2008 Stanford Cardinal College Football Predictions Courtesy of Alex Smart, An Expert College Football Handicapper featured on Touthouse.com. If you are betting college football this year, be sure to buy Alex Smart’s college football predictions each week and guarantee a winning season!!

Stanford Cardinal (4-8, 3-6 in 2007, 9th place in Pac-10)
New HC Jim Harbaugh breathed some life into the dormant Cardinal program in his first season at the helm and pulled off the upset of the decade when his team marched into the Coliseum as 41-point underdogs against #1 USC and eeked out a 24-23 win. This season very few teams will sleep on Stanford.

Offensive Outlook: The Cardinals return seven starters from 2007, including their QB that led the upset of USC, Tavita Pritchard, as well as their four leading rushers and leading receiver from last season. The Cardinal dramatically improved from their pitiful 10.6 PPG average in 2006, to average nearly double that (19.6 PPG) in 2007. Harbaugh is hoping that this group will show farther improvement in 2008.

Defensive Outlook: The first thing that needs fixed on this Cardinal defense is a front seven that allowed over 300 yards on the ground against UCLA and Washington. Nine returning starters will try to help solidify an at best shaky run defense from last season. The defense will be led by Honorable Mention All Pac-10 S Bo McNally who led the team with 114 tackles a year ago.

2008 Outlook: Non-conference road tests at TCU and Notre Dame will test the Cardinal as well as playing four of their first six games away from home. Stanford has gone more than a decade without a bowl victory and with 16 starters some are hoping that the Cardinal can pull off some more magic and make their first bowl appearance since 2001. An impossible three game stretch of @Oregon, vs. USC, @California to close out the season means that if the Cardinal are going to win games they need to win early.

2008 will be a success if… The Cardinal can continue to improve and flirt with a winning season and or bowl eligibility while staying competitive in most of their games. With only one winning season this decade, it is impossible to expect Harbaugh to turn the Cardinal around in his second year, but if 2007 was an indication he is certainly on the right track.

Prediction: 3-9 in 2007, 9th place in Pac-10

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