Know the Enemy 2023: Stanford Cardinal Football

A friend answers our questions

credit: calbears.com

We asked our friends over at The Gate 13 Podcast to answer some questions about Stanford football for us. Eric and Issac graciously answered the call to be our go-to experts for the upcoming matchup.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Some answers were edited slightly for clarity. Any additional input provided will be clearly denoted with “WFC:” at the start.

Stanford has spent the season alternating between surprisingly competitive performances and abject blowouts. Is there any pattern or explanation for this, or is it just the inherent randomness of college football?

E&I: There is a pattern. We’re bad. We’ve lost (sometimes badly) to teams that are decent or better, and we beat teams that suck. So we feel like we might have a good chance against Cal. We played Washington close, but they seem like they play everyone close (except Cal). We don’t think there’s more to it than that.

We have to ask you about . . . sigh . . . Troy Taylor. How has the former Bear managed things in his first season on the Farm, and how optimistic do you feel about his tenure?

E&I: We were always going to be terrible this year, but if we still had Shaw we’d also have no hope. We needed a culture builder, and Taylor seems like he may be the right guy for that.

The Harbaugh-Shaw tenure was defined by the term "intellectual brutality", what term has the Taylor tenure tried to use as their trademark?

E&I: Taylor talks a lot about building a “culture of love”. He wants guys who want to be at Stanford and want to play football. In recent years, we’ve had a lot of players who want to be at Stanford, and a lot who want to play football, but not that many who want to do both at the same time.

Injuries have plagued your roster and testing your depth, who emerged from the 3-4 deep that has pleasantly surprised you? On the flip side, did you have someone stashed deep on the depth chart that had a lot of promise coming out of HS that has shown why he has been buried on the depth chart?

E&I: Nah, our injuries haven’t been that bad. We just aren’t good at football. We don’t think injuries have plagued our roster more than a typical team. We haven’t had to go that deep on the depth chart because of injuries.

We’ve had a few freshmen win starting jobs during the season, so that’s been a nice surprise. A couple of wide receivers and offensive linemen in particular. But they won those jobs because they were playing well.

Going back towards injuries, it seems like it has sapped skill position players like John Humphreys and Benjamin Yurosek the most. In addition to David Bailey's various nicks, how has this team's ceiling changed throughout the season?

E&I: There haven’t really been that many injuries, so our ceiling hasn’t changed much.

How excited are you to join the ACC? Which longstanding rivalry are you excited to revive with our Atlantic brothers?

E&I: You must mean our rivalry with Virginia Tech, which began when we blew them out in the Orange Bowl. That was fun. Great trip to South Beach.

We’re excited to visit some new cities, and it beats the alternative of having no conference at all. Can’t wait to go back to Miami to play against the U, and to beat the teams that voted against us to join the conference.

But all of this sucks. We’ll miss the Pac-12.

What do you think are the greatest positions of need this off-season via the portal to rebuild quickly?

E&I: We can patch some holes via the portal, but we can’t really rebuild that way. Much more important is that we avoid losing key players to the portal, which was a crippling problem for years under Coach Shaw.

But it couldn’t hurt to have another Gaethan Bernadel (or two) at inside linebacker, get some more old dudes on both lines and maybe a durable running back who Taylor trusts.

Ashton Daniels seems to be the more consistent quarterback this year. What has shined most about his development from last year to now and does Troy Taylor's use of Justin Lamson keep you uneasy or is it a system you are comfortable watching?

E&I: Well, we didn’t know anything about Daniels prior to this year because he was a gimmick QB under Shaw, so there’s nothing really to say about his development versus last season. But he can throw a decent ball, and his pocket awareness seems to have gotten a little better over the season. Lamson is mostly a running back at this point. We assume the Taylor offense is not in its final form with this roster. He’s trying a lot of different things.

Which player on offense should Cal fans know about?

E&I: Hopefully, you know about Elic Ayomanor at this point. His gloves from the Colorado game are now in the College Football Hall of Fame. He’s #14 in the country in receiving yards as a redshirt freshman. He’s good for at least one huge play per game.

Which player on defense should Cal fans know about?

E&I: We don’t really have any standout guys on defense this year. Maybe Tevarua Tafiti, a redshirt freshman OLB who’s been really solid in the last few games. Or Collin Wright, a redshirt freshman CB. He’s getting beaten some, but he’s our highest-graded starter on PFF and has been a really strong tackler.

Who’s one under-the-radar or X-factor player who could swing this game for you?

E&I: You already know about our kicker, Groza finalist Josh Karty. He’ll make a field goal from our half of the field if he has the chance. More under the radar might be true freshman wide receiver Tiger Bachmeier, who is a super entertaining WR2 with Troy Polamalu hair. You can’t miss him.

What does Stanford need to do to win the game?

E&I: Limit the damage from Cal’s run game, get the ball to Elic and Tiger, don’t turn it over.

What does Cal need to do to win the game?

E&I: Get pressure on Daniels all day to force mistakes, don’t abandon the run, don’t let Elic beat you. We’d say don’t let Elic get open, but as Travis Hunter knows, Elic doesn’t need to be open.

How do you see the game going?

E&I: We suck, but Cal also sucks. We do pretty well against teams that suck, so we steal a win in overtime and the Axe comes home.

We don't condone violence at W4C, but we like this question as an opportunity for folks to air it out. Whom do you most want to punch in the face?

E&I: The people at USC, Fox, and the Big Ten who decided to destroy our conference for peanuts.

WFC: Amen.