welcome back to the SB Nation 2012 college football preview your number 14 team is a Stanford Cardinal in a post luck world the big story is who's going to replace them and how are they going to look the two contenders for the quarterback spot are Brett Nottingham and Josh Nunes the good news is the schedule sets up pretty well LaVine Toyo and Zack ZZ two top pass catchers are back Stephan Taylor's back in the backfield Shane scove rejoins a defense that should be outstanding and by the time the Cardinal get to Eugene in November either one of these quarterbacks should have plenty of experience the big number for the 20 2 Stanford Cardinal is 52.5 s that's the third down conversion rate a ridiculous one at that of the 2011 Stanford Squad without Andrew Luck it will be a challenge for either Nottingham or Nunes to match it or even come close to it but if they're able to succeed on third Downs in this power heavy offense against teams on the road like Notre Dame Cal and Oregon it's going to extend drives keep the defense off the field and keep them fresh give Stanford a great chance this B and finally the big game for the 2012 Cardinal is the big game against Cal a lot of people are pointing to the Oregon matchup in late November but this should be a huge indicator of where the Stanford Cardinal are with their new quarterback Cal plays good defense they're deep they experience especially up front Stanford is a power team so you're getting power against Power and we'll see what kind of team Stanford is going forward to the second half of the season it's going to be a slugfest your number 14 team in the S SP Nation countdown is the Stanford Cardinal