STANFORD, Calif. -- Stanford coach David Shaw has named Ryan Burns the starting quarterback for the season opener.
The redshirt junior had been locked in an even battle with redshirt sophomore Keller Chryst this offseason in a quest to replace Kevin Hogan, the winningest quarterback in program history.
Shaw said that Chryst will also see some action when the Cardinal open their season at home on Sept. 2 against Kansas State.
"Ryan Burns will start and play a good chunk of the game," Shaw said. "Keller Chryst will play as well. We're going to play both guys and try to win a game."
But Burns will be Stanford's starter and is expected to see the majority of playing time.
"There hasn't been a huge separation between the two," Shaw said. "Both guys have played extremely well. Ryan has just barely been enough ahead to get the nod."
Both Burns and Chryst check in at 6-foot-5 and about 235 pounds, which is a build similar to that of former Stanford star QB Andrew Luck -- whom Shaw considers the physical prototype for the position.
Burns and Chryst say that throughout their competition they've watched film of Luck and Hogan, with the goal of emulating the strengths of those two onetime Stanford starters.
Burns and Chryst have already taken at least one page from the playbook of their predecessors: Even as quarterbacks, they both enjoy the contact aspect of football, making them natural fits for Stanford's rugged offense in at least one way.
"We both enjoy hitting people," Burns said.
Since Chryst was the first quarterback off the bench to relieve Hogan last season, some might consider Shaw's selection of Burns as a moderate surprise. But the coach insisted the two were closely matched even last year, and that Burns has required some extra time to acclimate to Stanford's pro-style offense after running the triple-option in high school.
"His high school offense was very different from what we do," Shaw said. "We knew when we recruited him that we were going to ask him to do things he's never done before. ... We knew he had the tools, but there's a lot of muscle memory in what we do. So we had to build up the reserve of experience."
Burns, who is entering his fourth year on campus, said he's more comfortable with Stanford's system than ever before.
"It's been a long process," he said. "There were no checks, no three-play calls in my high school offense. I've been trying to get adapted over the past three years. But the toughness and downhill running that I learned in high school has carried over."
Shaw called Burns and Chryst into his office on Wednesday morning to share his decision, emphasizing that Chryst would rotate in for some series against Kansas State.
"I just took that as, I still have to compete," Burns said. "Nothing is solidified. Just because I'm playing the first snap doesn't mean I'm the starting quarterback for the year at all. Keller's a heck of a quarterback, and he'll always be on my tail and I'll always be on his. I just have to come here and keep working my butt off every day."
Stanford opens the season with a particularly challenging stretch of schedule -- games against USC, UCLA, Washington, Washington State and Notre Dame follow the opener versus Kansas State. For that reason, Shaw said he'll need full productivity out of Burns from the get-go. The coach emphasized that early over-reliance on other offensive veterans like RB Christian McCaffrey could doom the Cardinal.
"We need him to play quarterback," Shaw said. "This is big-time college football. We're not spoon-feeding anybody."