Stanford's Standouts From Victory over San José State

On Saturday night, Stanford hosted San José State in the Bill Walsh legacy game, a Bay Area rivalry. Coming in, the Cardinal were the slight favorites, but the Spartans came in with something to prove, looking to earn the upset over the Cardinal for a second consecutive season.

Despite an early touchdown from the Cardinal, the Spartans bounced right back, and led throughout the entire first half. At the break, it was 20-14, San José State.

Stanford continued to start slow in the second half, but started to pick things up in the fourth quarter. Down 12 with just 13 minutes left, it looked like it was almost all over, but that’s when everything changed. The Cardinal drove down the field, scored a touchdown, and then traded field goals. After a huge stop late in the game, Stanford drove down and won the game on a Sedrick Irvin one- yard run.

The final score was 30-29 in favor of the Cardinal, a thriller to say the least.

A lot went wrong in this one for Stanford, but let’s look on the bright side. Here’s what stood out positively from Stanford’s thrilling victory on Saturday.

Ben Gulbranson

Gulbranson had a tough start to the season, filled with tough moments and overall statlines, but recently, the sixth-year senior has picked it up. Gulbranson was coming off of back-to-back games where he looked much improved, and ended up puttin together one of the best performances of the year.

He had 444 yards and two touchdowns, as well as making a number of big time plays and throwing perfect spirals all night. Gulbranson even made insider Davey O’Brien’s Great 8 quarterback performances of the week.

Cole Tabb

Tabb has been stuck in a competitive rushing room all season, and never truly had the opportunity to break out until Saturday night. Tabb finally got his chance, and certainly made the most of it. Tabb went for 48 yards as well as scoring the opening touchdown of the game to swing momentum early.

Wide Receiver Room

All season, the wide receiver room has been filled with setbacks. First, Yale transfer and potential WR1 David Pantellis’s ACL tear, followed by 247 Sports four star recruit JonAnthony Hall struggling to even touch the field due to injuries. That has led to Bryce Farrell being the main wide out, and he has had great to start the year.

But two potential starters preseason, CJ Williams and Caden High, both stepped up and proved that they are two key pieces to the offense. Williams went for 138 yards, a career high, and High got 110, including a fourth and 10 catch to set up the win.

Safety Room

Preseason, the safety room was considered to be arguably Stanford’s strongest defensive room. They have been up and down this season, but finally the stars showed out on Saturday.

Scotty Edwards led the entire team in tackles (8), and Jay Green got four of his own, as well as a tackle for loss. If they can get Mitch Leigber back and have him perform well, the safety room could salvage some bad defensive performances the past two weeks.

Overall, Stanford still has much work to do, but their ability to bond offensively truly saved the day. If Stanford’s standouts can continue to stay solid, Stanford has a chance to win a couple more games this season with some tough challenges coming up.