Points galore. That’s a reasonable expectation for the Stanford offense this season, thanks to running back Bryce Love’s decision to hold off turning pro and quarterback K.J. Costello’s recovery from offseason hip surgery.

The defending Pac-12 North champion opens training camp — David Shaw’s eighth as head coach — Tuesday, and the balance of power on the Cardinal seems heavily weighted to the offense.

In fact, it’s not out of the question that Stanford could threaten the offensive school records set in 2011 by the great team led by quarterback Andrew Luck and running back Stepfan Taylor.

On defense, however, the Cardinal lost their top lineman to the NFL for the second straight year. (Solomon Thomas went to the 49ers in 2016, Harrison Phillips to the Bills in 2017.) Phillips led the nation’s FBS defensive linemen in tackles with 103. Stanford also lost All-Pac-12 safety Justin Reid, standout cornerback Quenton Meeks and starting linebackers Kevin Palma and Peter Kalambayi.

As it was, Stanford gave up 4.6 yards per carry in 2017, its worst performance in that category since 2006 and its second worst in 40 years. That’s an indication that the front seven has slipped considerably from the menacing force that the Cardinal usually have employed over the past decade.

More Information Stanford training camp Where: Stanford practice field (behind Maples Pavilion) When: Thursday to Aug. 24 Open practices: Sunday, Aug. 12, 2:45-4:35 p.m.; Sunday, Aug. 19, 3-5:40 p.m. Beecher back after cancer treatment Across the country, training camps are beginning in college football. Few players had an offseason regimen like Ryan Beecher. It included six rounds of chemotherapy, plus radiation. The Stanford senior linebacker and special-teams player was diagnosed near the end of the 2017 season with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. On July 17, however, he tweeted that his PET (positron emission tomography) scan “came back all clear.” He has been doing conditioning and will be back in training camp, which starts Thursday. His treatments of chemo and then radiation lasted until about six weeks ago, according to his mother, Julie. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a cancer that starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes, part of the body’s immune system. In his tweet, Beecher said, “Words do not describe the feeling, and cannot describe my thanks to all the people I had on my team. To my family, friends, doctors and teammates — Thanks for everything.” He learned of the diagnosis in December when he was getting ready to leave his home in Fresno and join his teammates on a flight to San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl. He missed the trip and the game while undergoing more tests. He told his teammates about his illness before he left, and many of them wrote his jersey number — 43 — on their arms before the bowl game, in which the Cardinal lost to TCU 39-37. — Tom FitzGerald

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Here are the five key questions going into camp:

Can an inexperienced defensive line meld?

This group must come together quickly enough to contain the likes of running back Myles Gaskin (Washington) and whatever ground game Chip Kelly concocts at UCLA.

Look to redshirt sophomores Jovan Swann and Michael Williams and perhaps redshirt freshman Dalyn Wade-Perry, a 324-pounder, to man the front, along with Dylan Jackson, the only returning starter. Somebody in this group is going to need to produce big-time. Swann seems the most likely candidate.

How good is Costello?

The redshirt sophomore QB looked exceptional down the stretch after replacing Keller Chryst, who moved to Tennessee after the season as a graduate transfer. Costello didn’t need to light up games with his passing, but he was far more confident in finding JJ Arcega-Whiteside and Trent Irwin downfield than Chryst was. Costello engineered wins over Washington and Notre Dame; now he needs to prove he can do it over a full season.

Can new offensive coaches match success?

New offensive coordinator Tavita Pritchard and new offensive line coach Kevin Carberry replace Mike Bloomgren, who took the head-coaching job at Rice in December.

Pritchard has been on the staff for eight years, and he’ll have an ample supply of playmakers, most significantly the Heisman favorite, Love. Kaden Smith should be one of the top tight ends in the country, and Connor Wedington is explosive on end-arounds as well as sure-handed as a receiver.

Carberry comes with high plaudits as a disciple of Bill Callahan with Dallas and Washington of the NFL. He’ll have practically all of last year’s starters back, plus sophomore Foster Sarell, one of the nation’s top two or three tackles coming out of high school in 2017.

Which linebacker thrives?

Can the team’s other No. 20 (besides Love) be the tackling machine that inside linebackers Shayne Skov and Blake Martinez were earlier in the Shaw era?

Bobby Okereke was third on the team in tackles last year. The fifth-year man has beefed up to 6-foot-3, 234 pounds, and is clearly one of the leaders of the defense. The top pass rusher is probably going to be Joey Alfieri, who is set on the outside after being ping-ponged from outside to inside last year.

Who gets the interceptions now that Reid (five) and Meeks (two) are gone?

Duane Akina has a long track record of building exceptional secondaries. Fifth-year corners Alijah Holder and Alameen Murphy have plenty of experience, although Holder missed six games last year with injuries. Frank Buncom and Ben Edwards are proven safeties. But somebody will have to replace the ubiquitous Reid at nickelback.

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