Stanford Football Rising Star Takes Home Offensive MVP Honors

Stanford football's 2025 season is over and despite losing to Notre Dame, a 4-8 record and a one game improvement over the previous four seasons is bringing major confidence ahead of what will be a pivotal offseason. Hiring a new full-time head coach in Tavita Pritchard, a new era of Cardinal football has begun, with the hope being that the program can return to the national spotlight.

But even if the 2025 season did not go how the Cardinal wanted in terms of wins and losses, a lot of good still came out of this otherwise action-packed season. With the regular season over, end of season awards are starting to roll out for the Cardinal, with plenty of players receiving recognition.

One of those players is wide receiver CJ Williams, who takes home the Irving S. Zeimer Offensive MVP Award.

At the end of the 2024 season, the Cardinal lost essentially every single pass catcher from that year's roster, leaving Stanford with major holes to fill at wide receiver. But turning to the portal, the Cardinal were able to bring in a handful of new faces, including Williams.

Spending the first season of his college career at USC before transferring to Wisconsin, where he spent two seasons. Williams was unable to scratch his way into a regular role, and was used mostly as a reserve at wide receiver.

In his lone season at USC in 2022, Williams only caught four passes for 34 yards while in two seasons at Wisconsin, Williams caught 31 passes for 396 yards and two touchdowns.

But after coming to Stanford, despite it taking a couple of games, Williams settled in and became the Cardinal's top receiver, finishing this season with a career high of 59 catches for 749 yards and six touchdowns and becoming the top weapon for quarterbacks Ben Gulbranson and Elijah Brown.

Nov 1, 2025; Stanford, California, USA; Stanford Cardinal wide receiver CJ Williams (3) scores a touchdown against the Pittsburgh Panthers during the fourth quarter at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-Imagn Images | John Hefti-Imagn Images

Williams is out of eligibility, but ended his college career on a very high note, and put Stanford even more on the map for prospective wide receivers. His best game of the season came in the Cardinal's come-from-behind 30-29 victory over San José State, where he caught 11 passes for 130 yards and despite not finding the end zone, he helped the Cardinal offense move the ball well.

Prior to his college career, Williams spent his high school career playing at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California where he was a three-time All-Trinity League First team selection, a three-time league champion and a two-time CalPreps All-state team selection while playing under head coach, Bruce Rollinson.

A Maxwell Football Club National High School Player of the Year finalist and a U.S. Army Adidas All-American in 2021, Williams was a four-star recruit and chose USC out of high school over offers from programs such as Notre Dame, Stanford, Texas, Alabama, Arizona and Arizona State among many others.

Williams may have only been at Stanford for one season, but there is no denying that his impact and skillset were very vital this season and for a program looking to enter their new era under Pritchard on a high note, they could not have asked from anything better out of Williams.

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