.
The shared key to both of these offenses was the development of a running game as the season went along. With Ohio State last season, Ezekiel Elliott became the team leader on offense after the loss to the Hokies. Similarly, after the Northwestern loss, Christian McCaffrey broke onto the scene and has not looked back at all.
Even with the injuries last season, Ohio State was able to rebound with consistent and reliable quarterback play from J.T. Barrett. While Kevin Hogan plays a different game than Barrett, his dependability with the ball has been similar and — moreover — important.
While both teams led their conferences at the time of the first playoff rankings, neither school got the love other conferences received in the rankings. It has been noted several times that Ohio State started 16th in the rankings and got the committee’s eye late to get into the dance.
In the first rankings this season, Stanford started at 11, but rose four spots this week to No. 7. Some of the difference in initial ranking is based on the committee’s assessment of each team’s loss. Northwestern is viewed as a much better loss than Virginia Tech was last season, and rightfully so. However, both of the losses happened early in the season, which is a key to keeping playoff hopes alive in most college football seasons.
The Buckeyes were also able to impress late last year with wins over Michigan State and Wisconsin. The 59-0 curb-stomping of the Badgers may have singlehandedly gotten Ohio State into the playoff.
Stanford has a similar opportunity this season, as the regular season closes with Notre Dame at home. The Irish are ranked higher than the Trees. This would be a prime opportunity to impress the committee near the very end of the line. The following week, the Cardinal would likely have Utah in the Pac-12 title game. This would allow them to even further cement their place in the playoff rankings.
While there are obviously some profound differences between the two teams, Stanford has the look of a team which went down early in the season, found an identity, and tore through its late schedule, carving out the path the Buckeyes followed in 2014. It was made clear last season with Ohio State that the committee values teams which improve as the season goes along. Now it is time to see if Stanford reaps the same benefits the Buckeyes did.
