Takeaways from Stanford's 34-17 victory over Washington State....

David Parry is a special player: Parry might have began his Stanford career as a walk-on, but he's developed into one of the better nose tackles the program has had in a long time.

After dealing with a lingering injury to his midsection last year, Parry is healthy this season, and has been more than a handful for opposing offensive lines to block. Known more for his run-stopping ability in previous seasons, Parry has shown excellent pass rush ability this year. Never was that more the case than when Stanford defeated Washington State, when he recorded one sack and five quarterback hurries in what Stanford head coach David Shaw termed a "phenomenal" performance. Parry's pass rush abilities have advanced to the point that he is even now a regular part of Stanford's nickel defense - that wasn't the case in past years.

Simply put, he was the best player on the field on Friday night, and along with Henry Anderson, forms one of the best one-two defensive line duos in the nation.

Running back committee intrigue: Stanford's running back committee gained a new member of sorts with the team's increased use of true freshman Christian McCaffrey. The former Rivals 100 prospect got the most extended meaningful playing time of his career on Friday, carrying the ball three times and catching two passes for a total of 53 yards. When asked after the game, Shaw said that McCaffrey would continue to be a part of Stanford's rotation moving forward, and that the Colorado native had earned such a role. He certainly has electrified in the limited touches he has received.

"He's in the rotation," Shaw said. "He's played his way into that. He's a potential difference maker in any game that we play. We're going to use him from the back field. We'll use him as a receiver. We use him as decoy.

"So, he will be out there a couple times and not get the ball. We'll use him as pure running back and just hand the ball to him. So, he's going to add to that mix. And I hope our running backs ‑‑ I know they are, they will support each other and push for each other."

On the other hand, onetime starter Kelsey Young had a limited role against Washington State. He received only one carry and one pass target.

The two most active backs on Friday were Remound Wright, who has led the running backs in carries in the last four games in which he has played, and Barry Sanders, who leads the backs with a 7.6 yards per carry average. Wright is the more powerful of the two runners, but Sanders has arguably shown better vision and done a better job of pursuing the holes that are open. Interestingly, despite a massively productive evening, Sanders received only two carries after the first quarter. Stanford turned to Wright to help ice away the win.

Stanford's kicking game continues to face questions: Stanford's kickoff and punt coverage has been superb again this year. Though his yards per punt average is down, Cardinal punter Ben Rhyne has been solid - he had one of his best games of the year in pinning Washington State inside its own five-yard line twice. And Jordan Williamson has been very good on kickoffs, with a few notable exceptions. (Namely, sending a pair of crunch-time kickoffs out of bounds against Washington and then Notre Dame.) Generally speaking, though, he has one of the strongest legs in the conference and is a significant asset to the Cardinal kickoff team.

The same cannot be said for Williamson and Stanford's field goal unit. After missing only four field goal attempts in all of 2013, Williamson has already missed five thus far in 2014. He's 6-for-11 on the year, and has yet to convert an attempt longer than 34 yards. Neither of his two makes against Washington State were solidly hit and down the middle, and his final extra point of the game clanged off the right upright and then through.

All that to say, while Williamson's physical gifts are readily apparent, he has been off the mark thus far in 2014. Given the low-scoring nature of many of Stanford's games this season, his continued struggles could plague the Cardinal moving forward. Conversely, an on-target Williamson would provide a major boost to the Stanford offense.

Bounceback performance for Hogan: It wasn't all his fault (and the weather played a role), but Cardinal quarterback Kevin Hogan had one of the worst statistical outings of his career last weekend against Notre Dame. He completed only 50 percent of his throws and posted a career-worst 75.7 quarterback rating.

On Friday, despite dealing with the effects of a leg injury he suffered against the Irish, Hogan was very good. He completed 23-of-35 passes for 286 yards and three touchowns. He didn't throw an interception.

The performance wasn't completely perfect - he missed several makeable throws - and Washington State's pass defense is among the worst in the country, but it was a solid rebound performance and answered critics who wondered if his confidence was wavering.

Secondary steps up: Defending Washington State is never an easy task for a team's secondary. The Cougars throw downfield, sideline-to-sideline, intermediate routes, and everything in between. On Friday night, for instance, Washington State threw 69 times and had only seven designed runs. So there was little rest for Stanford's defensive backs.

Yet, the unit responded as well to the challenge posed by Mike Leach's offense as any defense this year. The Cardinal held Connor Halliday to season lows in passing yards, completion percentage and quarterback rating.

Playing in its nickel package all game, safeties Jordan Richards and Kyle Olugbode, as well as nickelback Zach Hoffpauir (who also plays safety in the team's base defense) rarely left the field. Hoffpauir was a tackling machine, registering a career-high 15 stops.

Although he missed part of the offseason with injury and was listed as only a co-starter on early-season depth charts, cornerback Alex Carter is clearly the team's top corner. He, too, played the bulk of the snaps on Friday night.

The rotation behind Carter included somewhat of an unexpected player in true freshman Terrence Alexander, who prior to Friday had never taken meaningful snaps at corner.

"Terrence Alexander came in for his first really extended play time and was really, really good," Shaw said. "Very impressed with Terrence, he's going to be a great corner. He played in the slot during the course of the game, played well."

Particularly late in the game, Alexander received a number of snaps, some of which seemingly came at the expense of Wayne Lyons, whose snaps were limited in the fourth quarter as Carter, Alexander and Ronnie Harris rotated in at corner. Lyons is still listed as a co-starter with Ronnie Harris, but it will be interesting to see how Cardinal defensive backs coach Duane Akina adjusts his cornerback rotation moving forward.