Peter Kalambayi Key to Maintaining Elite Stanford Defense

For each of the last three seasons, the Stanford Cardinal have boasted the best defense in the Pac-12. If they hope to continue that trend in 2015, they face the daunting challenge of replacing just about everyone on the defensive side of the ball with one of the least experienced defensive depth charts in the country. The key to Stanford’s continued success, however, will be the continued development of outside linebacker Peter Kalambayi.

The lack of experience on the Stanford defense is pretty striking. The team loses every starter from their 2014 defensive line and secondary with the only real experience coming at linebacker with inside linebacker Blake Martinez, the team’s leading tackler last season, and outside linebacker Kevin Anderson. Everywhere else, the team will be turning to new, untested players to pick up the slack and maintain the high level of play that the Cardinal have come to expect from their defense.

No player may be better prepared to step up into their new expanded role quite as successfully as Kalambayi. As one of the more heavily pursued pass rushers of the 2013 recruiting class, the 6-foot-3, 245-pound linebacker committed to come west to Palo Alto and has been patiently honing his craft behind some of the Pac-12’s best defenders. He had limited opportunities to play in 2014 but he made the most of it, recording 6.5 sacks, 9.5 tackles for loss, and an interception in a backup role.

With a move into the starting lineup, Stanford is counting on Kalambayi to emerge as the team’s go-to pass rusher and keep that edge in the Cardinal defense. That’s a vitally important role for a defense that watched players that accounted for 54 percent of their sacks last season graduate. Can Peter Kalambayi rise to the challenge and keep the Stanford defense on top of the Pac-12 in 2015?

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