Stanford Makes Change at Quarterback Ahead of UNC Showdown

Stanford football has three games left to play, and in those final contests, a new quarterback will be under center. After another rough outing against Pittsburgh, interim head coach Frank Reich was non-committal about the team's plans at starting quarterback in his postgame press conference, bringing up the question about Ben Gulbranson's future on The Farm.

And on Monday, Reich revealed the answer, announcing that redshirt freshman Elijah Brown will be named the starting quarterback for the upcoming road game against North Carolina.

Falling to 3-6 on the season, Stanford's bowl hopes are all but over, which changes the approach for Stanford's season.

Naming Gulbranson the starting quarterback coming out of training camp, wanting an experienced veteran under center, the move to roll with Brown signals that Stanford is looking ahead towards the future and seeing what exactly they have in Brown—needing to figure out if he is the guy who can lead the team next season and beyond.

"Yeah, we have decided that we are going to make a change at quarterback," Reich said. "Obviously a tough decision, because Ben's done some really good things this year, and we know that some of the struggles that we've had certainly are not all on the quarterback. But this decision, it was thought through, talked it through with the staff and it was obviously my decision at the end of the day. But we are going to make that transition and Elijah will be the starter."

Gulbranson, who had an up and down season, struggled mightily at the start of the season, combining to throw three interceptions over the first two games. He found a rhythm after that, throwing five touchdowns with no interceptions over the following three weeks while leading Stanford to a 2-1 record in that span.

But an injury suffered against Florida State has since affected Gulbranson, with his last two games seeing the sixth year signal caller struggle once again. In his most recent game against Pittsburgh in the 35-20 loss, Gulbranson threw three interceptions and looked hampered by his lower body injury.

Brown, a former four-star recruit out of Mater Dei, has limited experience as a starter but has been a highly touted prospect since joining the Cardinal prior to the start of last season.

Making his college debut in impressive fashion against Cal Poly last season, an injury limited Brown to only three games, allowing him to preserve a year of eligibility. In three games last season, Brown completed 28 out of his 48 pass attempts for 274 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.

This season, Brown has appeared in three games in relief of Gulbranson, seeing his most action in the win over Florida State when he played the whole second half. So far this year, Brown has completed 19 out of his 31 pass attempts for 218 yards and a touchdown.

Now that Brown is under center, he will look to seize every moment and prove that he has what it takes to lead Stanford long term.

Expected to hire a new long term head coach for next season, a good end to the season for Brown puts the Cardinal ahead of the curve, giving them a clear cut starter for the next head coach. If that ends up being the case, then the Cardinal could find themselves back in contention much sooner than anyone expected.

Brown's first start of the season will come this Saturday, Nov. 8 on the road against North Carolina and head coach, Bill Belichick. Facing a UNC team that has largely disappointed, Brown will look to take advantage of this opportunity and get Stanford back in the win column before they go on a bye week—where the team will start preparing for a game against Cal.