Cardinal momentum: stanford season preview after a gritty week 0 victory in hawaii

The Stanford Cardinal are officially one game into the season, and they already look way more polished than many expected going into the year.

Going in, Stanford was expected to be the same ol’ Cardinal. 3-9, maybe 4-8, just like the last few years. With many questioning the hiring of head coach Tavita Pritchard, the expectations were quite low on the farm. But what we saw in week one might prove Stanford has something special brewing for the future.

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In week zero, the Cardinal took down the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors 37-27, a comeback from a previous loss on the island the year before.

Stanford did it all. Their run game looked fantastic, with Micah Ford leading the way. Many questioned their new starting quarterback, Michigan graduate transfer Davis Warren, but he actually was able to rally the troops and put together a great week one performance. Warren threw for a whopping 310 yards in his season debut.

Defensive Cardinals: Defensively, the Cardinal looked solid against Hawaii. The linebackers were great, and a scoop-and-score touchdown late by Tevarua Tafiti ended up being the nail in Hawai’i’s coffin. Linebacker Matt Rose led the group with a whopping 9 tackles in Week Zero.

It was a dominant performance all around against Hawaii, and aside from a brief stretch in the second half, the Cardinal looked much better than the year prior, especially due to the great quarterback play from Michigan transfer Davis Warren.

Things are looking great in Palo Alto, CA, and it looks like they could have a pretty solid year one under Pritchard. A lot of the success the group has had is due to the returning talent and the ability of a new coaching staff to keep old talent. On offense, Ford returned at running back, Caden High returned at wide receiver, and some of the good offensive line pieces such as Niki Prongos and Simione Pale remained for another year to provide experience on the farm. Defensively, the linebacker core of Matt Rose, Jahsiah Galvan, and Tevarua Tafiti all returned, and a few players in the secondary came back as well.

But while Stanford is probably objectively better than last season, their schedule makes it tough to trust that they can reach a bowl game. Road games at the Duke Blue Devils, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Louisville Cardinals, and the Virginia Tech Hokies seem like sure losses, and most home games seem unwinnable as well. While they are much better than a four win team, there is a world where they struggle to get wins simply due to the level of competition. It seems like their only confirmed win the rest of the year will be the Elon Phoenix, an FCS program. That means every single game will be a dogfight and competitive until the end. The Cardinal will have to sneak some wins that none believe will actually happen.

But a tough schedule won’t stop Pritchard and the squad from building every single day to create what could be a special year on the farm, something they haven’t had in years.

They begin week one with a battle against the Miami Hurricanes, a team widely considered a national championship contender. So the question is: Can they put the world on notice and use the fuel to power a solid season, or will the Hurricanes embarrass Stanford, creating a spiral that could haunt the team all year?