8/26/2023 football Edit

Oregon State Football Opponent Preview: Stanford

Brenden Slaughter • BeaversEdge

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With the start of the 2023 season just around the corner, BeaversEdge dives into all 12 of Oregon State's opponents in 2023...

Up next is a home matchup with the Stanford Cardinal, led by first-year head coach Troy Taylor...

THE GAME

Date: Saturday, November, 11th, 2023

Time: TBD

Location: Reser Stadium - Corvallis, Ore.

TV: TBD

Oregon State 2022 record: 10-3 (6-3 Pac-12)

Stanford 2022 record: 3-9 (1-8 P12)

Stanford Head Coach: Troy Taylor (0-0 Stanford, 30-8 overall)

DID YOU KNOW? This marks the first time since the 2006 campaign that the Stanford football program hasn't included David Shaw. After beginning with Jim Harbaugh as his OC in '07, Shaw took the reins of HC in 2011 and was the second longest-tenured HC in the Pac-12 (Kyle Whittingham) until this past season... The Beavers have also won two straight in the series after an 11-game losing streak from 2010-2020

Stanford 2022 Recap

The once-elite Stanford football program under David Shaw had begun to show cracks in the 2021 season, but the 2022 campaign was that dam-breaking as the Cardinal stumbled to a 3-9 season and their third losing season in the last four seasons.

There was a bevy of reasons why the program went from elite to bottom of the conference as fast as it did, but mostly, it was the lack of star power in the backfield post-Christian McCaffrey and a defense that had become a liability compared to the strength it was in the Harbaugh-Shaw era.

The Cardinal opened the season 1-4 before earning wins against Notre Dame and Arizona State in back-to-back weeks, before ending the year on a five-game losing streak.

The end result was Shaw electing to step down from the program while the Cardinal hired Sacramento State's Troy Taylor to be their next head coach...

Best Win: vs Notre Dame (16-14)

Worst Loss: vs WSU (52-17)

2022 Schedule

Stanford 2023 Outlook

It's a new era of Stanford football as the Jim Harbaugh/David Shaw era of nearly 20 years has come to a close and it's all about new head coach Troy Taylor, who was hired after a successful stint at Sacramento State...

Offensively, the Cardinal figure to look quite a bit different compared to the Power-I formation we have all come to know very well in the past nearly 20 years. With Taylor's background being in the spread offense, the Cardinal will likely be transitioning through personnel and putting the pieces together this season.

Taylor has had some notable offensive successes during his time at Sacramento State, Utah, and Eastern Washington, and as a high school coach, mentoring notable players Jake Browning, Cooper Kupp, Zack Moss, Tyler Huntley, & Gage Gubrud. Look for Stanford to be very aggressive offensively this season...

Defensively, it's going to take a lot of work to get the Cardinal from the bottom end of the Pac-12. Allowing over 400 yards per game and over 30 points per contest last season, it's going to be up to Taylor's defensive staff to rebuild the unit from the ground up.

How quickly that can happen at a place like Stanford is debatable, but it's not likely to be in year one. They may be modestly improved, but don't expect wholesale differences...

Key Players: RB EJ Smith, RB Casey Filkins, TE Benjamin Yurosek, QB Ari Patu, LB Gaethan Bernadel, S Alakai Gilman

2023 Schedule

Season Projection: 3-9

Early Prediction

While the Beavers had to literally pull a miracle out of their hats to emerge victorious against the Cardinal down on the farm last season, don't expect the same sort of fireworks this year as the two teams figure to be on massively different wavelengths.

Stanford, being the high-ranking academic institution it is, doesn't have the ability to completely reshuffle the roster via the transfer portal like some other schools do, so this rebuild figures to be a bit of a project under Taylor.

While the offense figures to be more consistent and up-tempo under the direction of the offensive-minded Taylor, the defense is a big work in progress after giving up over 400 yards per game last season.

The Beavers could fall victim to peeking ahead on the schedule to next week's matchup with Washington, but Jonathan Smith does a terrific job of keeping his team locked in week-to-week and I see them taking care of a business at home against a Stanford team that will likely be still putting the pieces together consistently in year one...

PREDICTION - Oregon State 41, Stanford 20