[OutsiderFan]

My guess is Stanford is underrated because the football writers pay a lot of attention to recruiting rankings and they pretty much don't understand that Stanford basically has a handicap on each of its recruiting classes due to its very low player attrition rates and resulting smaller class sizes.

Moreover, nobody is expecting Stanford to field a team full of gifted athletes.  As Hulk said in another thread, this Stanford team has elite athletes at the skill positions and at LB that it hasn't had before, and the writers in other cities aren't expecting.

My list of elite level difference maker athletes on the Stanford roster who could play a lot this year:

Joey Alfieri, Peter Kalambayi, Solomon Thomas, Terrence Alexander, Christian McCaffrey, Austin Hooper, Dalton Schultz, Trent Irwin, and Bryce Love, possibly Sean Barton, and maybe even Bobby Okereke (better athlete than Stanford has historically been able to put on the field at LB).  These are guys who because of elite athleticism or physical ability, can make big individual plays.

Even Kodi Whitfield and Dallas Lloyd are better athletes than Stanford has usually had at Safety.  Michael Rector has difference-maker speed, as does Isiah Brandt-Simms, and Francis Owusu is no slouch as an athlete either.   

And there are guys like Devon Cajuste, Blake Martinez, Kevin Anderson, Kevin Palma, Noor Davis (when he comes back) and Ronnie Harris, Aziz Sittu, and Brennan Scarlett, who maybe aren't elite level athletes, but really good veteran players.

Throw in a 4th year starting QB in Kevin Hogan who is a pretty good athlete in his own right, plus a veteran OL, and this team is going to be better than the experts are predicting, IMO.

[OutsiderFan]

My guess is Stanford is underrated because the football writers pay a lot of attention to recruiting rankings and they pretty much don't understand that Stanford basically has a handicap on each of its recruiting classes due to its very low player attrition rates and resulting smaller class sizes.

Moreover, nobody is expecting Stanford to field a team full of gifted athletes.  As Hulk said in another thread, this Stanford team has elite athletes at the skill positions and at LB that it hasn't had before, and the writers in other cities aren't expecting.

My list of elite level difference maker athletes on the Stanford roster who could play a lot this year:

Joey Alfieri, Peter Kalambayi, Solomon Thomas, Terrence Alexander, Christian McCaffrey, Austin Hooper, Dalton Schultz, Trent Irwin, and Bryce Love, possibly Sean Barton, and maybe even Bobby Okereke (better athlete than Stanford has historically been able to put on the field at LB).  These are guys who because of elite athleticism or physical ability, can make big individual plays.

Even Kodi Whitfield and Dallas Lloyd are better athletes than Stanford has usually had at Safety.  Michael Rector has difference-maker speed, as does Isiah Brandt-Simms, and Francis Owusu is no slouch as an athlete either.   

And there are guys like Devon Cajuste, Blake Martinez, Kevin Anderson, Kevin Palma, Noor Davis (when he comes back) and Ronnie Harris, Aziz Sittu, and Brennan Scarlett, who maybe aren't elite level athletes, but really good veteran players.

Throw in a 4th year starting QB in Kevin Hogan who is a pretty good athlete in his own right, plus a veteran OL, and this team is going to be better than the experts are predicting, IMO.