Stanford's One Key Injury Heading into Week Zero Matchup with Hawaii

Coming off of their fourth consecutive 3-9 season, the Stanford Cardinal will take the field for the first time in 2025 against Hawaii on Saturday, where they will look to get the new campaign started on a high note. Led by a new head coach in Frank Reich and having a lot of new faces coming in, Stanford football is officially in a new era. And thankfully, going into the first game, the Cardinal have limited injuries.

But one guy with an uncertain status heading into the season opener is true freshman wide receiver, JonAnthony Hall. Hall, who is dealing with an undisclosed injury, is expected to take on a big role right out of the gate, but the ailment that he is dealing with has kept him out for a majority of tr aining camp and could keep him out of action against Hawaii.

Yet, according to Reich, Hall has been hard at work on getting healthy again and could be available to play sooner rather than later.

"He's made good progress," Reich said. "So, we'll see. We'll just take it day by day. But really in the last few days, I feel like he's continued to make good progress. [He's] been out for a while so we just want to make sure that we're doing the right thing for the player and for the team. So I think over the next two, three days, that should clear itself up, one way or the other. But I really give him a lot of credit for how he has approached getting everything ready to go."

Hall, a four-star recruit out of Fishers High School, is arguably the most important signing that the Cardinal landed this offseason. With Elic Ayomanor gone for the NFL, Emmett Mosley V, Ismael Cisse and Tiger Bachmeier all transferri ng, the Cardinal were left with massive holes in the receiver room-- returning only one catch from a wide receiver last season.

But with Hall bringing good size (6-1, 190 pounds) and elite talent--totaling 2,625 receiving yards, 163 catches and 28 total touchdowns in high school--Hall could find himself as the one tasked to fill the void.

In Stanford's first official depth chart heading into the game, Hall is absent, with CJ Williams, Caden High and Bryce Farrell listed as the starters. But once Hall is able to return, and if he continues to put together a strong string of practices, he could find himself rising quickly on the depth chart as the season progresses.

As for Hawaii, the Rainbow Warriors have no reported injuries and will go into the game against Stanford fully healthy. Coming off of a 5-7 season in Timmy Chang's third season as the head coach, the Rainbow Warriors are eager to prove that they are ready to compete for a championship in a very tough Mountain West Conference.

Stanford and Hawaii are slated to kick off at 4:30 p.m. (PT) with the game airing live on CBS and available to stream on Paramount+ and FUBO. After the game against Hawaii, Stanford goes on a bye week before hitting the road once again to take on BYU in Week Two.