Stanford Cardinal Season Preview | Can the Defense Improve?, Elic Ayomanor Breakdown and more!

wrapping up our ACC preview with the Stanford Cardinal and Dawn Troy Taylor's first year as a head coach kind of ended the same as the last two for Stanford with just a three and9 record the same as they had in the previous two seasons they've now had their worst threeyear stretch since 1958 to 1960 it has been a brutal three years for the Cardinal over the last three years but now they're going to try to Rebound in a new conference moving over from the Pack 12 to the ACC and they have an absolute Superstar at receiver in El aim Manor that we actually interviewed in the interviews coming out very soon as well uh but that is probably their biggest strength of the team right now as ad maner comes back for another year he's one of the best receivers in the country yeah absolutely I mean he's the one thing that gives you hope you had an offensive line that really struggled a quarterback that really struggled behind it and a defense I think they were one of the lowest graded defenses in the power five a mayor is the reason to watch this team he's one of the top 10 receivers in the country we saw what he did to hunter in the second half against Colorado put up some good reps against a probable first round pick and Ben Morrison this is the one guy that gives Stanford the hope for their offense you know they need to pass protect better but even when they don't iron Mayer still put up a thousand yard season off of a bad knee injury in 20122 so he's he's really the light at the end of the tunnel for Stanford here in their offense he absolutely is the weakness though is the other side of the ball everywhere this defense quite literally was the worst defense in the country last year uh allowed 21 average expected points per play that was the worst of any school in the country among power five schools they had the lowest defensive grade worst run defense grade and tied for the lowest pass R grade and the third worst coverage grade so the best thing they did last year was coverage and they were the third worst in the power five at that too so it was a big issue defensively and kind of Remains the Same uh in 2024 only brought in one transfer that's projected to start on defense this upcoming year so one of the worst if not the worst wor defense in the in America last year and it looks like the same defense as it was last year as well Don I'm a little bit worried about that defense right now but tell me more about Ashton Daniels they're their quarterback right now so he's kind of a tough evaluation because you can tell like he's got tools he's an athletic player he can make throws on the Move he's got a good arm like you know we talk about ior with the Colorado game well Daniels was the one making the throws too he was really good in the second half of that game too right you can tell there's moments where it's like okay this guy's kind of got it but then they're stretches where it's like you're just turning the ball over too much he's had 20 turnover worthy plays last year second most in the Pack 12 a and you know part of the problem is he was among quarterbacks with 300 dropbacks last year Max he was under more pressure than any of them I believe it was close to 46% of the time he was under pressure just untenable like it doesn't matter how talented a guy is or how much athletic ability or how much improvisational skills when you're under pressure that often you're just not going to succeed right and again he does does have to clean up the ball security he does have talent but the combination of him just not being as risk averse and this offensive line in front of him just not blocking we're not used to this we were you know we were used to for years and years Stanford having Elite offensive lines and right now they don't so Daniels he's a tough evaluation he's definitely talented he definitely just does not have the full Supporting Cast especially in front of him to you know to help him produce so it's really tough unless this offensive line gets significantly better he's going to continue to be hard to evaluate other than look he does need Under Pressure to take better care of the football just to give just to give his team a chance to win yeah but uh one guy you can't rely on Don is El a maner maple Tron as they call him the Canadian uh the Canadian star coming in from uh from there and now he's a star in the Pack 12 sorry in the big ACC excuse me because now the Stanford's moving over uh suffered a torn ACL MCL and miniscus in 2022 wasn't miss all of his true freshman season but this past year man was a breakout star for the Cardinal 1,022 receiving yards that were fifth among returning power five receivers a bigger receiver at 6'2 uh 14 contested catches were tied for fourth among power five pass cats as well and got to remember once again he was basically by himself on that offense he still put up big numbers for them as well again we have an interview with him coming out very very soon he is an awesome awesome kid dude he's got a a really good hat on his shoulders obviously as a Stanford student you have to have that uh but I'm really excited to uh for him to be as a retro sophomore this year man he's a really good player and a really good person as well so love El I maner I actually Dawn I played against my brother last night in EA cable 25 again he was Colorado I was Stanford he did not put up 294 yards like he did in the Colorado game in real life but he did put up a lot of good stats I was I was using him every single play against him and talk about the Colorado game Man Zero catches in the first half for zero yards second half 13 catches 294 yards and three touchdowns it is one of the most incredible second halfs I've ever seen it was pure Pack 12 after dark it was like 2 a.m. watching that I remember last year uh program record almost 300 yards all in the second half man that is absolutely ridiculous for El a and again Travis Hunter was guarding him on a lot of those plays I think seven of his catches and two of his touchdowns were on Travis Hunter including one where he caught the ball on Travis hunter's helmet uh in overtime too so he is a really really fun player man and one of the few fun players unfortunately that Stanford Cardinal have this upcoming season yeah I mean look and they have a lot to fix on this defense and a guy who faces ior every day in practice is cornerback Colin Wright now look he's feisty and a lot feistier than you see from most outside corners we think about a lot of times slot Corners are the better run Defenders well Colin Wright put up a 77.5 run defense grade last year to go along with a 71.8 coverage grade so they need more players like Colin Wright just through throughout their defense just dogs just physical guys who want to get in here and hit people because they just too often with the rest of their defense where it just it's just not as physical as we're used to seeing Stanford in past years right like even you know back in the days of David Shaw when they could still run it down your throat and stop the run and and just cause problems with their size but Colin Wright brings it from the outside I'm sure he's getting better every day and practice pract practicing against a guy like ier so this is a guy they can build around in their secondary while they figure out the rest of their defense especially up front yeah definitely so d three straight years with a three and9 record for Stanford again they haven't had a three-year stretch that bad since the 1950s right late 1950s and early 1960s are we expecting another one right now their win total is three and a half on FanDuel are we expecting that or what should we expect from Stanford in their first year in the ACC I I think I I expect something close to that I just worry about teams with with poor offensive lines like this if they don't get significantly better up front both in the Run game and especially in pass protection you just cannot have your quarterback under pressure 46% of the time I it just you will not win ball games like that you know there are teams that get by you 38 40% which is still pretty high but when you start creeping towards your quarterback being under pressure for half the plays it's it's a recipe for a disaster so need significant Improvement there and then obviously you mentioned their defense but I think there is still a lot to worry about here despite the presence you know again I think Daniels has talent I do think they have a starting caliber quarterback Al IR Mayer is obviously extremely talented but they need more than that to support those two guys to win more games yeah I'm really I'm worried about them man I mean he they really had one of the maybe the worst defense in the country last year and it looks like once again a really bad defense and again outside of a Manor offensively they didn't have much going for them offensively either so yeah I'm worried and you look at that schedule I mean they play pretty relatively hard yeah actually the second hardest schedule in the AC 25th hardest in the country right so they play TCU they play Syracuse they play Clemson they play VK they play Notre Dame they play SMU they play NC State they play Louisville uh they ran out the year with San Jose State as well so yeah I'm a little worried about this uh this Stanford Cardinal team once again and I think it's been three straight three in N Seasons I think we could see another one uh for for Stanford upcoming season which is unfortunate but uh I just think that's what's going to happen in their first year in the ACC that's we got for our final preview of the Atlantic Coast Conference that is the Stanford Cardinal hey thanks for watching the PFF college football show before I let you go though we have an unbelievable deal for you guys right now if you use the code cfb2 you get 25% off your PFF plus annual subscription we got the 2024 college football preview guide you can find over at pff.com featuring 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