Stanford Football: Is a bowl bid even a reasonable possibility after UCF loss?
By Justin Fried
The Stanford football program is in a state of disarray after their disappointing 45-27 loss to UCF. At this point, is a bowl bid even a reasonable possibility?
The Stanford football team is reeling after falling to 1-2 following their discouraging loss to the UCF Knights on Saturday.
The Cardinal dropped their second straight in a game that was essentially a blowout from the very start. UCF jumped out to an early 21-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back leading 38-7 at the half and capping the day off with a 45-27 victory.
Despite being underdogs, the Cardinal were hoping for a better showing on the road with the return of their quarterback K.J. Costello. Costello had missed their last game against USC nursing a concussion while junior Davis Mills stepped in as the starter.
Unfortunately, Costello’s return didn’t exactly produce the results that he or Stanford were looking for.
The senior signal-caller threw for just 199 yards while completing only 48% of his passes. Costello finished with a woeful QB rating of 23.8 as the Cardinal passing attack struggled all game.
Some of this was likely due to the poor play of the offensive line which was hampered by injuries and inexperience. Most notably, stud left tackle Walker Little will miss the rest of the season after injuring himself in the team’s season opener against Northwestern.
In his place, freshman Walter Rouse was called on to start, but he wasn’t the only freshman starting on the line. Fellow freshman Branson Bragg started at right tackle and when he went down in the second quarter, freshman Barrett Miller was thrust into the game at guard.
All of this inexperience likely contributed to the downfall of not only Costello, but the offense as a whole.
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And on defense, it wasn’t much better for the Cardinal.
Paulson Adebo had his worst game in quite some time getting burnt by speedy wideout Gabriel Davis on a nasty double move in the first half. The Knights toasted the Cardinal for 545 total yards on an incredible 7.4 yards per play.
It was an all-around thrashing from UCF which leaves Stanford football fans asking, what’s next?
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It was expected that the Cardinal might take a step back this year after graduating so many top playmakers from a year ago, but at this point it’s not even certain if a bowl game berth is a reasonable possibility.
And given that this is a program that hasn’t missed a bowl game in over a decade, that would be a pretty significant development.
The problem isn’t exactly the talent level of the team — although they’re certainly not as talented as years past — but it has more to do with their schedule for the remainder of the season.
It’s difficult. Very difficult.
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The Cardinal will travel home to take on the currently No. 15 ranked Oregon Ducks who are fresh off of a 35-3 pounding of lowly Montana. Led by quarterback Justin Herbert, Oregon is sure to be the heavy favorites in that game.
Following that, games against Washington, Washington State, and Notre Dame look like probable losses while they will most certainly be underdogs against the likes of Arizona, Colorado, and possibly even their arch-rivals, California.
That’s right, it looks as though Cal might be the best college football team in Northern California this year for the first time in what feels like forever.
With a difficult remaining schedule and a roster already hindered by injuries and inexperience, it might be tough for Stanford to reach six wins this season.
Next. Stanford Football: Could a returning K.J. Costello save the Cardinal?. dark
And with that, head coach David Shaw could find himself on the hot seat before long.