As the Stanford Cardinal looks forward to the 2009 football season, the big question mark surrounds running back Toby Gerhart. The question is not his talent, the question is will he suit up for the Cardinal?
Gerhart has said publicly that if he is drafted in the first round and maybe the second round of the baseball draft then he would have to take the money and head to baseball. If he does not get drafted in those top rounds then he would be back with the Cardinal next year.
It is hard to route against the Cardinal but Football fans certainly have to hope Gerhart succeeds at baseball, but just not that much.
The Cardinal with Gerhart in the backfield could have a great offense with Andrew Luck at quarterback and some talented young wide receivers developing. Gerhart has proven he is a big time runner, and will be one of the top backs in the Pac-10 next year.
If Gerhart leaves, all the sudden the Cardinal will look pretty thin at running back. Jeremy Stewart would look like the top runner with a couple of incoming freshman to challenge him for time. With all due respect, that is quite the drop off.
So how is Gerhart doing in baseball? He is having a solid year but no spectacular. He is batting .288 with 5 home runs, 20 RBIs and 28 runs scored (thru 4/27). That is probably just the type of year that football fans would hope for. Gerhart is playing well, but just not great. As of today, you would have to speculate Gerhart will be back on the gridiron. But as the season wraps up, if Gerhart heats up, gets the Cardinal to the post-season and lead the team, who knows what could happen.
For those who forget what Stanford would be missing, I have included some nice highlights of Gerhart that someone put together. Be forewarned though, the music is pretty hard core! (I ended up muting the music halfway through)
As of today though, it certainly looks like Gerhart will be back, and that will be huge for Stanford.
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