Quarterback Andrew Luck, the front-runner to win the Heisman Trophy, does nothing more than hand off the ball, allowing the play to showcase the power and toughness of DeCastro and Martin, two other Stanford stars who project as high picks in the next N.F.L. draft.
“You know it’s coming,” Shannon Turley, Stanford’s strength coach, said. “If you don’t like it, do something about it. That’s the mind-set we’ve tried to instill in our players.”
Perhaps the most fascinating part of Stanford’s transformation is the manner in which the program has ascended from the Pac-10 outhouse to the Pac-12 penthouse. Unlike with so many revivals of the past 10 years — Utah, Oregon and Texas Tech come to mind — Stanford has not spread the field to even the playing field.
Instead, it has jammed the line of scrimmage with tight ends in a pro-style offense and run a metaphorical fullback dive behind DeCastro and Martin into the national elite. Coach David Shaw fancies Stanford a power running team that happens to have the country’s best quarterback.
While Luck receives a majority of the credit and adulation for Stanford’s 6-0 start and No. 7 ranking, he is one of nine potential draft picks among the fourth- and fifth-year players on the team’s roster, according to N.F.L. evaluators. That does not include a handful of third-year juniors and redshirt sophomores who have also emerged as prospects.
Martin and DeCastro are not far behind Luck, the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2012 draft. Martin is considered the top tackle prospect in the country and is projected to be taken in the top 10, and DeCastro is expected to be selected late in the first round or in the second. Despite having three first-year starters on the offensive line, Stanford leads the country with just two sacks allowed.
“There’s so much more talent here than people realize,” Luck said. “Look at David and Moose. There’s a reason we’ve had a good running game. Look at how many games they’ve played the last three years.”
There is also a banner group of tight ends, with the 6-foot-6 redshirt sophomore Zach Ertz, the 6-6 fifth-year senior Coby Fleener and the 6-8 redshirt sophomore Levine Toilolo making up what is considered the country’s best unit. They have combined for 12 touchdown catches, six by Fleener.
“We have a better tight end group than a lot of N.F.L. teams right now,” Shaw said.
Martin’s journey to Stanford came after he committed to U.C.L.A. and resisted strong overtures from Harvard, the alma mater of his parents, Gus Martin and Jane Howard-Martin. Gus Martin said the family was told by Harvard’s admissions office that his son would have been the university’s first fourth-generation African-American student.
Martin’s great-grandfather on his mother’s side, John Fitzgerald, graduated from Harvard in 1924 and knew W. E. B. DuBois. When Harvard Coach Tim Murphy came to the Martin house on a recruiting visit, Gus Martin said his son candidly told Murphy that he would most likely go to Stanford if he was accepted. There was little resistance from his parents.
“It took us one night of sleep, and after about 24 hours we finally figured it out,” Gus Martin said of Stanford with a laugh. “Frankly, it’s the full package. You cannot avoid becoming an educated young man or woman there.”
There is still a chance he could end up at Harvard; after his N.F.L. career, Martin plans to attend law school. Gus Martin said his son came up with that himself.
“He wants to be a trial lawyer,” said Vic Eumont, Martin’s coach at Harvard-Westlake School in the Los Angeles area. “And he’ll be the biggest around.”
Shaw joked that the quiet DeCastro “arrived in a bad mood” and had not changed.
“David speaks when something needs to be said,” Shaw said. “When he speaks, you better listen.”
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