College football season is back baby, ushered in as always by some wonky Week 0 matchups. While Kansas State and Iowa State battled in Ireland, Stanford took on Hawaii two ponds away in Honolulu.
Andrew Luck's first full season as GM of Stanford Football combined with the arrival of former Colts and Panthers HC Frank Reich on the Farm produced a palpable feeling of optimism in the offseason, despite key departures and ample roster questions.
For many fans, the bubble burst on Saturday when the Cardinal fell to the Rainbow Warriors 20-23 in a frustrating and inconsistent game.
The season started off beautifully: Stanford opened with a solid drive that ended in a field goal, after which Hawaii's kick returner mistakenly called a fair catch off of a bounce, forcing their drive to start at the 1 yard line. The Cardinal defense capitalized, strip-sacking Hawaii's rookie QB in the endzone and taking an early 10-0 lead.
Building off that positive momentum was Micah Ford, who absolutely earned this article's featured photo. Ford would go on to take the rock 26 times for 113 yards and a TD as he bulldozed his way through many a Rainbow Warrior. He looked unstoppable throughout, and while we should be careful not to overreact to his performance against a mid-tier Mountain West squad, he flashed quite a few times and looked special:
Ford's touchdown run above was not only a bright spot in the game (ending a 17-3 Hawaii run), but it was also a bright spot for the decade, as this was Stanford's first rushing TD by a running back since September of 2023. In fairness to the Cardinal, former HC Troy Taylor was fond of swapping in mobile QB Justin Lamson for goal line plays, but even still... you'd think one of our running backs would've rattled off an unintentional touchdown in the past 23 months!
Sedrick Irvin (10 carries, 46 yards) and Cole Tabb (4 carries, 26 yards) both had solid showings as well, and with all three backs averaging more than 4.3 yards per carry, you might be asking yourself why didn't Stanford run the whole game?
The performance of Stanford QB Ben Gulbranson makes that question even harder to answer. The Oregon State transfer and senior was 15/30 on the day for 109 yards and an abysmal interception on (what could've been) the game-sealing drive. With Gulbranson under center, the passing game was dysfunctional, insulting to watch, and good for -0.33 EPA per dropback. Despite this, the Cardinal continued time and time again to commit to the air attack. Stanford's final drive—with a tie game and 2 minutes to play—was a three-and-out consisting of a 3 yard run by Ford and 2 sputtering incompletions by Gulbranson. Stanford would then kick the ball to Hawaii with 1:28 left—plenty of time to knock in the game winning field goal.
Cardinal faithful should hope that QB Elijah Brown—once heir apparent—can take back the starting job. Even so, the final drive's commitment to a floundering passing attack, even when clock management demanded the rush, calls into question Coach Reich's decision-making.
Now that you understand the dysfunctional quarterbacking portion of this article's title, we can discuss the aura farming. Well, despite Coach Reich's insistence on the passing attack, despite Gulbranson's critical interception, despite the questionable clock management on the final drive... it's also fair to say that we lost this game because of an excessive celebration inspired by... Indonesian boat racing of all things:
After a monster sack that would've set up 3rd and 22 for the Rainbow Warriors, seventh year super senior Clay Patterson (a Yale transfer) decided to mimic a dance move that went viral on TikTok, resulting in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that set up a Hawaii TD on the next play. Worse, this particular TD drive by the Rainbow Warriors included 45 penalty yards. We certainly expected more discipline from a squad led by a former NFL coach.
The Cardinal should take pride in relatively clean offensive and defensive lines, promising rushing performances, and a culture that certainly feels more positive than in previous years, but the quarterback play, secondary, and immature penalties point toward another difficult year for Stanford fans, particularly with few freebies on the schedule.
Until next time, Go Card and Go Jack West, Young Man!
--Fear The Me.