The Atlantic Coast Conference -- that's Stanford's new football conference now, for those who aren't aware -- announced its schedule rotation through the year 2030. (That's rather optimistic considering Clemson and Florida State are already house shopping in the SEC, but no cynicism, remember ..read more

Things didn't go well for the Cardinal. The offense was struggling. Coach Troy Taylor's quarterback carousel continued, with Justin Lamson getting the start but doing nothing to inspire much hope -- or gain much yardage. All three of Lamson's passes on the opening possession fell incomplete, leading to a punt, and though he did complete a pass on the next drive (those would be his total passing stats for the night), the Cardinal punted again after seven plays. If the offense couldn't get going against Colorado's porous defense, it seemed, it might never get going ..read more

I'll have to admit that after spending eight months desperately looking forward to the 2023 version of Stanford Football, I felt surprisingly disconnected as I sat down to watch the Cardinal take on Hawai'i in their season opener last Friday night ..read more

But when a friend offered two seats on the forty-yard line along with a parking pass and an invitation to their tailgate party, I couldn't say no. After all, this 101st matchup between these two teams just might end up being the last. Regardless of the outlook, I had to be there. (It should be noted that not everyone shared my nostalgia; I invited three devoted Stanford fans and then two dedicated college football fans to accompany me, but all declined. My son agreed to go as my last resort ..read more

Towards the tail end of a long morning and afternoon at Media Day, I was able to talk with Stanford's new head coach, Troy Taylor. We only had about ten minutes, so I've transcribed the entire conversation here. My main takeaway from our short chat is that Coach Taylor is confident and excited about what lies ahead, and he's also incredibly nice. I could've happily talked with him for an hour or more on any number of subjects, but we hit on a few interesting things -- his theories on love as it relates to team building; his expectations about how he'll balance his three responsibilities as hea ..read more

Everything is different now. Troy Taylor is Stanford's head coach, no one knows who will be the starting quarterback, and there are twelve conference teams -- for now. USC and UCLA will move to the Big Ten next season, and this week we've learned that Colorado will follow them out the door to the Big 12, meaning that there are big changes coming. Will the conference act quickly (when has this conference ever acted quickly?) to add a team or three? Or will things completely dissolve? Only time will tell ..read more

Stanford's newest head coach is Troy Taylor, and while no one will ever confuse his personality with Harbaugh's, had one thing in common with Harbaugh's -- hope. Following Stanford's recent slide to the bottom of the PAC-12 during an era of unprecedented change across the college football landscape, once again there have been voices calling for change. It was no longer realistic, some argued, for Stanford to compete at this level in this era. (A Stanford professor even used an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times to lament what he saw as the folly of Stanford Football ..read more

Two weeks ago we were invited to a family function that coincided with the kickoff of Saturday evening's game between Stanford and USC. It was something that couldn't be missed, so I set the DVR, put my phone on airplane mode, and hoped for the best. We were going to a UCLA house, so I figured there was a decent chance the game wouldn't be on, so there was a decent chance I wouldn't make a fool of myself by huddling in front of a screen while everyone else made eye contact and spoke to each other like normal human beings. I could hope ..read more

Washington opened with two sacrificial lambs, Kent State and Portland State, beating them by a combined score of 97-26. It was easy to discount those two wins, but last week they beat #11 Michigan State 39-28 in a game that was essentially over at halftime. September rankings don't mean much, but this was still an impressive win over a name brand team, a statement win for a new staff and a new quarterback ..read more

I knew that any number of variables could collapse and push the program back down among the masses, and I wondered how I would feel if that happened. Mostly, I wondered about this blog. Would people still be interested in reading about a program that was struggling? Would I still have the motivation to write about them? I wondered. the dinner party would ever end, I always knew there was a chance that it might ..read more