On a night when the Cardinal's future prospects grew significantly brighter with the announcement of Myles Hinton's commitment to the Cardinal's '20 class, KJ Costello gave even more good news to Stanford fans when he tweeted out his intention to return to The Farm for the 2019 season. As an academic junior (redshirt sophomore), Costello was eligible to enter the 2019 NFL Draft but made official that he'd be starting under center for the Cardinal for at least one more season. Costello's return significantly bolsters Stanford's hopes for the upcoming season in the wake of the oncoming departures of Bryce Love, JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Jesse Burkett, Trent Irwin, and Kaden Smith among others from the offense and the team as a whole.

Costello was a top quarterback in 2019 and the second-best quarterback in the Pac-12 in 2018 by nearly every statistical measure. Costello was second in completion percentage (65.1%), yardage (3,540) and touchdown passes (29) He led the Conference of Champions in passer rating (155) and yards per attempt (8.6). He also graded out well under pressure per Pro Football Focus. In 2018, KJ completed 52% of his passes under pressure, threw for nine yards per attempt and had an NFL QB rating of 83.1. Those are all big steps up from 2017, when he completed only 43% of his passes, averaged 4.7 yards per attempt, and had an NFL QB Rating of 70.7.

Stanford was staring at a very precarious upcoming spring, summer, and fall had Costello decided to leave. Davis Mills has had terrible injury luck, hurting himself this season in the UC Davis game as he made a cameo appearance and his Cardinal debut after injuring himself at the end of his redshirt season in 2017. Jack Richardson and Jack West are the only other scholarship quarterbacks on a roster further depleted by the decision not to take a quarterback in the '19 class. Costello put together a brilliant season in 2018 that included numerous accolades and achievements. Per Stanford, Costello’s five touchdown passes at UCLA on Nov. 24 were second-most in school history (Elway, 6 vs. OSU in 1980) and the most since Kevin Hogan had five in the 2013 Big Game. Costello had a touchdown pass in 16 straight games (a streak that ended in the Sun Bowl), matching the longest streak by a Cardinal since Andrew Luck’s final 16 games. The last Cardinal with a touchdown pass in 17 consecutive games was Todd Husak (Nov. 1, 1997-Sept. 18, 1999), who is the program’s radio analyst. Only Andrew Luck threw more TD passes in a season at Stanford than Costello’s 29 in 2018. Luck set the record with 37 in 2011 and had 32 in 2010. Costello’s 34 completions against Washington State were the sixth-most in a game in school history, and most since Steve Stenstrom had 37 at Notre Dame in 1994. Costello is the third Cardinal with seven 300-yard passing games in a season, joining John Elway (1982) and Steve Stenstrom, who set the school record with nine in 1993. He was the first Cardinal with four consecutive 300-yard passing performances since Steve Stenstrom had five in a row in 1994 and he is the 10th Cardinal with 5,000 career passing yards (5,008).

At the end of the day, it's safe to say that KJ put smiles on an entire fan base this evening.

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R.J. Abeytia has been contributing to The Bootleg since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Abeytia and follow The Bootleg @TheBootleg for up to the moment Cardinal news and analysis.

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