Coming Attractions: Shayne Skov, Stanford's other big man on campus

Assessing 2011's most intriguing players, in no particular order. Today: Junior Stanford linebacker Shayne Skov.

• Typecasting. Skov is your run-of-the-mill 6-foot-3, 235-pound, blue-chip brainiac, initially choosing Stanford over the likes of Boston College, Duke, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Vanderbilt. In fact, he was not only the earliest member of the Cardinal's 2009 recruiting class – he committed at the beginning of his junior year of high school in 2007, a day after the Cardinal's 45-17 loss to UCLA in Jim Harbaugh's first game as head coach, and two full years before Skov's own debut – but he was also the most hyped, arriving as the No. 1 prospect from New York and the No. 3 inside linebacker in the nation.

As it turned out, Skov was also the only member of that class to play a major role in the on-field breakthrough that fall, finishing third on the team in tackles from one of the inside linebacker spots in Stanford's 3-4 scheme. He followed that up last year by leading the team in total stops as a sophomore, setting himself up as the leader of a unit that will clearly be expected to hold the line against the loss of five starters and much of its depth in the front seven in pursuit of Pac-12 and BCS championships.

• Best-Case. Non-Pac-10 fans – and maybe some Pac-10 fans, too – may recognize Skov from one of two moments: a) Timing Notre Dame's snap count to the nanosecond for a sack last September (pause it at the right moment, and you'll see he's not offsides, in spite of Mike Mayock's protestations):

… and b) His star turn in January's Orange Bowl, where he was in on 12 tackles, five tackles for loss and four sacks in the Cardinal's methodical, 45-12 bludgeoning of Virginia Tech. That was the ninth opponent in 13 games Stanford held below 17 points, including three shutouts, leaving the Cardinal as the conference's stingiest defense in terms of points allowed and among the top-25 nationally in rushing, pass efficiency, total and scoring D – in all, an improvement of 80 total yards and nine points per game over 2009.

Skov's growth was a key part of that leap forward, but don't get the idea from that clip or his postseason stat line that he's a wild blitzer – aside from the unfettered run on Dayne Crist in South Bend and his assault on Tyrod Taylor in the bowl game, he only logged three sacks on the season, after notching none as a freshman. (He's also yet to record a college interception.) Instead, he's most active patrolling between the tackles to clean up against the run, which was where the defense really made its bread last year: Outside of being gashed by Oregon for 388 yards rushing in early October, the Cardinal yielded a paltry 107 yards per game on the ground in their other 11, on just 3.3 per carry, on par with the top 10 run defenses in the country.

• Worst-Case. Skov isn't a burner, and he assumes a greater leadership role this fall without his key running mates between the tackles, fellow middle linebacker Owen Marecic and space-eating nose tackle Sione Fua, a second-team All-Pac-10 pick last year (after earning an honorable mention nod in 2009) despite barely registering on the stat sheet. Making his middle linebackers look good is part of a solid two-gap defensive tackle's job description, and the fact that league coaches chose to honor Fua's talent for keeping blockers occupied while Skov and Co. made the plays could be a subtle signal that he was as much a beneficiary of the front line's success as he was a benefactor.

• Fun Fact. Officially, Skov is Stanford's "Ginger-African-Caucasian American." Oh, and "Mexican, also":

Give him a math problem, and the guy in the ridiculous mullet-hawk will still embarrass you on the whiteboard. Ah, college.

• What to expect in the fall. The key phrase to this point may be, "Outside of being gashed by Oregon…" arguably the great theme of the 2010 season: If not for the Ducks' 49-10 run over the last three quarters, Stanford would have finished undefeated and played for the national championship. With Oregon coming to Palo Alto in November and all-universe quarterback Andrew Luck back on the other side, they Cardinal will likely open the season in the top five, and certainly be favored to win their first nine games, which probably won't include another ranked opponent.

As good as Luck is, the difference in another very good season and a championship (conference or national) could very well come down to the difference (or lack thereof) in the Cardinal's adjustment to the Ducks' warp-speed offense. Skov will be a key figure in that effort, if not the key figure, and the verdict on his junior season – as good a shot as Stanford's going to have at major trophies of any kind for another decade, at least – will hinge as much on his response in his team's biggest game as it will on the all-conference accolades that figure to come his way a month later.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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