Stanford Football's Biggest Surprise Ratings on College Football 26

But one player that is not listed among the Cardinal's top players is kicker Emmet Kenney--arguably the program's most important player in 2024. Finishing his first season as the starter with an 82.4% field goal percentage and 100% on PATs, Kenney was key in the Cardinal pulling off two major upset wins last season.

One was a last second win over Syracuse with the second being another last second win over Louisville. An important player for the Cardinal, Kenney is not even in the top seven and his rating has not even been released.

Kenney is expected to take on a big role for the Cardinal again in 2025, and if he continues to shine, he could see his rating rise to the point where he becomes one of Stanford's highest rated players. But for now, Kenney will most likely be rated in the high 70s with a ton of room for growth and development for the players who opt to play as Stanford.

When it comes to the running back ratings, those are a major surprise considering the numbers that the Cardinal run game have produced over the past two seasons. In 2024, the final season under head coach Troy Taylor, Micah Ford led all running backs in rushing with 309 yards on 76 carries-- failing to find the end zone at any point during the campaign.

But it was actually former Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels that led the team in rushing, running for 669 yards--the seventh straight season that the Cardinal were unable to have a running back go for over 1,000 yards.

Regardless, three of Stanford's running backs received ratings of 80 or higher, with Ford the third-highest rated player on the team at 82 overall. Maybe that proves that EA has confidence in the Cardinal's ballcarriers that they will rebound in 2025. Whatever the case is, the running back room for Stanford could be a fun group to use when the game comes out.

College Football 26 will be released worldwide on July 10th but for the players that pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition, they will have early access starting on July 7th. There is also a third version that fans can buy, the MVP bundle, that contains both College Football 26 and Madden 26-- with early access to both titles.