Frank Reich Weighs in on Stanford Football's Win Over Boston College

Entering week three as massive underdogs, the Stanford Cardinal (1-2, 1-0 ACC) shocked the college football world and beat Boston College 30-20 in upset fashion in their home opener. Gaining a massive momentum boost ahead of another road game against Virginia, the Cardinal will look to build off of their recent success and resuscitate a season that started off on the wrong foot.

Interim head coach Frank Reich met with the media on Monday ahead of Stanford's game against Virginia, speaking on a variety of topics regarding the state of the program going into the second ACC game of the season. Here are the takeaways from coach Reich's press conference.

Pass Rush Depth Has Been Huge for the Defense

Facing a Boston College team that put on an offensive show the first two games of the season, Stanford knew that priority number one would be to contain the Eagles' very tough offense, primarily the strong passing game that was led by quarterback, Dylan Lonergan.

While Boston College found some success throwing, with Lonergan racking up well over 300 yards, the strong performance from the pass rush kept Lonergan from doing too much damage. And with a third straight dominant game from the pass rush, Reich alludes to the depth on the defensive line as the key to the pass rush's success.

"It's been a good mix," Reich said. "We have really good depth across our front, they push each other to get better. I think the guys have been playing well. Obviously, Teva [Tevarua Tafiti] got banged up but you know, Clay Patterson has been playing really well, getting a lot of pressure on the quarterback. Fredo's [Wilfredo Aybar] a force, now with Anthony Franklin back in the picture, Zach Rowell is pretty good, he's explosive off the ball."

The Cardinal's schedule for the rest of the season features teams with dominant passing games and for the games to be competitive and in order for Stanford to see more success, the pass rush will need to stay dominant. Luckily, the program has a whole slew of guys that they can lean on.

Confidence is Key

Teams learn just as much about themselves when they win compared to when they lose and in Stanford's case, its win over Boston College showed a lot about the type of team this year's squad is. All throughout the game, the Eagles made it a battle but with confidence that never died and the team sticking together in all phases of the game, the resilience and grit that this team has came out in full display.

"I just felt, I felt an increased confidence that never wavered during the game," Reich said. "We came out, we started pretty strong in all three phases. We weren't able to convert in the red zone, we had to kick field goals, but two early scoring drives, playing good on defense and then in the second quarter, BC's offense had an epic second quarter with a lot of yards and a lot of points and it felt like it was an opportunity for the game to get away from us.

"And our guys didn't waver, and we fought back. On defense, we had a shutout in the second half and they played well. And I felt like offensively, we stayed pretty consistent through all four quarters, so that was a good sign."

Now that the Cardinal are approaching the nitty gritty portion of their schedule, having as much momentum as possible will be vital for the rest of the season. But thanks to an upset win over Boston College, momentum is firmly on Stanford's side.

Defense is the Back Bone of the Team

Despite losing the first two games of the season, the Cardinal's defense has been strong in both of the contests, with the defensive line headlining a large part of the success. And in the win over Boston College, good offense combined with yet another strong defensive performance—headlined by a Collin Wright pick six—guided Stanford to its first win.

Heading into the game against Virginia, Reich sees defense as key to this team—with it having been a major backbone for the program all season long.

"Our defense has really been rock solid, and in particular, in this last game, what we really needed," Reich said. "You talk about this every week, but we're going against that team that had a pretty explosive offense like this team we're facing this week in Virginia but last week they were going to be a throw first offense...and so really happy with how the defense is playing. We still need to be able to string together four quarters though.

"At BYU, it was a great half and then here against BC, they had 270 yards in the second quarter. That's too much, you just can't do that. So we just still got to learn how to string four quarters together."

As the old saying goes, offense wins games and defense wins championships, Stanford will hope that its defense can keep up its strong play and guide Stanford to surprising success this season. There is no doubt that the Cardinal want their offense to be good too, but defensively, they have high hopes for the rest of the season.

Did Ben Gulbranson Find His Rhythm?

The first two games saw starting quarterback Ben Gulbranson struggle mightily, throwing three interceptions and no touchdowns and being a major reason why Stanford's offense failed to get anything going in crucial moments.

But against Boston College, despite what the stats suggest, Gulbranson moved the ball well, protected the ball and helped Stanford's offense find a rhythm. Even if it was only one game, the strong game from Gulbranson could give him confidence and help him find a good rhythm for the rest of the season.

"He had a really good week of practice," Reich said. "In fact, I communicated that to him several times. As the week went on, I could tell he had a good rhythm going. Thought he was throwing it well. Ben's got a strong arm, he can get the ball down the field.

"So, that's one thing we like with him in there. It really makes defenses have to cover the whole field. He can put the ball everywhere on the field and I just think he's going to continue to grow and be confident. We just need to build on that as an offense and as a team."

The quarterback play was heavily scrutinized earlier in the season but if Gulbranson truly did find his groove and get into a rhythm, then Stanford football could be alright in 2025 after all.