Stanford should be ready to go to the bullpen if quarterback play doesn't improve
The big story coming out of Stanford’s 23-20 loss to Hawaii was the dreadful performance of sixth-year quarterback Ben Gulbranson, a graduate transfer from Oregon State. Gulbranson had a truly hideous day, going 15-30 for 109 yards, zero touchdowns, and one interception for a 73.9 passer efficiency rating against a Hawaii team that had a losing record in the Mountain West last season. Gulbranson’s performance was giving Cardinal fans painful flashbacks to Jack West, who as a senior in the 2021 season went 20-30 for 135 yards, zero touchdowns, and three interceptions for an 84.5 passer rating.
West started out the 2021 season as the starting quarterback, ahead of future NFL quarterback Tanner McKee. McKee went on to take the starting job that season, going 206-315 (65.4%) for 2,327 yards, 15 touchdowns, and seven interceptions for a passer rating of 138.7. That’s a rating that almost doubled that of West.
The reason West won the starting job was because he was more “experienced” as a senior while McKee, being a redshirt freshman had only played in one game as a true freshman the season before, fresh off an LDS mission to Brazil. Head coach David Shaw really valued veteran leadership in quarterbacks and was hesitant to hand the starting quarterback job to a redshirt freshman.
Given how poorly West played, Shaw had no choice but to give McKee an opportunity. McKee ended up earning the starting job through his superior play as he would go on to get drafted in the 6th round of the 2023 NFL Draft and become a member of the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX championship team. As for West, he’s currently working towards a Doctor of Law-JD from Belmont University College of Law.
Going back to the present day, Ben Gulbranson is a guy who is planning on going to medical school after this season is over. I look more favorable upon doctors than lawyers, but in truth both are important professions that contribute greatly to society. They just don’t directly involve playing quarterback.
Now to be fair to Gulbranson, he does have a better resume than West did. He did guide Oregon State to a bowl victory as a redshirt freshman in 2022, finishing the season with a 135.1 passer rating. The problem is that was three years ago. He hasn’t really done a whole lot since then, so it’s not like he came to Stanford riding a lot of momentum.
If Stanford were to make a switch at quarterback, redshirt freshman Elijah Brown would be the front runner to take the reins. He committed to Stanford as a 4-star quarterback out of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California. Last year, in three games, Brown went 28-48 (58.3%) for 274 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions for a 107.5 passing efficiency rating. Those were in games against Cal Poly (7-7), SMU (16-32), and Wake Forest (5-9). While not amazing numbers, it should be noted that Brown wasn’t at full strength as he was dealing with an injured hand.
If you were to say which quarterback is more likely to find their way onto an NFL roster at some point, Elijah Brown over Ben Gulbranson is the easy answer. It’s not even close. That’s not to say Brown will make the NFL, but he at least has four full seasons of football ahead of him and the chance to be developed into something much better than what Gulbranson showed against Hawaii. It’s not always about how one looks in fall training camp. It’s about what your ceiling is and Brown has the far superior ceiling.
As I write this article, I have flash backs of my own to an article I wrote after Stanford’s ugly 24-7 loss to Kansas State to open the 2021 season in which Jack West looked like a deer in the headlights. I wrote that Stanford needed to make the change at quarterback and start McKee given his upside and potential.
Stanford made the change and went on to knock off No. 14 USC the next week 42-28 on the road and later on No.3 Oregon 31-24 to improve to 3-2 on the season. Stanford sadly went on to lose the next nine games of the 2021 season to finish 3-9, but there were some opportunities to pick up a fourth and fifth win as they lost at Washington State by three points (31-34) and also lost to Washington by seven points (20-13). McKee gave Stanford at least some hope and along the way guided them to a couple of pretty big wins.
With a running game that appears stronger than what Stanford had in 2021 (Micah Ford looks GREAT) and a defensive line that has way more life to it (Clay Patterson actually played well aside from his Tik Tok dance), there is reason to believe that if Stanford can get improved quarterback play from what they had against Hawaii, perhaps they can finally break free of a 3-9 record (four straight seasons).
One other difference from 2021 that Stanford has going for them is Elijah Brown isn’t the only alternative. Redshirt sophomore Dylan Rizk played well at UCF last season, going 72-117 (61.5%) for 904 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions for a passer efficiency rating of 137.1. Rizk showed he can perform against power conference competition (Big XII) and is worthy of a chance to start.
To quote Mr. Weid [Taylor Negron] from the movie “Lloyd”, Gulbranson’s job security should be “Standing on the thinnest possible ice. Now.” If he has a bounce back performance against BYU and shows that he’s capable of helping the team win more games than they did last year, he should hang onto the starting job. If he gets pummeled in Provo and once again looks like a guy who can’t hit the broad side of a barn, Stanford might as well give Brown and Rizk a chance to show what they can do for the future and allow Gulbranson the opportunity to get a jump on his med school applications. It would be a win-win for all parties involved.
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