At Stanford, the new college football season begins with one sobering realization: Andrew Luck has moved on.
Washington Coach Steve Sarkisian, however, found out first hand that which Luck made all too easy to overlook, Stanford is not a pass-happy offense.
The Cardinal rushed for 446 yards in a 65-21 rout of the Huskies last season.
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"Andrew will be the first to tell you that our games began and ended with the running game. That the running game set up everything we did, and that won't change. We want to have a physical presence on the football field," said Stanford coach David Shaw at Pac-12 Media Day on Tuesday afternoon.
There's no question the Cardinal will miss everything Luck brought to the program, but there's a certain excitement level among players and coaches about establishing a new identity.
They feel they have something to prove this season, an interesting X-factor for a team already projected to be in the Top-25.