Quarterback Play Spoils An Otherwise Promising Stanford Football Game

It looked like Stanford football could pull off a Week Zero win on the road, until it didn't. On Saturday, the Cardinal headed to Honolulu to begin their 2025 campaign with a contest against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. Throughout the game, Stanford appeared like it would pull off the upset, leading for a large portion of the game and coming up with some big plays defensively.

But ultimately, the Cardinal fell short and left with a 23-20 loss.

And while there are a lot of factors that contributed, including certain TikTok dances costing the team some big yards, the elephant in the room was clear--the quarterback play for Stanford let the program down. In the week leading up to the game, the program announced that Ben Gulbranson would be the team's starting quarterback and lead the team in and out of the huddle.

But once the game started, the problems quickly piled up. For the game, Gulbranson completed only 15 out of his 30 pass attempts for 109 yards and an interception, with the biggest concerns being his play out of the pocket. Each time the pocket collapsed, and Gulbranson was forced to scramble, he struggled to get the ball where he needed.

Stanford, running the ball well, exhibited that it has pieces for a high-powered offense. But playing a Hawaii team that lacked a lot of physicality, Gulbranson still struggled to get first downs on passing downs. Late in the game, Stanford's offense was unable to close things out, setting up the Hawaii game-winning field goal.

If Gulbranson were to get benched at any point, the Cardinal would likely turn to redshirt freshman, Elijah Brown. Brown, who started three games for Stanford last season, was expected to be the team's starting quarterback last season, but an injury that he suffered in his college debut in Week Two derailed his development and forced him to miss time.

But, Brown was able to show flashes of his talent when he was out on the field, and as a former four-star recruit, he brings a lot of hype to the Stanford football program.

Given how it was only one week, Gulbranson will get another shot to start for the Cardinal in Provo, UT when the team takes on BYU in Week Two. But, the Cardinal are eager to take steps forward this season and improve upon their four straight 3-9 seasons.

If the quarterback play continues to be a problem, it would not at all be surprising to see Reich make an early season change in order to keep things afloat.