Stanford Football: Three Glaring Bright Spots in Loss to Hawaii

Stanford's loss to Hawaii still stings, and we've written plenty about the changes that may have to be made before the Cardinal's Week 2 matchup with BYU. But today, let's focus on some of the huge bright spots that the program provided in the Week 0 loss.

With so many moving parts on the roster from 2024 to 2025, it was tough to tell exactly what we'd see when the season kicked off. The incoming players certainly have potential, but they're also attempting to replace guys like Elic Ayomanor who went in the fourth round of the NFL Draft to the Tennessee Titans, and Emmett Mosley V, who transferred to Texas.

While we didn't receive an emphatic showing from the new group of receivers, it's still plenty early in the season, and QB Ben Gulbranson was having his own struggles on Saturday.

MIcah Ford sets the Stanford standard

These Stanford Cardinal are going to run the ball in 2025, and sophomore Micah Ford should be in line for about 20 of those carries each and every week. He carried the ball 26 times for 113 yards against Hawaii, with a long of 17. He also scored Stanford's only offensive touchdown.

While this performance was against Hawaii and not Notre Dame, Ford certainly set the bar high for himself heading into the rest of the season.

"I feel like I played pretty well," Ford said in the weekly press conference. "There's definitely things that I could have done better out there--put my team in a better position to win. Definitely not satisfied with that performance. Definitely could have got more."

Behind Ford, Sedrick Irvin rushed ten times for 46 yards and Cole Tabb picked up four carries for 26 yards. For Stanford to continue to have success with the ground game moving forward, they're going to need the offensive line to perform like they did in the first game.

Stanford offensive line shows promise

While the Week Zero schedule was a full one across college football, PFF named Stanford's o-line the Offensive Line of the Week. That's certainly a great start for a group that has underperformed in recent years.

"Stanford’s offensive line was one of the few bright spots in Saturday night’s loss to Hawaii. Three starters earned pass-blocking grades above 80.0, and the unit didn’t surrender a single sack. The Cardinal’s 76.8 team pass-blocking grade led all FBS teams in Week 0."

What makes that no sack stat even more impressive is that Gulbranson isn't a running quarterback, so it's not like he was able to work his way out of trouble if/when a defender made it through. The offensive line has been a huge question mark the past couple of seasons, but if they can continue to create space for their running backs and give time to the QB, then the Cardinal offense should be allowed to roll.

Clay Patterson's two sacks to begin the season

Another departure that Stanford has had to deal with has been that of David Bailey, who transferred to Texas Tech for his senior season after collecting seven sacks last season.

While graduate student Clay Patterson received a costly penalty, he also recorded a pair of sacks for Stanford and showed that they may just have someone that can step up for them when it comes to getting to the QB.

"Clay Patterson has been in college 7 years. You can't fool him. But then he does the foolish TikTok dance..."

"It was a disaster play for Hawaii and a disaster dance for Stanford."

Logan Ryan and Rich Walz discuss Clay Patterson's unsportsmanlike conduct (dancing) penalty. pic.twitter.com/wrfMBcDD7U
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 24, 2025

Even with the unsportsmanlike penalty, he earned PFF's Pass Rusher of the Week. "Patterson was a problem for Hawaii’s offensive line, winning on 22.7% of his 22 pass-rush snaps. He recorded two sacks, one quarterback hit and three additional wins that didn’t result in pressure. The standout effort earned him an 87.3 pass-rush grade, the highest among interior defenders in Week 0."

There are pieces of the team that performed really well, despite the loss. The hope here is that they can put even more pieces together in short order to collect some wins this season.