Stanford hopes to take more up-tempo offensive approach

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Here’s a question for Pac-12 Conference football fans: Which quarterback said the following on Tuesday? “The no-huddle, up-tempo fits us.”

Maybe another conference quarterback has uttered similar words recently because many teams run that type of offense. In this case, it was Stanford’s Kevin Hogan.

It was like a Kardashian saying, “Anonymity fits us.”

Yes, the Cardinal have been opening up the offense in recent weeks. Partly it’s because the coaches want to take better advantage of their playmakers. Partly it’s because they finally realized that the current backs, offensive linemen and tight ends are simply not ready at this point to produce the crunching ground game that has been Stanford’s strength in recent years.

Smash-mouth football might not be dead on the Farm, but the Cardinal would prefer to bruise other body parts or even — you know — run around somebody rather than try to run over him.

As head coach David Shaw puts it, “Nine games in, you can say we don’t feel like the Stanford we have been.” The idea, he said, is “zeroing in on what we need to do for our guys and not just trying to plug them into what we did in the past.”

According to Hogan, before the coaches tweaked things to run more up-tempo plays, more passes and not as many power runs, the offense sometimes put “a lot of stress on us — having so many different options, so many reads and checks. This allows us all to play fast.”

Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan will employ a more up-tempo approach of offense after relying on ground game. Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan will employ a more up-tempo approach of offense after relying on ground game. Photo: Rick Scuteri / Associated Press Photo: Rick Scuteri / Associated Press Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Stanford hopes to take more up-tempo offensive approach 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

It also allows Hogan to “play fast” without having so many complications to ponder. For one thing, he said, he’s using more “full-field progressions” in picking his pass targets rather than picking one side ahead of the snap depending on what the defense is showing.

“Sometimes that can be difficult when they show something and then rotate a different way,” he said.

The Cardinal opened up the offense against Oregon State, winning 38-14 before having their doors blown off by Oregon. The offense did have 428 yards against the Ducks but didn’t score more than one touchdown.

Last week was a bye, allowing the Cardinal (5-4, 3-3 Pac-12) to refresh themselves before playing No. 25 Utah (6-3, 3-3) at 3 p.m. Saturday in the season’s final home game.

The Utes are still in the hunt for the South Division title. Stanford is playing for pride and bowl eligibility. In a season that started with fans thinking about a berth in the new College Football Playoff, the Cardinal have to win one of their last three games simply to go to any bowl.

They follow the Utah game with the Big Game at Cal next week and a visit to UCLA on Nov. 28.

The bye helped get some injured players back to health, although fullback Patrick Skov will be out this week and possibly the next with an undisclosed injury.

On the other hand, nose tackle David Parry, hampered by an injury at Oregon, should be at full strength, and safety Zach Hoffpauir will return after missing the previous game.

“Even with the (earlier) bye, we were more beaten up this year than we were in the last two years,” Shaw said. “Our injury list hasn’t been this long in probably four or five years.”

He said Ty Montgomery, in particular, “gets hit probably more than any receiver in the nation” because he also returns kickoffs and punts and takes occasional snaps in the wildcat formation.

That said, Stanford has had probably fewer major injuries to its key players than any major college program in recent years.

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald