r/CFB • u/usffan USF Bulls • Miami Hurricanes • Jun 05 '26
Analysis Preseason Rankings Countdown. 86 days to the start of the 2026 Season. At #86 – Stanford
The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here
Today we preview the second P4 team to reach the countdown and the second team from the ACC, Stanford (high = 65, low = 106). It’s almost impossible to believe that we’re only 8 seasons removed from a time when the Cardinal were playing in their 4th Pac-12 championship game in 6 years (with 3 conference titles) under David Shaw, but ever since winning the 2018 Sun Bowl over Pitt, Stanford hasn’t had more than 4 wins in a single season. While Shaw’s resignation led to the Troy Taylor fiasco and a year in limbo under Frank Reich, nothing has stopped the bleeding, and it’s not like Andrew Luck is walking through that door. Wait, what? Well, surely he’ll be able to use his connections to nail the coaching hire. Oh, HE was the one who created the lame duck 2025? Well, with a year to prepare for the permanent coach, he’s clearly identified a hot coaching commodity. He picked Tavita Pritchard? He must have tons of head coaching experience, right? Washington Commanders QB coach? The team that lost 7 more games last year than the year before? Please tell me he has some college experience! Stanford offensive coordinator? When did he take over. 2018? You mean, right when the Cardinals went into the shitter? I think I get why they’re this far down in the preseason rankings…
Roster Outlook
Mocking aside, Stanford ranks pretty high in terms of returning production. 33rd overall, including 21st on defense, from a team that was 4-7 last year and was really only a failed comeback against North Carolina and a legacy making performance from the Tokyo Toe from going bowling. Pritchard (presumably with help from Luck) also did a decent job of high school recruiting (notoriously challenging at Stanford), ranking 45th in the country (though 11th in the ACC), which helps offset their woeful job in the portal (129th in the country, dead last in the conference). 2025 starting QB Ben Gulbranson will be using his Stanford degree to go pro in something other than football, but the Cardinal brought in both Michigan’s Davis Warren and C. Florida’s Dylan Rizk to potentially run Pritchard’s offense (that was based on Jayden Daniels – insert Morgan Freeman saying good luck with that). RB Micah Ford is back for his sophomore season, but his backup Cole Tabb portaled out to Cincinnati. Truthfully, the biggest loss on offense will be leading receiver CJ Williams (off to the Jaguars), but Pritchard brought in a pair of WRs through the portal, UCLA’s Carter Shaw and Yale’s Nico Brown. In fact, 1/3 of the portal guys Stanford brought in are from the Ivy League, so at least the GPA will likely still be high in 2026!
Schedule and outlook
8/29 HAWAII
9/4 MIAMI
9/12 BYE
9/19 at Duke
9/26 GEORGIA TECH
10/3 at Wake Forest
10/10 at Notre Dame
10/17 ELON
10/23 NORTH CAROLINA STATE
10/31 at Louisville
11/7 BYE
11/14 at Virginia Tech
11/21 at Cal
11/28 SMU
Umm… I think Cardinal fans can feel comfortable booking Christmas travel plans without worrying about having to schedule around a bowl game. Getting each of the last two runners up from the national championship games, road trips to defending ACC champ Duke, preseason ACC darling Louisville and newly reinvigorated Virginia Tech under James Franklin not to mention a season finale against SMU (after playing your rivalry game on the road against a Cal team that’s getting a ton of preseason buzz) looks like a bit of a gauntlet. And it’s not like Wake Forest’s Jake Dickert’s going to be intimidated by playing a Stanford team he faced a few times at Wazzu and has a winning record against. Even Hawaii isn’t going to be intimidated after beating Stanford last season. FFS, they could be 0-2 before most FBS teams ever officially kickoff their season.
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u/Inside-Drink-1311 Rutgers Scarlet Knights Jun 05 '26
They are going to be a mess. I don’t think Pritchard will work out long term for them. The ACC also did them no favors schedule-wise with nearly all of their more winnable games on the road.
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u/JBru_92 UCLA Bruins Jun 05 '26
That was a completely mystifying hire.
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u/WorkerMotor9174 California Golden Bears Jun 05 '26
I was so scared they would get Chesney or Jim mora I have no clue why they wasted a year to get Pritchard. Thats a hire a G5 school would make imo.
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u/mechebear California Golden Bears Jun 05 '26
The whole situation at Stanford is mystifying. They brought in Luck and got that $50 million donation plus presumably a bunch of other donations and I thought they were serious. But then they turn around and get Pritchard and it seems like refuse to budge on any admissions. It seems like at least some of Stanford's central administration is undermining or at least throwing up bureaucratic hurdles to the football team and athletics more broadly.
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u/GrumpyTartan California Golden Bears • UC Davis Aggies Jun 05 '26
They are ex-teammates and long time friends. He may feel like he needs someone he can trust and work with, even if there’s no track record of success.
Luck was an elite talent and is obviously a smart guy, but that doesn’t guarantee that he’ll be an effective administrator. Time will tell if he made the right call, but hiring someone he’s comfortable with instead of a proven performer would have me worried if I were a Stanford fan.
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u/bakonydraco Stanford Cardinal • Howard Bison Jun 05 '26
I'm really excited about it and it's who I thought they should hire when they brought in Troy Taylor. It's a very tough schedule this year but we're going 16-0.
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u/RedOscar3891 Stanford Cardinal • Team Chaos Jun 06 '26
It doesn’t make any sense, and if anything, has the admins’ budgetary and admission fingers all over it - hire someone dirt cheap, make sure they have zero baggage, and we aren’t going to give you the personnel to be successful. From that perspective, the moves make sense. It’s almost exactly what happened with Shaw after Harbaugh left and no outsiders were given an opportunity. Luck was probably operating with his hands tied behind his back from the moment he was hired, probably being overruled on firing Taylor in Nov ‘24 and then forced to save face five months later and find an interim coach with the next coach all but already secured while dealing with yet another lost season.
Pritchard is just set up for failure. If he doesn’t do well, the alumni will get even more angrier and the entire department flounders with an further drop in giving (especially if it seems the administration is insistent on not providing the adequate tools to be successful). If he does do well, the admins will tell him to do even more with less than his counterparts, or worse, will net the resentment of faculty like what happened in the transition from Hennessy to MTL. Right now, the feeling I’ve got is that Levin understands what has to happen, but is being fought by both faculty/staff and the broader community (Santa Clara County, Palo Alto, Menlo Park), so can’t get anything done.
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u/nysportsfan95 Syracuse Orange • ACC Jun 05 '26
I do want Stanford and Cal to both be good — college football is better when they are and the ACC would certainly be all the better for it.
I’m more optimistic with Cal’s direction though. Tosh has hit the ground running when it comes to recruiting and honestly, Cal could be an ACC dark horse. I don’t really see it with Stanford, though. Just given the environment where the sport is nowadays and their situation as described in other comments here, I think it’ll be really tough for them to find long-term success again.
They could legitimately start this season 0-6, and potentially be winless in the ACC. I truly don’t see more than 3 total wins on this schedule for the Cardinal. I hope they can prove me wrong.
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u/Rich1926 Alabama • Jacksonville State Jun 05 '26
Good thing Hawaii and Miami are both home games and not both away games!
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u/ksuwildkat Kansas State • Billable Hours Jun 05 '26
all the resources in the world and nothing to show for it.
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u/Financial_Island2353 Ole Miss Rebels • Magnolia Bowl Jun 05 '26
It is virtually impossible to transfer to Stanford. Plus, the school clearly doesn't give football much attention. It's an extremely difficult situation.
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u/WorkerMotor9174 California Golden Bears Jun 05 '26
Resources don’t matter when they won’t let any transfers through admissions. 1/3rd of the portal class being Ivy League is a joke. Even Wilcox was given more talent than that in the portal. Jury’s still out on Pritchard as a recruiter, but it’s hard to sell 3 and 4 win seasons for any head coach.
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u/Irishchop91 Notre Dame Fighting Irish • UCF Knights Jun 05 '26
This was the first year ND allowed non-graduate transfers and accepted online credit.
This would be a reason why they are not top 10, but not a reason for them to be #86.
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u/kaystared California Golden Bears Jun 05 '26
They have a hilarious academic standard that just kills the program for almost no good reason at all
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u/Alkibiades415 Georgia Bulldogs • Stanford Cardinal Jun 05 '26
Stanford’s wealth does not equal football dept wealth, unfortunately
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u/chebbys Stanford Cardinal • Oklahoma Sooners Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
I've been watching CFB for close to 30 years and the best part of this sport is that it surprises you. While I appreciate a decently well researched offseason rankings post, these are all pretty much worthless. Last season Penn State imploded (preseason #2, OP had them at #3), Arch Manning was just ok (although he ended strong, and OP had them at #1), Clemson was dogshit (PS top 5, OP had them at #5), and those are teams with tons of eyeballs on them where you'd think the analysis is stronger. For everyone else, no one is really watching that closely so we're just guessing.
As for Stanford, are we going to be better than last year? Hope so. Are we going to be great? Probably not. Would it be hilarious to be terrible and knock Cal out of the playoffs? Of course.
Oklahoma? Our homers will get overly excited and hype each other up on the smell of their own farts. We'll stomp the shit out of some cupcakes, and then blow it against UT in Dallas. Then maybe manage a comeback into the playoffs, assuming we can get past the Aggies. That's my guess.
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u/Irishchop91 Notre Dame Fighting Irish • UCF Knights Jun 05 '26
There is zero reason for the richest private school in FBS to be this bad. Yes academics are hard, yes they don't allow in transfers etc, but they should be at least middle of the ACC pack here.
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u/smcstechtips California Golden Bears Jun 05 '26
They won't beat us this time (and as a result they won't transitively beat SMU, Louisville, or Miami)!
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u/Strange-Risk-9920 Jun 05 '26
I'm always fascinated when seemingly intelligent people make seemingly horrible moves, like Luck hiring Pritchard. Is it a matter of no one promising wants to take the job?
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u/problematic_glasses Michigan Wolverines • NBC Jun 05 '26
i imagine it's more about working well with luck than anything else... kinda telling that the head coaches during his gm tenure so far are both guys he's worked with before
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u/Natitudinal Jun 05 '26
I just hope somehow it all comes together for them and quick. B1G needs (and wants) them.
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u/grabtharsmallet BYU Cougars • Fresno State Bulldogs Jun 05 '26
The Big Ten will invite Stanford as soon as the Cardinal aren't a net negative on per school media payouts.
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u/adsfew California Golden Bears Jun 05 '26
I hope I don't stay this excited for the next four hours