10-08-2025, 02:00 PM
In our CardBoard preseason poll, I picked Stanford to win 2 games. I was thinking Hawaii and SJSU would be the wins. The win over Boston College has me thinking that maybe the ACC competition isn't as strong as I suspected.
If I put on my Cardinal-colored glasses, I can see possible wins:
vs Pitt--their three wins are over Duquesne, Central Michigan and Boston College, although they lost close games to West Virginia and Lousiville
@ North Carolina--if Stanford is going to win a road game, this would be it
vs Cal--I married into a UCLA (wife)/Cal (in-laws) family, so this is personal
SMU's wins are against East Texas A&M (forget knowing their mascot, does anyone not from Texas know where the school is located?), Missouri State (forget knowing their mascot, does anyone not from Missouri know where the school is located?) and Syracuse, who is mediocre at best. But I think that playing on the road at 9 am Pacific against a more talented team is too much of a disadvantage. Stanford would have to win the turnover battle handily to have a chance.
Florida State, Miami and Notre Dame have no business losing to Stanford.
I'll stick with my prediction of two wins, but, of course, hope that I am wrong!
If I put on my Cardinal-colored glasses, I can see possible wins:
vs Pitt--their three wins are over Duquesne, Central Michigan and Boston College, although they lost close games to West Virginia and Lousiville
@ North Carolina--if Stanford is going to win a road game, this would be it
vs Cal--I married into a UCLA (wife)/Cal (in-laws) family, so this is personal
SMU's wins are against East Texas A&M (forget knowing their mascot, does anyone not from Texas know where the school is located?), Missouri State (forget knowing their mascot, does anyone not from Missouri know where the school is located?) and Syracuse, who is mediocre at best. But I think that playing on the road at 9 am Pacific against a more talented team is too much of a disadvantage. Stanford would have to win the turnover battle handily to have a chance.
Florida State, Miami and Notre Dame have no business losing to Stanford.
I'll stick with my prediction of two wins, but, of course, hope that I am wrong!
If there's one thing people have learned in Berkeley, it's that you can't put "Cal football" and "Rose Bowl" in the same sentence. The words just don't fit. You'd be better off linking "covered wagons" with "Mars travel." (Bruce Jenkins, Cal '70, SF Chronicle, Nov. 11, 2017)