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  "PageContent": "The digitized scribblings of Matthew E. MillikenNovember 29, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 29, 2025After four long, hard years, the Stanford Axe is back in the hands of the Stanford Cardinal!Under interim head coach Frank Reich, the Farm gridders recorded a dominant win over the boys from Berkeley, who entered the contest with three more wins (6-4 overall for Cal vs. 3-7 for Stanford). The outcome did more than break a three-game in-season losing streak. It gave the Cardinal its more dominant win over a power conference opponent since 2018, it pushed Stanford to its highest win total since the 4-2 team of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and it ended that nasty four-game losing streak to the Bears in what is by far Stanford’s most important rivalry now that USC is off the schedule. (In the Pac-12 days and before, going back to the Pac 8, Cal was probably the bigger rival, but the question was certainly up for debate.)Whatever happens in tonight’s season finale, Reich will always have that 31-10 Big Game win to smile about when contemplating his year on the Farm. So will the graduating seniors, who have stuck with the Cardinal through the worst four-year stretch in the 130-year history of Stanford football, and who — with the notable exceptions of Hunter Barth, the Cal transfer, and Bryce Farrell, the sixth-year Stanford Man — had never before tasted victory against the dirty Golden Bears.Yays• Matt Rose, inside linebacker. With a career-high 14 tackles (six solo), Rose had the most tackles by a Stanford defender since Malik Antoine had that number in a double-overtime win at UCLA in 2020. It was also the most by a Cardinal linebacker since Blake Martinez’s 14 stops in a 2015 victory at USC in 2015. What’s more, the Brecksville, Ohio, product had a sack and a fumble recovery. Rose is second in the Atlantic Coast Conference with 97 tackles, behind 118 by NC State’s Caden Fordham. Only five ACC players have recorded more than 14 tackles in a game this season, and none more than 15. (One other player has had 14 tackles in a game this season.) In all, this was an outstanding performance by a key piece on the Cardinal defense.• Omar Staples, defensive lineman. The redshirt sophomore had just three tackles, but his nominal stop of Jacob De Jesus for a six-yard loss helped put the Cardinal on top early. De Jesus actually eluded Staples, but as he tumbled to the ground, the Cardinal defender kicked the ball out of the Golden Bear player’s right hand. Enter… Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, C.J. Williams, Cal Golden Bears, california Golden Bears, CJ Williams, college football, Elijah Brown, Emmet Kenney, Jay Green, Matt Rose, Micah Ford, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Omar Staples, Sam Roush, Tevarua Tafiti, University of California at Berkeley (Cal)November 26, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 26, 2025Stanford’s defense scored two fumble-return touchdowns to give their team a halftime lead and recovered a crucial third-quarter fumble in helping propel the Cardinal to a 31-10 Big Game win over Cal on Saturday night at Stanford Stadium.Stanford sacked superstar freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele five times during the game and shut out the visiting Bears in the second half. The win by the Cardinal (4-7 overall, 2-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) snapped a three-game in-season losing streak and a four-game losing streak to Cal. It was Stanford’s first Big Game win since 2020, biggest winning margin since a 41-7 blowout of lower-division Cal Poly in 2024, first win over a Power Four/Power Five opponent by more than two touchdowns since defeating Vanderbilt 41-23 in Nashville in 2021 and first three-touchdown victory over a power conference foe since a 48-17 home win over Oregon State in 2018.The Golden Bears (6-5, 3-4) were already bowl-eligible for the third straight season, but they hurt their chances of holding on to the Stanford Axe by committing 13 penalties for 123 yards. Ultimately, the loss in the 128th Big Game was so demoralizing that Cal football general manager fired head coach Justin Wilcox on Sunday, one game before he completed his ninth regular season as head man in Berkeley. The Bears stifled the Cardinal offense in the early going, limiting the Farm gridders to 71 yards and less than eight and a half minutes of possession in the first half. But the tables turned in the second half, as Stanford held Cal without a first down for a roughly 23-minute stretch bridging the late second quarter through the 8:39 mark of the fourth quarter. And while Cal got 83 yards and converted three of six third downs in the final stanza, the Cardinal sacked Sagapolutele four times in that quarter alone to preserve the second-half shutout.Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|1 Comment »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, C.J. Williams, Cal Golden Bears, california Golden Bears, CJ Williams, college football, Darrius Davis, Elijah Brown, Emmet Kenney, Jahsiah Galvan, Jay Green, Matt Rose, Micah Ford, Mitch Leigber, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Omar Staples, Sam Roush, Tevarua Tafiti, University of California at Berkeley (Cal)November 22, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 22, 2025Stanford football got ideal September weather for their road tilt at UNC on Nov. 8, as the temperature was in the 70s. The Cardinal did not go oh-fer in their trips to the Triangle that weekend. On Sunday, the Stanford woman’s soccer team beat Notre Dame in a penalty-kick thriller to back up their ACC regular-season title with the ACC tournament title.Yays• Caden High, wide receiver. All the junior transfer out of South Carolina State did at UNC was record his second 100-yard receiving game in a Stanford uniform, catching 10 balls for 102 yards, both of which led all players. High is third on the team in catches (32) and fourth in receiving yards (380), but his 16.3 yards per catch is the best mark of any Cardinal this year with multiple receptions. High also had a 20-yard kickoff return to start the game. His 10 returns for 205 yards lead the team in those categories.• Matt Rose, inside linebacker. The Brecksville, Ohio, native once again led the Cardinal in tackles with eight (five solo). In the second quarter, the redshirt junior recorded his second sack and first forced fumble of the season. Rose’s 8.3 tackles per game rank third in the Atlantic Coast Conference and 40th nationally. Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|1 Comment »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, C.J. Williams, Caden High, CJ Williams, college football, Elijah Brown, Emmet Kenney, Matt Rose, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Sam RoushNovember 21, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 21, 2025North Carolina defenders sacked Elijah Brown nine times and the Tar Heels offense scored the decisive touchdown on a fourth-quarter defensive miscue to beat Stanford football 20-15 on Nov. 8 in Chapel Hill.Even though the Cardinal offense converted 10 of 18 third downs, outgained the Tar Heels by nearly 70 yards and held the ball for more than 32 minutes and the Cardinal defense limited the Heels to just 50 rushing yards on 27 attempts, UNC secured the win with a pair of second-half touchdown passes. The second scoring pass, for 55 yards, gave the Heels a 20-3 advantage early in the fourth quarter. That proved too much for an inconsistent Stanford offense to overcome. The result assured the Cardinal (3-7 overall, 2-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) of its fifth straight losing season while the host Tar Heels (4-5, 2-3) clawed their way towards respectability with only their second win against a Power Four conference opponent. Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|1 Comment »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, Bryce Farrell, C.J. Williams, Caden High, CJ Williams, college football, Elijah Brown, Emmet Kenney, Jay Green, Matt Rose, Micah Ford, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Sam Roush, UNC Tar Heels, University of North Carolina (UNC)November 8, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 8, 2025Stanford’s 35-20 loss to Pitt snapped a four-game winning streak that dated back to Nov. 16, 2024, when the Cardinal upset No. 22 Louisville. Yays• Brandon Nicholson, cornerback. All the sophomore did was pick off Pitt freshman quarterback Mason Heintschel twice in the end zone in the second half to keep Stanford within striking distance of the visiting Panthers. As noted in my game report, no Cardinal had recorded multiple interceptions in a game since Paulson Adebo’s double in 2019 against Arizona.• C.J. Williams, wide receiver. The Mission Viejo, Calif., product is the Cardinal’s leading receiver in 2025 with substantially more catches (47), yards (598) and touchdowns (four) than any other player on the team. On Saturday, he torched Pitt for 122 yards and two scores on seven receptions. Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, Brandon Nicholson, C.J. Williams, CJ Williams, college football, Elijah Brown, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Pitt Panthers, Sam Roush, University of PittsburghNovember 7, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 7, 2025Pitt scored four touchdowns in the second and third quarters to break open a close game and claim a 35-20 win at Stanford Stadium on Saturday afternoon.Freshman quarterback Mason Heintschel completed 25 of 38 passes for 304 yards and three scores for the visiting Panthers (7-2, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference). Heintschel also tossed two interceptions and lost two fumbles. But a salty Pitt defense picked off Stanford quarterback Ben Gulbranson three times and held the Cardinal to its worst rushing performance in nearly 20 years to limit the damage.Gulbranson, a redshirt senior, went 17 for 30 for 228 yards and a score before giving way to redshirt freshman Elijah Brown (10 for 14, 108 yards, one score and no picks). Receiver C.J. Williams had seven receptions for 122 yards and a career-high two touchdowns, while tight end Sam Roush had 104 yards on eight catches, the latter of which tied his career high from this season’s tilt at SMU.Stanford’s offensive line gave up five sacks for 46 yards and the Cardinal finished with minus-10 rushing yards, the team’s worst rushing performance since netting minus-11 yards on 25 carries in the 2005 season finale, a 38-31 home loss to Notre Dame. The line’s struggles were a major factor in the Cardinal (3-6, 2-4 ACC) sustaining its first loss of the season in four home games.Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|2 Comments »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, Ben Gulbranson, Brandon Nicholson, Bryce Farrell, C.J. Williams, CJ Williams, Clay Patterson, college football, Elijah Brown, Emmet Kenney, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Pitt Panthers, Sam Roush, Scotty Edwards, Sedrick Irvin, University of PittsburghOctober 31, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Oct. 31, 2025Stanford football’s 42-7 loss at No. 9 Miami on Saturday night featured arguably the team’s worst defensive effort of the season. But the 35-point loss almost perversely showed how interim head coach Frank Reich and general manager Andrew Luck have made progress since head coach Troy Taylor was fired in the offseason.Through eight games, the 2025 Cardinal defense has allowed only two opponents to score 40 or more points through eight games, and only Miami and Virginia have had victory margins of 24 or more points. By contrast, over the first eight games of 2024, Clemson, Notre Dame and SMU all scored at least 40 points and beat Stanford by at least 26 points, with Virginia Tech also handing the Cardinal an embarrassing 31-7 home loss.The Cardinal was thoroughly outclassed at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday night, but the defense kept its head in the game and fought for 60 minutes. The end result wasn’t pretty — far from it — but teams don’t go from bad to good overnight. Even as Stanford was falling apart in all three phases of the game in the third quarter, the Cardinal defense was able to stymie Miami on a possession that started at the visitor 30-yard line, forcing the Hurricanes to turn the ball over on downs.Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, college football, NCAA football, NCAAfbOctober 31, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Oct. 31, 2025This edition of Yeas, Nays and OKs is dedicated to Virginia Klemz Weber of Ventura, Calif. I woke up Wednesday morning to see a post on the social-media platform I still call Twitter that Virginia Weber had passed away two nights previously. I had known her for years through Twitter, where she was and remained one of the mainstays of a group of Stanford football fans who bonded during the Jim Harbaugh/David Shaw Stanford renaissance. Virginia’s screen name over the past many months was “I’m ProDemocracy ProStanford ProDodgers.” I never had the pleasure of meeting Virginia, but I knew her to be a loyal fan whose support of Cardinal football was matched if not exceeded by her passion for democratic governance. (Virginia also liked the Dodgers, but I am willing to overlook such flaws, especially when the Yankees are not playing Los Angeles in the World Series.) I have never heard or seen anyone say a word against her. Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, Ben Gulbranson, college football, Jahsiah Galvan, Jay Green, Matt Rose, Miami Hurricanes, NCAA football, NCAAfb, University of MiamiOctober 28, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Oct. 28, 2025Miami broke open a tie game in the third quarter with a three-touchdown outburst as the No. 9 Hurricanes cruised to a 42-7 home victory over the Stanford football team in Miami Gardens on Saturday night. The Hurricanes, who may be best team Stanford faces all year, scored five rushing touchdowns in the second half to crack open a 7-7 halftime tie. Junior running back Mark Fletcher Jr. paved the way ‪for Miami with 23 rushes for 106 yards and three touchdowns, all in the third quarter, while Hurricanes freshman receiver Malachi Toney led both teams with 138 all-purpose yards, including five catches for 52 yards, a 13-yard rush and two long punt returns.The Hurricanes, who wore olive-green camouflage jerseys and pants and black helmets with a subtle silver-and-camouflage U logos, had a time-of-possession advantage of more than 13 minutes as they racked up 404 yards of total offense, including 199 on the ground. Miami bumped its record to 6-1 (2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) as the Cardinal fell to 3-5 (2-3 ACC).The Miami defense largely bottled up the Cardinal, who mounted a 74-yard touchdown drive on its first possession but produced just 70 combined yards on the team’s other 10 possessions. Redshirt-freshman running back Cole Tabb carried 19 times for 64 yards, but redshirt-senior quarterback Ben Gulbranson generated only 50 yards through the air with nine completions on 21 pass attempts, including a touchdown and two third-quarter interceptions.Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|2 Comments »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, Ben Gulbranson, C.J. Williams, Caden High, CJ Williams, Cole Tabb, college football, Elijah Brown, Miami Hurricanes, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Sam Roush, Sedrick Irvin, University of MiamiOctober 23, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Oct. 23, 2025Stanford’s battered defense overcame two crucial late penalties and a questionable video-replay call and made a goal-line stand on an untimed down to secure a 20-13 win over Florida State on Saturday night. The result hinged on the final snap of a wild fourth quarter at Stanford Stadium in the first-ever meeting between the two universities on the football field. Inside linebackers Matt Rose and Jahsiah Galvan, both redshirt juniors, combined to stop redshirt-junior running back Gavin Sawchuk just shy of the goal line. When the play ended, various Seminoles players signaled touchdown while numerous Cardinal defenders held their arms up to celebrate, to wave admonitory fingers or to signal that Sawchuk was short even as officials ran in from the sidelines to spot the football. Darryl DeBerry, the referee, announced, “The game is not over. The game is not over.” (A voice that I think may have been general manager Andrew Luck’s also called out “The game is not over” from the sideline.) DeBerry then told the crowd that the ball carrier had been ruled down short of the goal line and that the play would be subject to video review.Approximately one eternity and 25 seconds later, DeBerry announced that the ruling on the field had been upheld and added, “That is the ball game,” as an announced homecoming crowd of 26,470 began to celebrate Stanford’s third win of the season and fourth straight home win dating back to the Nov. 16, 2024, upset of No. 22 Louisville.Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|2 Comments »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, Ben Gulbranson, Bryce Farrell, C.J. Williams, CJ Williams, Clay Patterson, Cole Tabb, college football, Collin Wright, Elijah Brown, Emmet Kenney, Florida State Seminoles, Florida State University (FSU), Jay Green, Matt Rose, Micah Ford, Mitch Leigber, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Sam Roush, Tevarua TafitiOctober 15, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Oct. 15, 2025SMU thwarted two long Stanford football offensive possessions to turn what threatened to be a close football game into a 34-10 laugher on Saturday afternoon in Dallas. A goal-line stand in the second quarter and a pick six in the fourth quarter powered a 28-point swing toward the host Mustangs. SMU moved to 4-2 (2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) while wearing alternative black jerseys, dark-blue pants and helmets with a stylized ‘D’ logo. The visiting Cardinal fell to 2-4 (1-2) in losing its ninth straight road game. The key sequence began with seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter as Stanford drove while trailing 24-10. Transfer redshirt-senior quarterback Ben Gulbranson threw a seven-yard touchdown to transfer junior wide receiver Caden High, but it was wiped out by a penalty on a Cardinal offensive lineman. Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|2 Comments »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, Ben Gulbranson, C.J. Williams, CJ Williams, college football, Emmet Kenney, Micah Ford, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Sam Roush, SMU Mustangs, Southern Methodist University (SMU)October 1, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Oct. 1, 2025Well, that was exciting, wasn’t it?Yays• Ben Gulbanson, quarterback. When you pass for 444 yards, the third-most yards in school history, you’re going to get some approbation from this Stanford football observer. Gulbranson started off with two objectively poor performances against Hawaii and Brigham Young, but he has been on an upward trajectory since then. In the last three games, “Doctor Ben” has proven to be a steady leader with a strong and accurate arm. Kudos to the fifth-year senior transfer on leading Stanford to its first 2-0 start at home since 2018. • C.J. Williams, wide receiver. A week after setting new career highs with nine catches for 103 yards at Virginia, the senior transfer who most recently played for Wisconsin recorded 12 catches (on 19 targets) for 130138 yards. He’s had two outstanding performances in a row.• Caden High, wide receiver. The other highly touted transfer receiver had his best performance yet as a Cardinal, with 110 yards on five catches. High’s last stop was South Carolina State, a lower-division school, and his previous top game as a Cardinal was a three-reception, 29-yard outing at BYU. High has stepped up his play along with Gulbranson and Williams, much to the benefit of his teammates. • Scotty Edwards, safety. The senior from Holiday, Utah, led Cardinal defenders in solo tackles with five and total tackles with eight. He also had one of the team’s eight pass breakups. Despite missing the BYU game, Edwards has 31 tackles on the season, good for second on the team behind Matt Rose‘s 40. Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, Ben Gulbranson, Bryce Farrell, C.J. Williams, CJ Williams, college football, Emmet Kenney, Jay Green, Matt Rose, Micah Ford, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Sam Roush, San Jose State Spartans, San Jose State University (SJSU), Sedrick IrvinSeptember 30, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Sept. 30, 2025Stanford scored three times in the fourth quarter to eke out a 30-29 win over San José State on Saturday night in the Bill Walsh Legacy Game. Quarterback Ben Gulbranson passed for 444 yards, the third most in Stanford football history, and receivers C.J. Williams and Caden High both went over the century mark in receiving yards as the Cardinal outscored the Spartans 16-9 in the final quarter to overcome a 12-point deficit. The redshirt-senior quarterback’s passing helped Stanford overcome an unproductive rushing attack, which netted just 37 yards on 26 carries, and a defensive effort that once again was shredded by an experienced opposing passer.Redshirt senior Walker Eget completed 36 of an astonishing 58 throws for 473 yards and three San José State touchdowns, with Danny Scudero catching 11 balls for 135 yards and two scores. Two other Spartans receivers had triple-digit yardage, as Kyri Shoels made 10 catches for 147 yards and a score and Leland Smith had six receptions for 101 yards.But Gulbranson, who led a last-minute comeback in his 2022 visit to Stanford Stadium with the Oregon State Beavers, won the day with a clutch performance that will stand in Cardinal annals for years to come.Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|1 Comment »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, Aaron Morris, Brandon Nicholson, Bryce Farrell, C.J. Williams, Caden High, CJ Williams, Cole Tabb, college football, Emmet Kenney, Jay Green, Micah Ford, Myles Libman, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Sam Roush, San Jose State Spartans, San Jose State University (SJSU), Sedrick Irvin, Zach JohnsonSeptember 25, 2025 BBy Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Sept. 25, 2025Virginia jumped out to an early three-touchdown lead and never looked back in a 48-20 dismantling of the Stanford football team in Charlottesville on Saturday night. The host Cavaliers outgained Stanford, 590 yards to 321, and sacked Cardinal quarterback Ben Gulbranson five times while limiting the visiting team to just 31 rushing yards in the first-ever meeting of the two schools on the football field. The dominant performance at Scott Stadium bumped Virginia’s record to 3-1 (1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) while dumping Stanford to 1-3 (1-1 ACC).Wahoos quarterback Chandler Morris completed 23 of 31 passes for 380 yards and four touchdowns, with four completions going to Trell Harris for 145 yards and three scores. Morris was able to run to safety when the Cardinal defense attempted to pressure him, often giving himself enough time to set up a big passing play outside the pocket. Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|2 Comments »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, Bryce Farrell, C.J. Williams, CJ Williams, Clay Patterson, college football, Collin Wright, Emmet Kenney, Jay Green, Matt Rose, Micah Ford, Mitch Leigber, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Sam Roush, University of Virginia (UVA), Virginia CavaliersSeptember 20, 2025 By Matthew E. MillikenMEMwrites.wordpress.comSept. 20, 2025Stanford capitalized on three Boston College turnovers, rushed for 213 yards and shut out BC in the second half to claim a 30-20 victory over the Eagles on Saturday night at Stanford Stadium.The Cardinal moved to 1-2 overall (1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) in securing the first win for interim head coach Frank Reich and general manager Andrew Luck. The occasion marked the first time since a 37-24 victory in Troy Taylor’s first game as Stanford head coach in 2023 that the Farm gridders beat a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent by more than three points. Stanford had not beaten a Power Five or Power Four conference opponent by four or more points since the 31-24 overtime upset of No. 3 Oregon in October 2021, and its previous win over a P5/P4 opponent by eight or more points came the month before that in a 41-23 win at Vanderbilt.Fifth-year senior quarterback Ben Gulbranson turned in a steady performance, completing 13 of 22 throws for 186 yards, a touchdown and — perhaps most importantly — no turnovers. Sophomore running back Micah Ford carried 17 times for 157 yards and a score, while senior tight end Sam Roush had a touchdown and 79 yards on three catches and sixth-year senior receiver Bryce Farrell collected 72 yards on five grabs.But the outcome hinged on some inspired play by the Cardinal defense, led by Matt Rose’s game-high 10 tackles. Stanford defenders recorded an interception and two fumble recoveries. Senior cornerback Collin Wright returned a pick 19 yards late in the second quarter to leapfrog ahead of the visitors, 20-17, while Gulbranson’s offense cashed in with touchdowns after each of the fumble recoveries.Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|3 Comments »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, Ben Gulbranson, Boston College (BC), Boston College Eagles, Bryce Farrell, C.J. Williams, CJ Williams, Clay Patterson, college football, Collin Wright, Emmet Kenney, Jay Green, Matt Rose, Micah Ford, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Sam RoushSeptember 13, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Sept. 13, 2025Stanford football is back — and so is the blog! I fully intended to dust off Ye Olde Posting Platform for the Hawaii game. But during the window of time that worked best for me for blogging after the contest, I ran into a problem: WordPress would not let me log into the blog. I managed to clear up that issue, and here we are. “Here we are” may be about the best we can say regarding the Cardinal football program, which dropped a 23-20 decision at Hawaii on a walkoff field goal before seeing its offense throttled by BYU in a dismal 27-3 outing that was somehow both better and worse than it looked. Let’s get into it.Yays• Defense. Does Stanford have its best defense in years? It’s too early to know for sure, but there are some promising early indications. The Cardinal held the Cougars to four field goals in six red-zone trips, fending off BYU in some truly dire situations. The hosts started back-to-back drives in the red zone thanks to Stanford first-half turnovers but only managed to come away with six points. On a night when the Cardinal offense mostly spun its wheels, that felt like a real accomplishment.Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, Bryce Farrell, C.J. Williams, CJ Williams, Clay Patterson, college football, Collin Wright, Emmet Kenney, Jay Green, Matt Rose, Micah Ford, Mitch Leigber, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Sam Roush, Sedrick Irvin, Tevarua TafitiSeptember 12, 2025 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Sept. 12, 2025The Stanford football team had its worst rushing output in four years and its lowest scoring production in 16 in a 27-3 loss at BYU on Saturday night. The Cardinal’s three points and 19 rushing yards represented a significant downgrade from the team’s 177-yard ground attack in a 23-20 loss at Hawaii in the season opener. Brigham Young’s suppression of the Stanford rushing game raised new questions about whether the retooled Cardinal can equal, let alone surpass, the 3-9 record that the team has posted for four consecutive seasons going into the 2025 campaign. Meanwhile, Stanford’s passing offense was only marginally better than its disastrous Aug. 23 outing at Hawaii, when quarterback Ben Gulbranson went 15 for 30 with 109 yards, a pick and no scores. In Provo, Utah, the transfer passer out of Oregon State completed 17 of 32 attempts with 142 yards, two interceptions and no scores. Several of his throws were behind receivers, although on a few occasions the redshirt senior was let down by teammates who did not reel in catchable balls.Gulbranson ranks last or second-to-last in the Atlantic Coast Conference in picks, completion percentage, yards, touchdowns and efficiency. His appearance at the top of the depth chart for this Saturday night’s home opener against Boston College raises questions about what interim head coach Frank Reich and general manager Andrew Luck — both accomplished former professional quarterbacks — see in the former Beaver and why none of the backups at the position have yet to see game action this season.Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2025 Stanford football, Ben Gulbranson, Brigham Young University (BYU), Bryce Farrell, BYU Cougars, college football, Emmet Kenney, Micah Ford, NCAA football, NCAAfbDecember 1, 2024 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Dec. 1, 2024This weekend, I noticed a passage from my writeup of Stanford football’s 20182022 season finale that bears another look now that the 2024 Cardinal campaign has come to a finish:Stanford fell to 3-9, matching its 2021 record. It’s the first time in 128 seasons that Cardinal teams have lost eight or more games in back-to-back season.\r\nNow, unfortunately, Stanford is stuck on a four-year streak of identical 3-9 records. A program that had avoided consecutive catastrophic campaigns for more than a century is now mired in them.  Can the school turn things around? It’s not clear. A lot will depend on whether second-year head coach Troy Taylor can hang onto key young players during the offseason. Taylor will also have to continue recruiting gifted high-school scholar-athletes and developing current and incoming players.Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2024 Stanford football, Ashton Daniels, college football, Collin Wright, Elic Ayomanor, Gaethan Bernadel, NCAA football, NCAAfb, San Jose State Spartans, San Jose State University, Troy TaylorNovember 30, 2024 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 30, 2024Stanford football snatched defeat from the jaws of victory Friday afternoon when a series of late-game missteps nullified an inspiring rally against San Jose State.Ashton Daniels’s interception with 2:39 to play in the fourth quarter gave the host Spartans the football at the visitor 37 while trailing by four points. Behind redshirt-junior quarterback Walker Eget (33 for 49, 385 yards, four touchdowns and a pick), the Spartans capitalized with a three-play, 44-second touchdown drive that gave the hosts a 34-31 lead with 1:55 remaining.The lead stood up when Daniels (26 for 40, 252 yards, a touchdown and three picks) threw a pass into the turf on fourth and six with 1:08 remaining. That enabled San Jose State to kneel out its first win over Stanford since the Cardinal last visited their South Bay rivals in 2006. Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2024 Stanford football, Ashton Daniels, college football, Collin Wright, David Bailey, Elic Ayomanor, Emmett Mosley, Emmett Mosley V, Gaethan Bernadel, Jahsiah Galvan, Justin Lamson, Micah Ford, NCAA football, NCAAfb, San Jose State Spartans, San Jose State University, Tristan SinclairNovember 28, 2024 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 28, 2024Stanford had it all there in front of them: A chance to win, a chance to deal their archrival a setback that could deny them bowl eligibility, a chance to reclaim the Stanford Axe, even a chance to set a few new school records. But it all slipped away over the final quarter and a half as Cal scored 17 straight points for a 24-21 victory in the 127th Big Game.Yays• Defensive front. The Cardinal front seven arguably turned in its finest performance of 2024. Point A: Stanford limited Cal to 72 rushing yards on 30 carries (2.4 yards per run), the lowest opponent ground yardage the team has yielded since Cal Poly and Syracuse managed to gain only 25 and 26 yards in back-to-back September outings. Point B: The Cardinal also recorded a season-high six sacks, beating their previous high of four at Syracuse and four against Wake Forest.• Zach Buckey, defensive lineman. Speaking of the defensive front: Buckey, a senior, had a memorable Big Game. He made a career-high five tackles, including three quarterback sacks for 14 yards. No Cardinal had gotten to a quarterback as many times in a game since David Bailey did it three times at Hawaii in the 2023 season opener. The Bakersfield, Calif., native now has 16 career tackles, including nine this season, having also made seven stops last year. Buckey entered Big Game with 0.5 collegiate sacks to his name.Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2024 Stanford football, Ashton Daniels, Cal Golden Bears, california Golden Bears, college football, Elic Ayomanor, Gaethan Bernadel, Justin Lamson, Micah Ford, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Tiger Bachmeier, Tristan Sinclair, University of California at Berkeley (Cal)November 27, 2024 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 27, 2024Cal’s football team scored 17 unanswered points in the final 16 minutes to earn a 24-21 victory over Stanford on Saturday afternoon in Berkeley. Junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza threw for 299 yards and three touchdowns to help the Bears retain possession of the Stanford Axe for the fourth straight year.Lapses on offense, defense and special teams by the Cardinal paved the way for the Golden Bears to move to 6-5 overall and 2-5 in the Atlantic Coast Conference ahead of a regular-season-ending trip to SMU, which has already guaranteed itself a berth in the conference championship game. Meanwhile, Stanford fell to 3-8 and closed out its inaugural ACC campaign with a dismal 2-6 record, one game ahead of last-place Florida State (2-9, 1-7) and potentially tied with as many as three other teams. If Cal, NC State or Wake Forest lose next weekend, they will finish even in the league standings with the Cardinal.Cal’s victory means that an entire class of seniors will graduate from the Farm without ever having possession of the Axe, the rivalry trophy awarded annually to the Big Game winner. This is the Bears’ longest winning streak over the Cardinal gridders since they strung together five consecutive Ws from 2002 through 2006. Stanford’s only victory in the six games since 2018 — the year the Cardinal won its series-record ninth straight over Berkeley — came in 2020 when Thomas Booker‘s last-minute extra-point block preserved a 24-23 lead and broke a six-game losing streak for head coach David Shaw’s squad. Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2024 Stanford football, Ashton Daniels, Big Game, Cal Golden Bears, california Golden Bears, college football, David Bailey, Elic Ayomanor, Emmett Mosley, Emmett Mosley V, Gaethan Bernadel, Justin Lamson, Micah Ford, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Tobin Phillips, Tristan Sinclair, University of California at Berkeley (Cal), Zach BuckeyNovember 22, 2024 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 22, 2024Turns out that having a bye has done wonders for the Cardinal football team. Stanford has notched walk-off victories following both of its off weeks, with the squad’s only other victory coming against lower-division foe Cal Poly. Yays• Emmet Kenney, placekicker. The senior from Fargo, N.D., is two for two on potential game-winning field goals after nailing a 39-yarder to beat Syracuse and a career-long 52-yarder to beat Louisville. The Atlantic Coast Conference’s specialist of the week is Stanford’s leading scorer with 64 points, has booted 26 straight point-after-touchdown kicks (including 25 this year) and is on pace to finish in the top 10 in school history in both single-season extra-point percentage and single-season field-goal percentage (13 for 15, 86.7 percent).• Emmett Mosley V, wide receiver. Thirteen catches — a Stanford freshman single-game record. Three touchdowns — a Stanford freshman single-game record. One hundred sixty-eight yards — third most by a Stanford freshman in a single game. (The only Cardinal freshmen with more single-game yards were Mark Harris, who had 189 yards on 12 catches at Oregon in 1993, and Richard Sherman, who had 177 yards on just six receptions at Washington in 2006.) Mosley, a Chicagoan, was named the ACC’s rookie and receiver of the week. He is now second on the team in catches (35), receiving yards (361), receiving scores (four) and receiving yards per game (51.6). Can he sustain the success he had against Louisville and pose the kind of complementary receiving threat that will make defenses pay for focusing on Elic Ayomanor? Stanford fans can only hope. Oh, and speaking of Ayomanor… Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2024 Stanford football, Ashton Daniels, college football, Elic Ayomanor, Emmet Kenney, Justin Lamson, Louisville Cardinals, NCAA football, NCAAfb, University of LouisvilleNovember 21, 2024 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 21, 2024Stanford used a rookie’s record-setting receiving performance, three fourth-down conversions and a veteran’s walk-off career-long field goal to rally from a two-touchdown fourth-quarter deficit and defeat a ranked opponent on senior day at Stanford Stadium. Emmet Kenney’s 52-yard three-pointer at the buzzer and three Emmett Mosley V receiving scores, including the game-tying touchdown in the final minute, helped the Cardinal overcome six Louisville sacks and four Louisville rushing touchdowns in a 38-35 victory over the visiting Cardinals on Saturday. The performance in what will likely go down in history as the Emmet(t) Game earned both namesake players weekly honors from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Kenney, a senior, was named specialist of the week, while Mosley was chosen as both rookie and receiver of the week after setting Stanford freshman records for both touchdowns (three) and catches (13).Stanford moved to 3-7 overall and 2-5 in the ACC in bumping off Louisville (6-4, 4-3), which had ranked 22nd in both the Associated Press poll and College Football Playoff standings. Second-year Stanford head coach Troy Taylor secured the Cardinal’s first defeat of a ranked opponent since the overtime upset of No. 3 Oregon in 2021 and its first home win over a Football Bowl Subdivision foe since Joshua Karty gave Arizona State the boot with a school-record five field goals in 2022. Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2024 Stanford football, Ashton Daniels, college football, David Bailey, Elic Ayomanor, Emmet Kenney, Emmett Mosley, Emmett Mosley V, Gaethan Bernadel, Justin Lamson, Louisville Cardinals, NCAA football, NCAAfb, Tiger Bachmeier, University of LouisvilleNovember 16, 2024 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 16, 2024The Cardinal football team’s 59-28 loss to NC State two weeks ago sealed Stanford’s fourth-straight losing record and fifth in sixth years. Since 2018, the Farm gridders have had a winning campaign just once, with a 4-2 record in the six-game Covid-19 season of 2020. The team’s six-game schneid is the longest since Stanford closed out 2021 on a seven-game skid. Can Stanford win another game this season? All I can say for sure is that nothing good is likely to come for this team without a lot of hard work. Yays• Ashton Daniels, quarterback. The junior set a high individual mark for Stanford single-game rushing this season with 129 yards on just 11 carries, two of which comprised scoring runs of 67 and 48 yards. The only longer run than that 67-yarder in recent Stanford history came when E.J. Smith busted out for an 87-yard touchdown against Colgate in 2021. Daniels has had an inconsistent season, especially through the air, but his ground game was simply magnificent in Raleigh two weeks ago. Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2024 Stanford football, Ashton Daniels, Cole Tabb, college football, Elic Ayomanor, Emmett Mosley, Emmett Mosley V, Justin Lamson, N.C. State University (NCSU), NC State University (NCSU), NC State Wolfpack, NCAA football, NCAAfb, North Carolina State University (NCSU), Sam RoushNovember 15, 2024 By Matthew E. Milliken MEMwrites.wordpress.com Nov. 15, 2024North Carolina State’s football team crushed visiting Stanford, 59-28, in a game played in Raleigh on Nov. 2. The Cardinal extended its losing streak to six in falling to 2-7 overall and 1-5 in the Atlantic Coast Conference on a day when head coach Troy Taylor’s offense was inconsistent and his defense was atrocious. Meanwhile, the Wolfpack (5-4, 2-3) scored eight touchdowns and a field goal over their first nine possessions behind true-freshman quarterback C.J. Bailey, who completed 18 of 20 passes for 234 yards with three touchdowns and a pick. Poor execution by Stanford’s offense and kickoff-coverage team helped the Wolfpack mightily in their first-ever gridiron clash with the Cardinal. NC State’s average starting field position was the home 43-yard line, while Stanford’s average starting position was on its own 28.Read the rest of this entry »Posted in Sports|Leave a Comment »Tags: 2024 Stanford football, Ashton Daniels, Cole Tabb, college football, Elic Ayomanor, Emmett Mosley, Emmett Mosley V, Justin Lamson, Kahlil House, N.C. State University (NCSU), NC State University (NCSU), NC State Wolfpack, NCAA football, NCAAfb, North Carolina State University (NCSU), Sam Roush",
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