UCLA Football Preview: Bruins Need to Shut Down Stanford's Ayomanor
The sophomore receiver had a career game last week against Colorado.
After facing a pair of teams who featured very good quarterbacks, the Bruin defense will face a Stanford offense which hasn’t been very successful throwing the ball. In fact, the Cardinal’s success seems to be tied to how many times their receivers catch the ball.
In Stanford’s two wins, they completed 25 and 28 passes, respectively. Yet in their four losses, they weren’t able to complete more than 18 passes. Naturally, there’s also a connection between the team’s total passing yards and their success. In their two wins, they gained 248 and 399 yards passing, respectively, while they were held to 207 yards or less in three of their four losses. Against Arizona, the Cardinal quarterbacks threw for 246 yards passing in a narrow 21-20 loss.
The most interesting trend, however, has to do with the running game. It doesn’t seem to matter if the team is getting beat badly or not. They are still running the ball at least 34 times per game.
In fact, the Cardinal actually ran the ball more in their three games which they lost by at least seven points. In those games, they ran the ball 41, 42 and 46 times each. Meanwhile, they ran it 34 and 39 times in their two wins and 34 times against Arizona.
So, it will be interesting to see if Stanford head coach and offensive coordinator insists on running the ball as much today, knowing that the Bruin defense is one of the best in the country against the run.
The smart move would seem to be throwing the ball more than running the ball, but Taylor hasn’t seemed to show that tendency yet so far this season.
Let’s look at the Cardinal’s offensive personnel.
Quarterbacks
Stanford has utilized a true two-quarterback system so far as the two quarterbacks on their two-deep depth chart have each played in all six of their games so far.
Ashton Daniels is the guy who gets more playing time while Justin Lamson sees significant time, but plays less than Daniels. Daniels does a better job throwing the ball than Lamson. He’s completed 60% of his passes and he’s thrown for all seven of the team’s passing touchdowns. He’s totaled 967 yards passing this season. Meanwhile, Lamson has completed about 48% of his passes for 416 yards.
Lamson, however, looks to be the more mobile of the two. He’s run the ball 67 times for 158 yards and two touchdowns. Daniels has 44 carries for 99 yards and no touchdowns.
In fact, it seems that Lawson played significantly less in Stanford’s two wins than he did in their four losses. Lawson had no passing or rushing stats against Hawai’i. So, he may have been limited to holding for the kicker on special teams. Meanwhile, last week against Colorado, he was limited to just 11 plays despite starting the game.
Lawson has actually started the last two games. So, it’s possible that he could start today. Based on last week, however, it’s possible that starting Lawson could be a head fake to throw opposing teams off, but it doesn’t matter. It seems the more Lawson plays, the lower Stanford’s chances of winning are.
Running Game
The Cardinal will also employ a tandem of running backs. Seniors Casey Filkins and E.J. Smith will split time as the team’s primary running backs. Filkins has 33 carries for 206 yards and a touchdown this season while Smith has 31 carries for 176 yards and a touchdown.
Interestingly, neither of the team’s two guys with the most rushing touchdowns are running backs. Wide receiver Bryce Farrell leads the Cardinal with three rushing touchdowns. Overall, Farrell has run the ball 13 times for 40 yards. His longest is just 12 yards. So, the Bruin defense will be looking for Farrell to run the ball down near the goal line. Stanford’s player with the second most rushing touchdowns is quarterback Justin La.mson who has two.
After carrying 10 times against Arizona, the team’s third best running back, Sedrick Irvin, only carried four times against Oregon and didn’t play against Colorado, but he’s gained 89 yards on 19 carries and is the only other player with a rushing touchdown.
Passing Game
Without a doubt, Elic Ayomanor is Stanford’s biggest receiving threat. The sophomore from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada has 28 catches this season. That’s as many as the next two receivers, combined. His 501 receiving yards is 104 yards more than those next two receivers. His four touchdowns is more than the rest of the team combined. So, clearly, stopping Ayomanor is critical to shutting down the Stanford passing game.
Stanford’s next best receiver isn’t actually a receiver at all. He’s tight end Ben Yurosek. The senior from Bakersfield has 16 receptions for 239 yards and a touchdown.
Two guys are tied with 12 receptions each. Sophomore Mudia Reuben has 158 yards while freshman Tiger Bachmeier has 145 yards this season.
Bryce Farrell’s 11 receptions makes him the only other Stanford receiver with at least ten catches. Farrell is also the only other Cardinal with at least 100 yards receiving. He has 108 yards. He is also one of the few guys with a touchdown.
Senior receiver John Humphreys is the only other Cardinal with a touchdown, but he’s seen limited action this season playing in just two games.
Analysis
Stanford’s offense seems to be a bit of an enigma. On one hand, it seems like head coach Troy Taylor prefers to run the ball. In fact, Stanford has run 55% of the time. It seems that Taylor has rather stubbornly stuck to the run even in games where the Cardinal is losing badly.
On the other hand, the team’s success has come when they have been successful throwing the ball.
Is this indicative of Taylor’s offense or is it a product of Taylor inherting a roster which David Shaw had built which was designed for the run? It’s probable that it’s a combination of both, but the one thing which is clear is that the offense isn’t really working for Stanford this season.
Will UCLA’s run defense force Taylor to throw the ball more tonight? That’s possible, but for Stanford to be successful, they will need to spread the ball around to more receivers than Ayomanor and Yurosek.
But I expect the Bruin defense to step up tonight after last week’s loss to Oregon State.
Go Bruins!!!
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