Clemson Football Oppo Research: Stanford Cardinal

Clemson will welcome one of the ACC’s newest members as the Stanford Cardinal makes its first trip ever to Death Valley.

What: Stanford Cardinal at Clemson Tigers

When: September 28th, time to be determined

Where: Clemson Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina

Series History: Clemson defeated Stanford in the 1986 Gator Bowl, which is the only time the two programs have met in football.

Stanford 2023 Statistics

All stats per teamrankings.com against FBS competition only

Points per game: 20.4 (108th)

Yards per game: 348.5 (91st)

Points allowed per game: 38.4 (131st)

Yards allowed per game: 462.9 (131st)

Stanford’s addition to the Atlantic Coast Conference (alongside California and SMU) was weird and not particularly popular with the Clemson fanbase.

Setting aside the peculiarities of the Cardinal program itself (it is Cardinal the color & not Cardinals the bird) and the contentious politics of conference alignment (ironically, it’s the possibility of Clemson and others leaving the conference that motivated the additions of the three new schools), Stanford can be a very good football team. They can also be a very bad team. What Stanford is usually depends on the head coach of the program.

Jim Harbaugh was the right guy to build it up and David Shaw was the right guy to keep it running, at least for a while. After multiple seasons of decline under Shaw, the Cardinal brought in a new head coach: Troy Taylor.

Taylor played for their rival Cal and briefly for the New York Jets before beginning his coaching career. After three seasons of success at FCS Sacramento State, Taylor led Stanford to a 3-9 record in his first season in Palo Alto. Considering the rebuild needed, that wasn’t a shocking result.

Taylor’s expertise is offense and the rebuild began last season. The Cardinal return several starters, including quarterback Ashton Daniels and wide receiver Elic Alomayor.

The Cardinal also returns several players on defense as well. They did bring in transfers, but given the profile of the program and the academic requirements of the university, Taylor and his staff are rebuilding the old-fashioned way.

Sometimes trial by fire is a very effective teacher. The hope for Stanford is that a season of experience and a change to an ACC schedule can reap benefits.

Unfortunately for Stanford, both sides of the football can improve and still be well below average. The defense was one of the worst in the FBS in 2023. The offense was only marginally better.

The schedule in the ACC isn’t as welcoming as they might have hoped. In addition to playing at Cal and hosting SMU, the Cardinal will travel to NC State and Syracuse after they visit Clemson. They will host Virginia Tech, which is also among the more respected programs going into 2024. They host Louisville, who was the runner-up in the league last season, and Wake Forest, who will bring an offense to Palo Alto that they haven’t seen much before.

On top of that, they will travel to Notre Dame and host TCU. It could be that the Cardinal could improve statistically but still finish with a record around 3-9.

Their trip to Clemson will be sandwiched between the Tigers hosting NC State and traveling to Florida State. They might catch the Tigers looking ahead to their meeting with the Seminoles, but considering the struggles the Cardinal had in 2023, it is hard to imagine Clemson having too hard of a time controlling the football game on September 21st.