As we head to the offseason, here are three questions facing Stanford:

Will the offense successfully rebuild around Christian McCaffrey?

The Cardinal return the country's most versatile offensive weapon, but his supporting cast will look significantly different in 2016. For one, quarterback Kevin Hogan -- who did spectacular things whenever defenses keyed on McCaffrey in 2015 -- will be gone. Guard Joshua Garnett and tackle Kyle Murphy, Stanford's two best offensive linemen, are out of eligibility. Leading tight end Austin Hooper just declared for the NFL draft. Receiver Devon Cajuste is also done, and there's a chance that Michael Rector will also move on to the next level.

The Cardinal program has been recruiting better than ever recently, and coach David Shaw hopes that these efforts will pay off in 2016. Keller Chryst or Ryan Burns, the two favorites to be Hogan's replacement, will be asked to glue together an offense that'll be highlighted by McCaffrey, tight end Dalton Schultz, receiver Trent Irwin, and possibly Rector. Finding continued success with new pieces on the offensive line will be critical.

Will younger players succeed as the new backbone of the front seven?

Brennan Scarlett led Stanford in sacks, while Aziz Shittu paced the team in tackles for loss. Both defensive linemen are out of eligibility, and so is inside linebacker Blake Martinez, who led the Pac-12 with 140 tackles and picked up a ton of defensive slack for a relatively inexperienced Cardinal unit in 2015.

Along the line, Solomon Thomas (10.5 tackles for loss as a freshman) and Harrison Phillips (who missed the season after tearing his ACL in the opener) are expected to be the stalwarts, but Stanford will need more pieces to be effective. The Cardinal made the rare move of redshirting Luke Kaumatule in his senior season to prepare him for a move back to the defensive line, and they hope it'll pay dividends in 2016. Coordinator Lance Anderson also told me that he expects Eric Cotton, a converted tight end, to see action up front along with redshirt freshman Dylan Jackson.

The linebacker situation is also murky. The Cardinal are excited about their outside rushing talent -- Peter Kalambayi, Joey Alfieri, and Mike Tyler have all proven capable -- and the hope is that Kevin Palma and special-teams standouts like Mustafa Branch will be able to fortify the inside post-Martinez.

Will Hogan's replacement bring the necessary missing leadership?

And here's the money question. We already established above that Chryst and Burns are the two names to watch in the quarterback competition -- though incoming freshman star K.J. Costello could theoretically push them. Stanford must find a new leader in the huddle for the first time since 2012, when Hogan took over for Josh Nunes and cobbled together enough offensive production to win that season's Rose Bowl. In the years since, Hogan developed into a steady field general that the Cardinal offense needs to thrive, and Shaw wants similar command from the next man.

It'll be impossible to immediately replace Hogan's wealth of experience, but Stanford must use the offseason to get as much of a head start on this task as possible.