Five Stanford Football Players Earn All-ACC Recognition

Stanford football ended the year with a 49-20 home loss to Notre Dame, the Cardinal finish the 2025 campaign with a 4-8 record, but improved off of four straight seasons of 3-9 finishes.

The Cardinal still have a long way to go before they reach their goals, but with a new head coach in Tavita Pritchard set to take over, a new era of Stanford football is here—one that has fans, alumni and everyone in between excited to see the direction things go.

But before the offseason can fully begin, awards for the 2025 season are starting to roll out, including all conference selections. In their second season in the ACC, the Cardinal received a lot of All-ACC recognition, with five players earning some sort of recognition. Two Stanford players earned Second Team All-ACC honors while three earned honorable mentions.

Linebacker Matt Rose and tight end Sam Roush earned Second Team All-ACC honors while defensive back Jay Green, defensive lineman Clay Patterson and wide receiver CJ Williams were the ones selected as honorable mentions.

Rose and Roush's second team selections gives Stanford three players Second Team All-ACC selections since it joined the ACC at the start of last season. The last time Stanford had this much all-conference recognition was in 2023, with 2022 being the last time the program had at least two first or second team all-conference selections.

In his first season as a starter at linebacker, Rose took the college football world by storm and proved himself to be arguably Stanford's best defensive player.

Recording the first 100 plus tackle season by a Cardinal since Blake Martinez in 2015, Rose finished the season with 106 total tackles, three sacks, eight tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery, while putting together four games of 10 tackles or more. He finished top 25 in the entire nation in tackles as well.

Roush, one of the two season long captains for the Cardinal, once again proved why he could earn himself some NFL draft consideration. Putting together the best season of his career and finishing as one of the best tight ends in the country, Roush caught 49 passes for 545 yards and two touchdowns, leading the ACC in tight end receiving yards and tied for catches by a tight end.

Nationally, Roush ends the season tied for fourth in tight end receiving yards and fifth in receptions. Recording 104 receiving yards in Stanford's loss to Pittsburgh, he became just the eighth Cardinal tight end since 1995 to eclipse the 100-yard receiving mark in a game.

Stanford Footbal — Sep 13, 2025; Stanford, California, USA; Stanford Cardinal linebacker Matt Rose (35) is congratulated by safety Jay Green (5) after a tackle against the Boston College Eagles during the third quarter at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Green, who played the first two seasons of his career at Washington before transferring to Stanford at the start of last season, broke out in a big way this season after missing most of the '24 campaign with an injury.

Ending the year with a career high of 38 tackles and eight passes defended, Green led the team in passes defended and finished fourth on the team in tackles despite missing a pair of games due to an injury.

Green also proved that he has a knack for finding the ball, recovering two fumbles this season, including a massive scoop and score in the first half of the team's 31-10 win over Cal in the 128th Big Game.

Patterson, a former standout at Yale, capped off his second season at Stanford as one of the team's best defensive players. Starting off hot this season, which was highlighted by a fumble recovery in the end zone in Stanford's Week Zero loss to Hawaii, Patterson finished with 33 tackles, four sacks and a forced fumble.

Williams was arguably the Cardinal's biggest breakout star this season, putting together a career year in his lone season at Stanford. Starting his career off at USC before spending two seasons at Wisconsin, Williams was never able to establish himself at either of those stops, but once he got to Stanford, things changed.

Evolving into the Cardinal's top receiver by the end of the year, Williams caught 59 passes for 749 yards and six touchdowns, and had four 100-yard games, making him the first Cardinal since J.J. Arcega-Whiteside in 2018 to do that. In terms of ACC receivers, Williams ranks seventh in catches, tenth in receiving yards and was one touchdown shy of the conference lead.

The Cardinal may not have achieved their goals in terms of record, but seeing how many players were able to break out, that could set the tone for the future and bring even more excitement to The Farm as the Cardinal look to return to the national spotlight.

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