Before the year comes to a close, I would like to share some parting thoughts on the 2024 Stanford football season. Stanford finished the season 3-9 for the fourth straight season, a troubling trend that they want to move on from in 2025.
For Stanford, this season was obviously a major disappointment. Especially since they didn’t have an increase in wins from year one of the Troy Taylor era to year two. There were some flashes of improvement like the 26-24 win at Syracuse to open up ACC play and the 38-35 home victory over No. 22 Louisville on Senior Day, but the Cardinal weren’t able to build momentum from those wins, losing Big Game to Cal 24-21 in Berkeley and then losing at San Jose State 34-31 to close out the season.
Wide receiver Elic Ayomanor, who is leaving for the NFL, had a strong season, but inconsistent quarterback play from Ashton Daniels and a weak offensive line prevented him from having the kind of season he was hoping to have. And then Stanford wasn’t able to get enough out of the tight ends or running backs.
As for the defense, I felt like they made more of a jump from the previous season. They were tougher in the red zone and oftentimes made key plays to keep the team in the game only for the offense to screw things up. The loss to San Jose State was a perfect example of that. A strip sack that was recovered for a touchdown as well as an interception handed the win to Stanford’s offense on a silver platter and it ended with Daniels getting picked off.
The main source of optimism for next season lies in Andrew Luck being GM of the program along with some talented young players like running backs Micah Ford, Cole Tabb, and Chris Davis Jr. as well as wide receiver Emmett Mosely V and quarterbacks Elijah Brown and Bear Bachmeier. With Luck now in charge, Stanford can have more faith in having someone in charge who understands what Stanford is all about in addition to having more weight with recruits.
Of course, at the end of the day it’s the players who have to go out and make plays and while there are some talented young players on the team, the weakness up front with the offensive line remains a major concern. That unit struggled all season long and will need to find a way to make significant improvements in 2025.
Given how this season went, it’s clear that 2025 is a critical year for Stanford football and especially head coach Troy Taylor. If Stanford doesn’t get to a 6-6 bowl eligible record, one can’t help but wonder how much longer Taylor will hang onto his job. He inherited a tough situation at the start, but at the same time, there is supposed to be improvement from year to year and so far at least, we haven’t really seen that aside from some brief flashes. That better change in the new year.
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