Former Alabama QB Greg McElroy Discusses Challenges for Stanford Football in 2025

A new era is officially here for Stanford football. Firing head coach Troy Taylor right before spring practice, and replacing him with interim head coach Frank Reich, the Cardinal are officially off and running on a new chapter of their history that they hope will bring a turn in fortune.

Struggling in recent years, finishing 3-9 in four straight seasons, the Cardinal are ready to get over the hump and prove that they have what it takes to compete in a stacked ACC, despite the low expectations.

Even though the vibes are high and the confidence within the program is soaring, one analyst thinks any and all expectations should be tempered. On an episode of 'Always College Football', a podcast hosted by former Alabama and NFL quarterback, Greg McElroy, he put Stanford in the final ACC tier dubbed 'work to do' along with Cal and Wake Forest, believing that being in a full-scale rebuild will severely hurt their chances of competing this season.

However, McElroy loves the hiring of Reich and believes that could really help things.

"They’ve had four consecutive 3-9 campaigns. New coaching change," McElroy said. "Program is in a complete rebuild but there are some changes that have me feeling a little optimistic. I love the interim head coach, Frank Reich, after Troy Taylor's departure. You have a former NFL head coach, an experienced head coach that’s going to take over in the interim role here in 2025. Got some NFL experience. That should be helpful."

But while Reich brings an elite offensive mind, strong developmental skills and good leadership overall, McElroy is not confident that he will be able to solve Stanford's problems this year. Never coaching at the college level, it is a lot to ask of Reich to completely turn around a program that has gone 20-46 since 2019 and that still has a lot more questions than answers heading into the new season-- especially since he is only expected to stay for one year.

"You don’t even know yet who your quarterback is going to be. Is it going to be redshirt freshman Elijah Brown former four-star recruit? Got to feel decent about the possibility of that. Is it going to be Dylan Rizk from UCF who transferred over?," McElroy said.

"You got a bunch of transfer portal additions at wide receiver. That’s a big question mark. You do have a great piece at tight end in Sam Roush. He should be one of the breakout players in the conference, one of the best ACC tight ends this year," McElroy said.

"The roster turnover, the struggles they’ve had along the offensive line? Some of the weaknesses we’ve seen on defense the last couple years?…And they just haven’t been consistent at any point in the last few years," McElroy added.

McElroy sees this season as another challenging one due in large part to the schedule that Stanford faces this season. Facing teams such as BYU, SMU, Miami, North Carolina, Florida State and Notre Dame, the Cardinal will play teams that either were in the college football playoff last season and are serious contenders again this season, or teams that are finally ready to compete for a spot. With the Cardinal still trying to establish an identity, these games could prove too much to handle.

"They host Notre Dame," McElroy said. "They also have Florida State that comes to them. They’re at Miami, they're at SMU, they’re at BYU, they’re at Hawaii, they’re at North Carolina. You notice how many games that I just listed that were at…Those are big challenges to go on the road to those places… Boston College comes to them, they’re at Virginia. Right now, I think the schedule is just too tough for Stanford to carve out their place in the postseason out of the ACC."

"It’s hard for me to envision them getting to six wins," McElroy said.