After three straight seasons with nine losses, Stanford has bigger issues to address in coach Troy Taylor’s second year than just the new opponents and extra travel that come with joining the ACC.
The Cardinal are working to return to the level of play that made them one of the top teams on the West Coast for a decade under Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw.
“Where we’re playing and who we’re playing, all those things are kind of secondary to our process and our preparation, what we do day in and day out,” Taylor said. “That’s how we live. Obviously, you got to travel across the country a couple times, three times to be exact. Our guys will adapt. There’s been harder things to overcome.”
The Cardinal have struggled in the past three seasons, finishing 3-9 each year.
Only UMass and Akron have lost more games than Stanford’s 27 among all FBS teams during that period.
This wasn’t always the case at Stanford, which was known for its “intellectual brutality” during a 10-year stretch when the Cardinal never won fewer than eight games in a season and had the sixth-most wins in FBS from 2009-18.
Taylor hopes that having players who are familiar with his system and having more depth after playing with only 75 scholarship players in 2023 will help the Cardinal make significant progress this season.
“I think knowing what they’re doing, the comfort level and the confidence,” he said of the difference this season. “When you’re first getting used to each other and you’re just trying to figure out exactly what you want, how to do it, and I think they got a great feel for that.”
