Coming out of its first trip to Death Valley, Stanford may have found an answer at running back but was left with plenty of questions at quarterback heading into its first-ever ACC home game next Saturday against Virginia Tech.
With 122 yards on 15 carries in Saturday’s 40-14 loss at No. 17 Clemson, Micah Ford became the first Stanford freshman running back with 100 yards on the ground since Kenneth Tolon in 2001 against Notre Dame (133). It was the most productive game by a running back since coach Troy Taylor’s arrival in 2023.
Quarterback Ashton Daniels ran for 78 yards on 11 carries, and Stanford’s total of 236 rushing yards was the most by a Stanford offense since it ran for 244 yards against Oregon State in 2018.
But while the running game held its own against a top defense, the passing game was a disaster.
Daniels threw three interceptions before leaving with an apparent ankle injury. With freshman backup Elijah Brown out for the past two games with an undisclosed injury, wildcat QB Justin Lamson may be the only option against the Hokies.
Daniels threw two red-zone interceptions by forcing passes into tight coverage and finished 9 of 19 for 71 yards before getting hurt early in the fourth quarter on a failed fourth-and-1 QB sneak.
“Unfortunately, quarterback is one of those (positions) where you can have 70 good plays and you have three bad plays, and it’s a rough game,” said Stanford coach Troy Taylor, the former Cal quarterback. “That’s just the nature of the position. He’s kicking himself on the turnovers. Our guys came in to win and played really well, and we’ll bounce back.”
Taylor didn’t have an injury update on Daniels, a suburban Atlanta native who had about 50 friends and family members at the game. Stanford did not make any players available after the game.
Lamson fumbled on fourth-and-1 from the Stanford 34 on the Cardinal’s first possession against Clemson. It took the Tigers just three plays after the turnover on downs to go up 7-0, and they never looked back.
“We don’t come out here to play to keep it close,” Taylor said. “ So we play the game and we make calls and go for it on certain downs to win the football game. That’s why we’re here. We don’t feel like it’s anything special to keep it close. So as long as I’m the coach, I will always play like that. You gotta play really well to be elite team like this. So I’m really proud of how our guys play. We just got to do a better job on certain areas.”
Lamson actually started the fifth game last season when Daniels was injured. He completed 11 of 20 passes for 106 yards in a 42-6 loss to Oregon. In two seasons at Stanford, he is 43-for-97 passing (44 percent) for 560 yards, two TDs and two INTs. He has also run 138 times for 339 yards and seven TDs.
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But as it prepares for Virginia Tech, Stanford (2-2, 1-1) appears to have a new weapon in Ford, who became Stanford’s first 100-yard rusher at running back under Taylor.
Ford was a unanimous top-three running back in New Jersey coming out of Toms River High and has taken advantage of a backfield that didn’t have an established No. 1 coming into the season.
He had only 14 yards on 13 carries in the Cardinal’s first two games. But after running eight times for 47 yards in Stanford’s win over Syracuse, Ford broke out against Clemson.
With the uncertainty at quarterback, the Cardinal may need a repeat performance on Saturday.
