Five Questions: Stanford

1. How much of a different attack do we see from the Tree with Kevin Hogan under center? Last year the problem was not so much Josh Nunes -- he made some pretty good throws -- rather his receivers who dropped every deep pass that should have been connected. Will they move the ball better through the air this year? Can Ty Montgomery treat the football like it isn't a greased pig?

2. Can the Cardinal slow down Bishop Sankey? Nobody has yet. He ran roughshod over the Cardinal a year ago. If they can't shut him down it's going to be a game resembling the first four for the Huskies. If they can shut him down with a seven (or fewer) man front then the Huskies may be in for a long night. If they overload the box and commit to shutting down the run game it brings us to...

3. Can the receivers make plays? If Stanford decides they have to take away Sankey, then Jaydon Mickens could go off and bounce back from a sub par performance against Arizona. Kasen Williams could pick up where he left off last year, torching the Cardinal. The weather won't be a factor, so look for the Huskies to get back to the horizontal passing attack that has served them so well throughout the early stages of this year.

4. Who wins the coaching matchup? Last season, it was emphatically won by the Husky staff. Justin Wilcox sent David Shaw and Pep Hamilton back to kindergarten, while Steve Sarkisian leaned on his hotshot DC and his run game with a couple big plays in the passing game to eke out a victory against a superior team. If Shaw hasn't learned anything since then, we'll see a repeat as the Huskies have improved from 2012 much more than Stanford has.

5. Can the Huskies play power football? The question coming into the year was if the Huskies could defend the spread, and they've answered that call so far. They have yet to play a power team like Stanford though. If they don't come with their man pants on, they could be in for a rude awakening.