The NIL era has not been kind to Stanford football, but then, the years preceding it weren’t so good, either. Stanford hasn’t been to a bowl game since 2018, and other than its 4-2 campaign in 2020, hasn’t finished with a winning record since then either.
Stanford’s high admission standards present an extra hurdle for building a competitive roster and they are especially disadvantageous in the portal era. There is also the matter of financial investment, and the Cardinal are lagging behind the bulk of the power four. I wondered if Stanford might emerge in this money era as a heavier spender—surely there is no shortage of money among its alumni base—but the school has answered that question with a resounding no. It seems school’s potential sugar daddies haven’t taken the time out of their busy schedules building tech companies that make society demonstrably worse.
The results on the field have been predictable, and this season is another case in point. No advanced stats are necessary to illustrate the myriad problems on display.
Stanford has three wins this season: 37-27 over Hawaii (119 in SP+), 34-27 over Georgia Tech (64), and 34-7 over Elon. All three came at home, and the GT game was also a 7:30 p.m. PT kick—the Cardinal are 3-0 in such games against ACC teams from the Eastern time zone, so, uh, there is that.
Stanford’s problems on offense are everywhere but boil down to not being able to run the ball that gives it no choice but to rely on a below-average quarterback to get anything done. All five of the Stanford opponents with a pulse have successfully made the Cardinal one-dimensional by limiting it to fewer than 100 yards rushing. In league games, Stanford is averaging 71.5 rushing yards on 2.5 per carry, and has one rushing touchdown.
Quarterback Davis Warren leads ACC quarterbacks in pass attempts—Stanford is averaging 37 passes per game in league play—but ranks 12th or worse among ACC QBs in touchdown passes, completion percentage, yards per attempt, and passer rating. The line does a decent job protecting him and he’s only thrown two interceptions in 234 attempts, but this is one of the country’s least explosive offenses and frequently up against it on third downs as a result.
Stanford’s defensive radar is more pathetic than NC State’s, which is saying something—the Cardinal is not even vaguely good at anything. In four ACC games, it has surrendered 10 passing touchdowns and 12 rushing touchdowns. ACC opponents have completed 72% of their passes on 9.5 yards per attempt. They’ve also averaged more than 5.0 yards per rushing attempt against this defense.
Stanford has only four sacks in 2026, and two of those came in Week 1 against Hawaii; the Cardinal average fewer than four tackles for loss per game, which is rates 114th nationally. The lack of disruption up front has been disastrous, obviously—and NC State can certainly relate to that. Running a dime-store defense with no playmakers is one thing these teams have in common.
There are no excuses for Dave Doeren and NC State in this one. Stanford is the worst team on the schedule not named Richmond, there will be roughly seven people in attendance, and it’s a must-win situation that comes with an extra week of preparation. All of the circumstances are advantageous save the kickoff time. We need to see NC State play like the better team that it is, even with an offensive line held together by Scotch tape.