Stanford Loses Great DE To The Pros After Winning Costly Sun Bowl

By Dave Levine

Stanford won the Sun Bowl essentially without a quarterback as starter Keller Chryst tore his right leg ACL early in the game. The team went 10-3, tying USC’s record.

But star RB Christian McCaffrey didn’t make the trip to El Paso, announcing early that he was going pro. Bye bye, McCaffrey.

That left Stanford’s best defensive player, DE Solomon Thomas, a junior to decide whether to go pro or stay in school and try to bring Stanford back to The Rose Bowl. He won the MVP of the Sun Bowl.

As expected, Thomas went for the bucks. Bye bye, Thomas.

Stanford’s hopes for a tough defense next season against the monsters of USC and Washington just went up in flames–unless they can replace him with an impact-player freshman at DE. Thomas WAS the defense!

Without a QB (Chryst now has TWO bad knees, both with braces on), Coach Shaw will be forced to play freshmen/redshirts he never gave a chance to this past year such as K.J. Costello. Shaw will have to rebuild the offensive line and will only have RB Bryce Love as RB unless Scarlett can show he’s ready for showtime. WR Donald Stewart will be key to the offense. But the key will be the quarterback.