Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey similar to Glyn Milburn

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When Christian McCaffrey changed his jersey number this year from 27 to 5, the number he wore in high school, Stanford head coach David Shaw smiled.

“That was Glyn’s number,” he said Tuesday, referring to his former Stanford teammate Glyn Milburn, a dazzling tailback for the Cardinal in the early ’90s who became a two-time Pro Bowler in the NFL.

The current players were shown Milburn’s highlights reel when he was an honorary captain for a game. “They’re very similar to what Christian does,” Shaw said. “I chuckle sometimes because I think they are similar players.”

The two have some impressive statistics in common. McCaffrey leads the nation in all-purpose yards with 229.8 per game. It’s still early in the season, but if he continues at that clip, he would break Milburn’s school record of 202 in 1990.

Only three other Pac-12 players have averaged 200 or more all-purpose yards for a season, all of them from USC: Marcus Allen in 1981 (232.6), Reggie Bush in 2005 (222.3) and Marqise Lee in 2012 (206.4).

Shaw recalled that before last season, he had talked to Ed McCaffrey, Christian’s father and a former Stanford and NFL wide receiver, about the possibility that Christian would redshirt as a freshman. After a scrimmage, Shaw said, he told Ed, “There’s no chance your son is redshirting. If I redshirted him, there might be a revolt on this football team.”

Sympathy for the Bruins: Both No. 16 Stanford (4-1, 3-0 Pac-12) and No. 20 UCLA (4-1, 1-1) have byes this week before playing at Stanford Stadium on Oct. 15. While the Cardinal don’t play again after that until Oct 24 against Washington, the Bruins have to play Cal the following Thursday night.

“It’s unbelievable,” UCLA head coach Jim Mora said. “We’re calling these kids student-athletes, and yet we’re going to force them to miss six days of school so they can play two football games on Thursday nights in a row.”

Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey leads the nation in all-purpose yards, averaging nearly 230 per game. Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey leads the nation in all-purpose yards, averaging nearly 230 per game. Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, Associated Press Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey similar to Glyn Milburn 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

His players will enter midterm exams after the Cal game having gone to class just four days out of 10. “I think it’s a complete injustice to our young men,” Mora said. “I don’t know whose idea it was, but it’s a bad idea.”

Shaw agrees.

“When you have a Thursday night game, you’re supposed to have a couple of days off on the front end and a couple on the back end,” he said. “He’s not getting those. I echo his sentiments.”

Bye and by: The bye comes at a good time for the Cardinal, Shaw said, because it gives quarterback Kevin Hogan a chance to recover from his sprained ankle and the banged-up defensive line a chance to rest.

Outside linebacker Kevin Anderson, however, probably will miss his third straight game with an undisclosed injury, Shaw said.

Hogan has played so well since getting injured in the Sept. 19 game at USC that Shaw jokingly told him “we should have kicked him in the ankle last year.”

Chryst’s block: Keller Chryst’s teammates got a huge kick during the Arizona game and again in the video room watching the crushing block the backup QB threw on cornerback Cam Denson to spring McCaffrey for a 25-yard gain. Chryst also threw his first collegiate TD pass. Shaw, however, declined to designate him as the No. 2 QB over Ryan Burns, calling the competition “fluid.”

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