Whenever one discusses the Stanford offense, there's inevitably a big fuss featuring the words "ground," "pound" and "power football" -- or some combination thereof.
Fair enough. The Cardinal did develop a reputation as a "meat grinding" team under Jim Harbaugh, when Toby Gerhart bruised opposing defenses behind an offensive line that called itself the "Tunnel Workers' Union." Up until 2014, the running game operated through bell cow-type backs (Gerhart, Stepfan Taylor and Tyler Gaffney) whose average weight was 225 pounds. And even now, in an era of smaller and speedier runners like Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love, Stanford's formula is very much dependent on a mauling performance from a prized offensive line.