Let's take a look at Stanford Football.
Best / Worst Case Record for :
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Stanford
From 2009 – 2018 Stanford never won fewer than 8 games. For nearly a decade, Stanford was one of the country’s 10 best college football programs. Jim Harbaugh started things off, and David Shaw continued it for years. Then when it fell off, it really fell off. Stanford has won 9 games in the last 3 years, and now it’s up to Troy Taylor to get Stanford back. He’s only been at Stanford 1 year, but it was a rough 3-9 season. Stanford is new to the ACC, but isn’t coming off a 10 win season like SMU and even Cal went to a bowl game last year. How are the Cardinals going to handle their first season in the ACC?
Will Go 6-6 (4-4) if:
There’s significant improvement on both sides of the ball. Stanford was bad on offense, and even worse on defense last year. Ok but Troy Taylor is in his second year and coaches like Georgia Tech’s Brent Key and Virginia Tech’s Brent Pry made big leaps in year two at their schools. If they could swing a couple of upsets early maybe TCU, maybe at Syracuse, maybe Virginia Tech at home, then they could get to the SMU game 3-3. Then a 3-3 finish could get Stanford into a bowl game. Elic Ayomanor is one the best wide receivers in the ACC, and Ashton Daniels returns at QB. There is a chance the offense could be sneaky good.
Will Go 3-9 (1-7) if:
The defense was as bad as it was last year. The Stanford defense wasn’t just bad it was atrocious last year. It was 129th in scoring, 130th in pass defense, and 129th in Total Defense. Stanford couldn’t compete in the Pac12 with that, and they won’t be able to compete in the ACC with that. The offense was pretty awful too ranking 110th in scoring. Look at the start of the schedule, and Stanford could be staring at a 1-6 start with TCU, at Syracuse, at Clemson, Virginia Tech, at Notre Dame and SMU. Stanford has some experience, but not an especially talented roster. The Cardinals could end up the ACC’s worst team.
