Yays, Nays and OKs for 1-0 Stanford football

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Sept. 8, 2023

Stanford’s 2023 football season opener was aired by CBS Sports Network, which apparently is not available to viewers who wish to purchase a stand-alone streaming subscription. After puzzling over the matter, I wound up not watching the game and instead listening to the KZSU 90.1 Stanford student- and volunteer-run radio station broadcast of the event.

I still have seen very little of the game, although I have watched a few highlights. The Matthew Loves Ball YouTube channel prepared an extended highlights package, as it does for scores of televised sporting events, but I haven’t viewed it due to some personal obligations. 

With that said, let’s dive into the high points, low points and meh points. 

Yays 

• Defense, part 1: Overview. This probably won’t be a good Stanford team, and this team probably doesn’t have a good defense. Still, Yays are all about celebrating, and the defense did plenty to be proud of against Hawaii. The Farm gridders held the Rainbow Warriors to 20 points — pretty good, especially on the road — and 350 yards — meh. But given where this unit has been in recent years, this is an accomplishment. 

• Defense, part 2: Run defense. I can’t leave it there. New defensive coordinator Bobby April’s group absolutely stifled the hosts’ ground attack. Per Stanford sports information, the Warriors’ minus-5 rushing yards were the fewest collected by a Cardinal opponent since the team held Washington State to minus-26 yards in 2014. 

The Cardinal overpowers the Warriors, 37-24, as the Troy Taylor coaching era begins at Stanford

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Sept. 2, 2023

Stanford football cruised to a 37-24 road win over Hawaii in Troy Taylor’s first game as head coach at the Football Bowl Subdivision level.

Sophomore quarterback Ashton Daniels was 25 for 36 with 248 yards, two touchdowns and no picks in his first start, which also saw him gain 42 yards on 11 rushes. Senior tight end Benjamin Yurosek, Stanford’s most established player, caught nine balls for a career-high 138 yards and one score, while senior running back Casey Filkins had a team-high 67 yards on six carries, including a 47-yard run. On the defensive side, sophomore David Bailey confirmed his status as an emerging star by making three sacks, a tackle-for-loss and two other stops.

The game began hours after the Cardinal joined Cal and Southern Methodist University as newly admitted members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, thereby assuring Stanford’s place in an elite athletic conference but further diminishing the chances that the Pac-12 Conference will survive in even a reduced form. The 108-year-old collegiate athletic league is down to two members, Oregon State and Washington State, who will effectively become homeless when 10 current Pac-12 universities decamp for the Big Ten, the Big 12 and the ACC next summer.