Cardinal head coach David Shaw confirmed via a statement Friday afternoon that Skov has been fully reinstated to the Stanford football program. He will, however, have to serve a one-game suspension at the beginning of the new football year as part of the reinstatement process.

Shayne lead the Cardinal in tackles in 2011 and will likely do so in 2012.

“Quarterbacking: So easy a caveman can do it!”

Wait! That could be a NCAA violation! Maybe they should send him a Facebook “thank you” message instead….

Anyways, one quarterback that should send Luck a Christmas card, some strippers, and throw him a birthday party this year is Jimmy Clausen of the Carolina Panthers.  He finished his rookie season with the worst QB rating of starting quarterbacks and also the worst pass yard per game average in the league. I’ve already outlined why I think he deserves another chance to prove his worth to the franchise, but it surely looked like Carolina was prepared to move on after just one year.

With Luck out the picture there will be no more excuses for Jimmy Clausen.  He’s had a year “under the gun”.  He is going to get Jeff Otah, Trevalle Wharton, and De’Angelo Williams back on offense.  He may get AJ Green as well on offense.  And last but certainly not least he won’t have to look over at the sideline and see Andrew Luck ready to take his job.

Everything that Clausen does good or bad this year will forever be linked to what the Panthers could of had with Luck on offense.  While Luck is running a Heisman campaign next year, Panthers fans will be stuck with Clausen for better or worse.  A few bad games again and the seat is going to get really hot for Clausen.  Don’t rule out Tony Pike getting a shot if things get that bad.

All in all, 2011 is going to be “the year of Clausen and Luck” in Carolina.  Jimmy has to play well, or the Panthers may be in the position to take Luck AGAIN in 2012!  Now wouldn’t that be a story?!

In the season’s biggest game, the Orange Bowl nonetheless, Andrew Luck cemented his stake as the number one prospect in the 2011 draft.  Luck was almost unstoppable going for 187 yards and 4 touchdowns on a highly praised Virgina Tech defense.  Luck showed all of the characteristics of his game that have NFL teams drooling.

Luck’s pinpoint accuracy on short three step drops and longer downfield throws was something to be seen.  In a lot of ways he resembled Sam Bradford of last year’s Oklahoma Sooners who was the #1 pick in the 2010 draft.  The arm strength and accuracy is definitely there folks.  This is no hype.

As far as ‘intangibles’ go Luck is very similar to Matt Ryan. You aren’t going to see Luck running around screaming at his teammates often, that just isn’t his style.  He is a very confident and calculated player in the huddle just like Matty Ice.  Even after the game Luck handled himself very calm and collected making sure not to tip his hand as to whether he will be going into the draft or not.

The term “franchise quarterback” is often thrown around far too often on unproven talents at the position, but if last night was any indicator it looks like Luck is the real deal.