Notebook: PittNotebook: Pitt
Grant Shorin/Stanford Athletics
Football

Notebook: Pitt

STANFORD, Calif. – Having secured a postseason spot for a school-record 10th consecutive season, Stanford will return to a familiar place on Dec. 31 when it tackles Pitt in the Hyundai Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.
 
It will mark the Cardinal's fifth trip to the Sun City and second in three years. Stanford is 3-1, beating LSU 24-14 in 1977, Michigan State 38-0 in 1996 and North Carolina 25-23 in 2016, losing to Oklahoma 31-27 in 2009.
 
Many current players made the trek two years ago.
 
"I'm super excited to go back," said fifth-year senior offensive tackle A.T. Hall. "Probably the most fun bowl game since I've been here. They treated us well and it was a great time."
 
Fifth-year senior outside linebacker Joey Alfieri agreed.
 
"It's a great environment," he said. "The whole community enjoys the week. It was fun to go there and be part of an event that is so important to them. They do it right and provide great hospitality from start to finish."
 
Players, coaches and staff are greeted at the airport by a mariachi band and treated to many activities.
 
"You get a great reception," said Alfieri. "That really set the tone for the whole week."
 
Other highlights for Hall included a ranch barbecue and buying cowboy boots.
 
"I'm going to get a different color this time for sure," he said.
 
Alfieri enjoyed visiting Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army base.
 
"To get a tour of the facility and see the kind of stuff those guys do was awesome," said Alfieri.
 
But it wasn't what he remembers most.
 
"We had this hypnotist," he said. "To this day, I'd say it was the greatest form of entertainment I have experienced. It was just crazy."
 
Alfieri thinks younger players will enjoy the week. The host committee does a nice job of mixing business with pleasure.
 
"It's a perfect combination," he said. "You're not on your feet all day and they do it the right way. If we do the exact same thing we did two years ago, I would be completely happy."
 

 
Practice schedule: Stanford returned to the practice field Saturday and Sunday and will hold three sessions after this week's finals before breaking for Christmas. The team will charter to El Paso on Dec. 26.
 
"We concentrated really hard for two days and got after it, then went back to study mode," Hall said. "Last Sunday, a bunch of guys finished practice and then went right to the library. Finals are tough around here."
 
Younger players got a chance to shine during the workouts.
 
"It's a great opportunity to see how they've developed over the course of the year," said Alfieri. "A lot of them spend most of their time on the scout team. You get some individual work in. We really dial in our technique, especially on special teams. Try to clean stuff up."
 
Bowl advice: Coaches and upperclassmen have advised underclassmen how to prepare for the bowl.
 
"One of the biggest things is just not get too distracted with the little bit of free time we get with our families," Hall said. "Just knowing that you have to stay on top of things. Take your time, enjoy your family, and then when it's time for work, leave it at the door and get back to it."
 
Added Alfieri, "It's definitely a different experience than a regular season game when you have the grind of playing every week. It's important to get your body right. With all this recovery time, you're going up against a team that's really healthy."
 
Stanford culminated the 2015 season by beating Iowa in the Rose Bowl. One of the perks was going to Disneyland, but some players made a supreme sacrifice and skipped The Happiest Place on Earth.
 
"A couple of guys stayed home because they wanted to rest their legs," Alfieri said. "I didn't because I didn't want to miss out. You have to be smart and pick and choose where you spend your energy."


 
The schedule: The Cardinal will practice at a high school in El Paso when it arrives, then bus to UTEP for the Fred Loya Light Show. Afterward, players will receive bowl gifts at the team hotel.

On Dec. 27th, Stanford will practice in the afternoon, visit the Lucchese Boot Factory and dine at scenic Indian Cliffs Ranch, known for its mouth-watering steaks. Following practice on Dec. 28th, both teams travel to Fort Bliss to meet U.S. Army troops and have dinner. On Dec. 29th, a post-workout trip will be made to Sunland Park to watch the horse races and enjoy a barbecue dinner and team talent show. About 20 Cardinal players will visit Providence Children's Hospital on the morning of Dec. 30th, with the final practice to follow.
 
Fans unable to attend the game can help support Stanford by purchasing a $25 ticket for an active or retired military member from Fort Bliss. In addition to the ticket, they will receive a Stanford T-shirt and root for the Cardinal. For more information, visit  https://gostanford.com/sports/2017/10/24/bowl-central.aspx
 
Scouting the Panthers: Players have watched film of Pitt (7-6) and here is a quick synopsis from Hall and Alfieri.
 
Hall: "The way they play defense is a lot different than a lot of teams we play. They play hard in the box. We need to get our assignments right because if we don't, it's going to be difficult to spring long runs because of the way their safeties play so downhill in the box."
 
Alfieri: "We've looked at their offense a bit. I always like teams that want to run the ball first. They've got two 1,000-yard rushers (fifth-year senior Qadree Ollison, 1,190 yards and 11 touchdowns/senior Darrin Hall, 1,021 yards and nine touchdowns), which is impressive. It's going to be good challenge for us. I'm excited to play an out-of-conference team and see how we match up."
 


Adebo an All-American: Sophomore cornerback Paulson Adebo was rewarded this week for his outstanding year by being selected a second-team All-American by the Football Writers Association of America. He established single-season school marks for passes defended (24) and pass breakups (20), which each rank No. 1 in the nation.
 
Alfieri said Adebo made good use of his redshirt season in 2018.
 
"He had an opportunity to learn from people like Justin Reid and Quenton Meeks and a great secondary coach (Duane Akina)," said Alfieri. "Sometimes guys will coast through their first year because they're not playing and aren't really on the field. He's a guy who stayed after practice and put in extra work, watched extra film and was always asking the older guys questions about technique and coverages. All the accolades he's receiving are well-deserved."
 
Senior Bowl: Fifth-year senior inside linebacker Bobby Okereke and senior punter Jake Bailey have accepted invitations to play in the 70th Reese's Senior Bowl, Jan. 26 in Mobile, Alabama. Okereke has recorded a team-high 91 tackles, while Bailey owns the top career average in school history at 43.97 yards per attempt. He crushed a program-best 84-yarder against Cal this year and 57 of his 69 kickoffs have resulted in touchbacks.
 


Burkett picked: Fifth-year senior center Jesse Burkett will play in the 94th East-West Shrine Game, Jan. 19 in St. Petersburg, Florida. Burkett has started 37 games during his Cardinal career.
 
Tough slate: Stanford's 2019 schedule has been released and it includes arguably the toughest nonconference ledger in the land. The Cardinal opens the campaign by hosting Northwestern, winner of the Big Ten West Division this year, on Aug. 31. The Wildcats (9-3) face Utah in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 31.
 
Stanford travels to UCF, undefeated since 2016, on Sept. 14. The Knights (12-0) play LSU on Jan. 1 in the Sugar Bowl. The Cardinal concludes the regular season by entertaining Notre Dame on Nov. 30. The Fighting Irish (12-0), seeded third in College Football Playoff rankings, oppose Clemson on Dec. 29 in the Cotton Bowl.
 
In addition to Northwestern and Notre Dame, Stanford's seven-game home schedule includes Oregon (Sept. 21), Washington (Oct. 5), UCLA (Oct. 17), Arizona (Oct. 26) and Cal (Nov. 23).

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Bowl status: At a recent press conference, David Shaw, the Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football, was asked whether bowl committees should be informed which players will compete prior to the selection process. Some top players have chosen to skip postseason contests to avoid injury prior to the NFL Draft in April.
 
"That's a great question," he said. "I don't know where this thing is headed. All I know is, for me personally, as a college football coach and fan, I love bowl games. I love the week of preparation, I love the week that the guys get to bond as a football team away from school at a different place with their guys. I love playing against an opponent that you don't usually get a chance to play."
 
Shaw was an NFL assistant coach for nine years and had a system for reviewing film of pro prospects.
 
"Whenever I was evaluating a player – some people can disagree with this, and that's fine – I grabbed the bowl game, and I grabbed the rivalry games and I grabbed their best game and their worst game to get a really good evaluation of each player and their potential in the NFL," he said.  "I liked getting the bowl game, because for a lot of those guys, they got a chance to get completely healthy. You get a couple weeks to rest and truly prepare. Through the years, there are a lot of guys – Solomon Thomas being one – that really helped their draft stock in bowl games."
 
Shaw said there is misconception about schools padding their budgets by playing in bowl games.
 
"That's something a lot of people don't understand," he said. "They think bowl games are just for schools to make money. Most schools don't make money on bowl games. Most are lucky to break even. It's a great experience for these guys and their families and the coaches and their families and the communities. But it's also another opportunity to play another game. If people don't want to play, that's up to them. A lot of guys help themselves."
 

 
Extra points The Cardinal is 1-2 all-time against Pittsburgh. The first meeting came in the 1928 Rose Bowl, with Stanford prevailing, 7-6. It was Stanford's first bowl victory, on its fourth trip to the Rose Bowl … Eleven Cardinal players hail from Texas, second only to California with 28 … Junior quarterback K.J. Costello needs 82 yards passing to catch Andrew Luck for the second-most in a season and 193 to surpass Steve Stenstrom, who set the program record with 3,627 in 1993 … Stanford finished with a winning record in conference play for a program-record 10th consecutive year. The previous mark was seven from 1924-30 … The Cardinal produced 41 Pac-12 All-Academic honorees, the most in the Pac-12 … The early signing period for National Letters of Intent begins Wednesday.
 

 
Quotable
"I'd like to say I did but I really didn't." - Joey Alfieri, on whether he knew first-year starter Paulson Adebo would become one of the top cornerbacks in the country.