Stanford hasn't had a 1,000-yard rusher since Bryce Love soared past that mark and finished with 2,118 yards in 2017. Since that point, the Cardinal's best single-player rushing season has been Cameron Scarlett, who netted 840 yards on 201 carries, averaging 4.2 yards per rush. 

Things have been so bad in the running game of late that in 2023 two quarterbacks, Justin Lamson (334 yards) and Ashton Daniels (296 yards), led the way for Stanford's run game. EJ Smith's 53 carries for 218 yards were the highest total by a running back. 

In 2024 Daniels led the way with an impressive 669 yards rushing as a quarterback, but we also saw the first season of Micah Ford with the Cardinal. He rushed 76 times for 309 yards as a freshman, and followed that up by leading the program in rushing yards in 2025 with 145 carries for 643 yards. 

Cole Tabb was getting a similar workload last season, rushing 114 times for 445 yards, but he entered the transfer portal after the season and ended up with the Cincinnati Bearcats for his own junior campaign in 2026.

The Chase for 1,000

After Ford rushed for 643 yards last season, he's already surpassed that mark this season, gaining 679 yards on 136 carries (5.0 yards per carry), adding a career-high eight touchdowns to his ledger. 

With four games remaining, Ford needs to average just 80.25 yards per game. Over the course of the season, he's averaging 84.88 yards a contest, so he's on pace. The one big caveat here is that he's only surpassed 80 yards rushing in three of Stanford's eight games, including Week 0 against Hawai'i when he notched 99 yards, and then the past two weeks against Elon (179 yards) and NC State (150 yards). 

One way to look at this recent run is that he's finding what works for him and running downhill quickly, leading to big bursts down the field. 

You can also look at this as the offensive line finally starting to come together and provide rushing lanes for Ford and pass protection for Davis Warren.

Of course, the third option is that one of the opponents was Elon, an FCS program, and the other was a depleted NC State team that had traveled across the country to play in a game that began at 10:30 p.m. back home, leading to a less-than-stellar showing from the Wolfpack. 

We'll get a better sense of what the truth is moving forward, with trips to Louisville, Virginia Tech, and Cal coming up before wrapping up the regular season with a home game against a ranked SMU program.

Cal in particular should represent a big opportunity for Ford after giving up 256 rushing yards to SMU on Saturday. Entering the game, Cal had allowed opponents to average 181 yards per game on the ground.

At the very least, we should see Ford finish with the highest yardage total since Scarlett's 840 in 2019, with a chance at cracking 1,000 just beyond that.