Recap: Stanford escapes with victory over Florida State
On Saturday, Stanford football defeated Florida State 20-13 on The Farm for homecoming. Stanford running back Cole Tabb led the way for the Cardinal, rushing for 118 yards and one touchdown on 28 carries for an average of 4.2 yards per carry while wide receiver CJ Williams had four receptions for 61 yards and one touchdown. Florida State quarterback Tommy Castellanos went 14-28 for 242 yards without throwing a touchdown pass nor an interception while wide receiver Duce Robinson had four receptions for 98 yards. Stanford improves to 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the ACC while Florida State falls to 3-4 overall and 0-4 in the ACC.
VIDEO: Stanford Football: Postgame Press Conference | Florida State
BOX SCORE: Florida State at Stanford-Saturday, October 18th
“This is crazy. Really proud of the guys,” Stanford interim head coach Frank Reich said after the game. “Great win. I just love the fact that we’re 3-0 at home. We’ve taken some punches and had some down moments. We’ve been money at home. We find ways to win. Guys play with a lot of heart. We get it done in all three phases. That was the case tonight.
“So hats off to the players, man. They played hard. They played with a lot of emotion and passion, made plays when we had to make the plays.”
Stanford got off to a good start as they opened the game by forcing Florida State’s offense into a three and out. Stanford would secure the punt inside the 20 yard line to begin their opening drive.
Stanford would score on their opening drive as a 32 yard field goal by Emmet Kenney capped off a 13 play, 68 yard drive. Tight end Sam Roush had a 12 yard reception, CJ Williams had a 17 yard reception, and Cole Tabb had an 18 yard gain on the drive. 3-0 lead for the Cardinal with 7:42 to go in the 1st quarter.
Florida State would attempt a 57 yard field goal on the next drive, but it came up short. As a result, Stanford had the ball on their own 38 yard line with 4:25 to go in the 1st quarter.
Stanford would turn the ball over on their next drive as a deep ball thrown by quarterback Ben Gulbranson was picked off by defensive back Earl Little at the 25 yard line. It was an amazing catch by Little as he was right on the sideline.
At the end of the 1st quarter, Stanford led 3-0. Florida State had the pigskin on the Stanford 25 yard line with a fresh set of downs, so they were threatening. Stanford would hold Florida State to a 39 yard field goal as Jake Weinberg came in to tack on three points. That made it a 3-3 game with 14:34 to go in the 2nd quarter.
Stanford running back Micah Ford would go down on the next drive and not return to the game. He was able to walk to the medical tent on his own accord on the sideline, which is good news, but alas, he was done for the day.
Stanford would score on the next drive as a seven yard strike from Gulbranson to Williams resulted in a touchdown. An offsides penalty committed against Florida State on a field goal that went off the uprights kept the drive alive. The Cardinal did a nice job of capitalizing. That capped off an 11 play, 75 yard drive. 10-3 Stanford led with 9:13 to go in the 2nd quarter.
Stanford would force a punt and get the ball back on their own 30 yard line. 10-3 Stanford led with 7:58 to go in the 2nd quarter. Stanford was then forced to punt, but at least it was a beauty. A 49 yard punt by Aidan Flintoft was fair caught at the 13 yard line by Squirrel White.
Stanford would then get the ball back after forcing a punt. Liam Thorpe had a nice return for the Cardinal, returning it 26 yards to the Florida State 32 yard line. Gulbranson would go down on the drive and not return to the game, resulting in backup quarterback Elijah Brown having to come in.
Kenney would go on to drain a 26 yard chip shot to make it 13-3 with 2:53 to go in the 2nd quarter. That capped off a six play, 24 yard drive. Thorpe’s punt return really helped set that all up.
Florida State would find the end zone for the first time on the next drive as Tommy Castellanos had an eight yard rushing touchdown that barely cleared the pylon. That capped off a 10 play, 75 yard drive. Stanford decided to knee out the half. 13-10 Stanford led at halftime as Florida State entered the tunnel with some life.
Stanford got the ball to start the 3rd quarter, but ended up having to punt. Flintoft would have a 57 yard punt returned for 16 yards. Thanks to holding on the return, Florida State was backed up to the 11 yard line. 12:45 to go in the quarter.
Stanford would force a punt on the next drive as a touchdown by Florida State was called back due to an illegal forward pass. Stanford had the ball on their own 6 yard line. 10:36 to go in the 3rd.
Tabb would go on to punch it in from one yard out. That capped off a 13 play, 94 yard drive. A 28 yard reception by Williams, a 15 yard run by Tabb, and a 10 yard reception by Roush were the big plays of the drive. 20-10 Stanford led with 3:02 to go in the 3rd quarter.
“Cole had a massive game, a hundred-some yards,” Reich said of Tabb. “Every time I looked up, the pylon kept moving and moving. He has the speed to get outside. Great vision, great balance. Really a great player. Very happy for him. A monster game. Made the tough yards. Made explosive plays. Just a trustworthy guy on your team. He had such a big game, such a big game.”
Thanks to a sack from safety Scotty Edwards, Stanford had the ball back across their own 25 yard line with 1:19 to go in the 3rd quarter. Stanford was hoping to extend their lead. At the end of the 3rd quarter, it would remain a 20-10 lead for the Cardinal.
Stanford would end up punting on their next drive as it was returned by Florida State to their own 42 yard line. With 13:04 to go, Stanford was hoping to finish strong.
Stanford would hold Florida State to a 33 yard field goal. With 9:22 to go, it was now a 20-13 lead for Stanford. Omar Staples had a huge tackle for the Cardinal to force the field goal.
“Yeah, I mean, a really talented offense at quarterback. He’s really super talented. They have No. 19, he’s a speed burner. No. 0, a massive player, big target. Our defense did a great job of containing him all night. Didn’t hurt us that bad,” Reich said of their defensive effort. “Credit to Coach Thompson and the defensive staff for the plan that they had to kind of minimize the big plays. Of course, most of all credit to the players for executing and making the plays we needed to win the game.”
Stanford then had to punt on their next drive. Florida State had the ball on their own 25 yard line with 7:42 to go. Stanford would then get a huge 4th down stop on defense on the next drive as Castellanos was just short. Stanford had the ball on their own 13 yard line. 5:20 to go. Stanford was helped by a dropped pass.
Stanford would punt it on the next drive, giving the ball back to Florida State on their own 39 yard line. With 3:44 to go and up 20-13, Stanford just needed to hang on.
Stanford safety Mitch Leigber would get called for targeting as Castellanos was sliding. Castellanos would not return to the game and Leigber by rule was tossed, having to sit out the first half of the next game. There were offsetting penalties on the play with a 10 yard holding call against Florida State. It would be a net gain of five yards for the Seminoles with the ball on the Stanford 39 yard line. 1:55 to go.
Stanford would get a stop on the next drive as Clay Patterson got a huge sack to set up 4th and 8. Florida State did not convert. With 1:26 to go and the ball on their own 39 yard line, Stanford just needed to move the chains to end the game as Florida State still had all three time outs left. Florida State would force a punt as Squirrel White returned the ball 16 yards to their own 20 yard line. With 1:03 to go, the Seminoles needed to go 80 yards to even up the game.
Florida State backup quarterback Kevin Sperry would move the chains on 2nd and 10 for a 15 yard gain before finding Lawayne McCoy for a 15 yard reception. A bit later on in the drive on 3rd and 22 from their own 38 yard line, Sperry would find Micahi Danzy for a 53 yard reception, spotting the ball on the Stanford 9 yard line with two seconds left as the clock was stopped due to the chains being reset.
On the final play, Sperry would get a ball thrown into the end zone, which resulted in a pass interference call against Stanford defensive back Che Ojarikre. That resulted in one untimed down from the 2 yard line. One last chance for Florida State to even things up.
Stanford would end up getting the stop to win the game as Gavin Sawchuk was only able to get one yard. Linebackers Jahsiah Galvan and Matt Rose were on the stop. Sawchuk wasn’t quite able to get the ball across the goal line. 20-13 Stanford escaped with the win.
“A lot of emotion. It was crazy,” Reich said of that final drive. “Fourth and 19. We’re going to make a play on this, game over. Give them credit, they made the play, good throw, good catch. We’re able to continue to get it down there. Comes down to the last play. Just a credit to our defense. I didn’t see who was in on the tackle, I think it was Jah, Matt, just to keep him short of the goal line. It was close. That last-ditch effort to get him on the ground. Big play.”
“Yeah, I mean, our coaches have been giving us all week about bending, not breaking,” Stanford safety Jay Green added. “We had some plays leading up to that drive we weren’t fond of. We knew we had the time on our side. The clock didn’t have any time on it. The offense drained them.
“Our goal was to keep them out. We trusted our big boys up front. I am looking at it from a distance. I knew it was good. We won.”
For Stanford, this is a huge win. They were massive underdogs coming into the game with most people expecting a double digit victory for the Seminoles. Instead, Stanford was able to pull out the win despite losing their quarterback and running back. Not only that, cornerback Collin Wright went down and didn’t return as did offensive lineman Emeka Ugorji. Stanford had every excuse to lose this game and instead they dug deep and found a way to get the job done.
“We prepared all week. We kind of had the mindset we knew what was going to happen,” Tabb said. “We knew we were going to find a way to come out on top. It wasn’t pretty. We needed every single facet, whether it was special teams, offense, defense, till the very last second. From the very get-go, from Monday, we knew it was going to come down to the last second. We knew we needed each other and we needed to come out on top.”
“Right, I mean, our coach today in the meeting talked about being together and brotherhood,” Green added. “I was standing over Collin, I asked him if he was good, things like that. It’s kind of hard for me because that’s been my brother closely. Honestly, I didn’t want to see him go down as I love playing with him.
“It was for the best of the team or whatever the situation may be. I think we just bonded together and just kind of thought about finishing, you know what I mean? We had them where they at. We knew if we got a stop late in the game, we could have a good chance of winning that game. So I’m grateful for that, the outcome.”
What made this win all the more fun for Stanford was it was homecoming. As they look to build their football program back up, it all starts with defending your home field and giving the home fans something to cheer about. They were able to do that in this game and all year, they’ve been tough to beat on The Farm, going 3-0 at Stanford Stadium. As a result of fans storming the field, Stanford was fined $50K by the ACC. I think if you are Stanford, that is money well spent. Especially since the money goes towards a scholarship fund that benefits athletes who are pursuing graduate degrees.
“So exciting. You could feel the energy on the campus,” Reich said of homecoming week. “A lot of the players back. I got to meet a lot of players over the last couple days. It’s really exciting.
“It’s really exciting to see what Andrew Luck is doing, how he’s leading this program, how he’s connecting with all the past players. The community of past football players, it’s a very strong group. So excited they get to come back on campus and see this exciting game and us get a win for them. Not only for them, but really the whole campus, the whole student body. We’re doing everything we can do to fight, scratch and claw, put this program back where we want it to be.”
“It was really cool,” Tabb added. “Like we were saying during the game, I was talking with C.J. Williams, who also had a great game, how it’s bigger than us. We’re playing for a much bigger thing, our culture, our school. It’s a pride thing. There’s thousands of people watching us, flying across the country, coming over to watch this one game for homecoming. For us to go out there and do whatever we could, perform like this, come out with the win, it means everything to us.”
As for Florida State, this is a brutal loss. They came in as heavy favorites. Instead, they are now 0-4 in ACC play. Things looked so promising for them after beating Alabama earlier this season, but ever since ACC play has commenced, they’ve not been able to get anything to go their way.
“I mean, we know this is a good football team, a well-coached football team, a team that came out, started out 3-0, beating worthy opponents,” Reich said of the Seminoles. “Very talented in all three phases. Sure, they’ve had a little rough patch right here, but we got a lot of respect for them. At the end of the day what we say on our side, it’s about us. We respect every opponent we play. We prepare for them and give them the respect that they’re due. This is about what we do. We’re trying to establish our own identity, how we’re going to play. Tonight was a big step towards that.”
“Just to start off, just told the team, didn’t have them ready to play tonight,” Florida State head coach Mike Norvell said after the game. “You know, unfortunately the things that we knew that it would take, as you come take a long trip, you know, coming off some disappointing results here the last weeks, we needed to come and we needed to play with tremendous energy, effort, but critically just doing things that we needed to do from assignment, obviously technique, fundamental, and also playing with discipline out there on the field; we didn’t do that.
“We had 13 penalties tonight. We had multiple missed opportunities. That all goes on me. I mean, at the end of the day we made this trip and what we just watched on that field was not anything towards what we invest and work and pour our time into throughout the week or throughout an offseason; you know, everything that I want and that this program needs to be.
“That did not show up tonight, so it was beyond disappointing. We had opportunities. There were things that didn’t go our way, judgment calls, but at the end of the day there was enough of the things that we did control that we just were awful in. You know, give Stanford credit for being able to do what they needed to do. At the end of the day we were extremely poor on our part with the things we could control.”
Up next for Stanford is a road game at No. 9 Miami on Saturday, October 25th. Kickoff is set for 4:00 PM PT on ESPN.
Note: Cardinal Sports Report has you covered for all the latest news on Stanford as they begin the Andrew Luck era.
Join Cardinal Sports Report today for $1 for the first week and enjoy a complimentary year of The Athletic – included with your membership.
Don’t miss out on this great offer!
Sign up here: https://www.on3.com/sites/cardinal-sports-report/join/
CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), & Bluesky: @StanfordRivals
Ben Parker on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), YouTube, & Bluesky: @slamdunk406
Email: [email protected]
Join the conversation on CardinalSportsReport.com
