On Wednesday, the 2023 Stanford football schedule was released as were the schedules for all other teams in the Pac-12. The kickoff times as well as television and radio stations are to be determined (TBD). That said, we do now know the full schedule in terms of who Stanford will be playing and on what dates. The schedule is as follows (home games in bold; road italicized):
Friday, September 1st-At Hawaii
Saturday, September 9th-At #12 USC
Saturday, September 16th-Vs. Sacramento State
Saturday, September 23rd-Vs. Arizona
Saturday, September 30th-Vs. #15 Oregon
BYE: October 7th
Friday, October 13th-At Colorado
Saturday, October 21st-Vs. #21 UCLA (Homecoming)
Saturday, October 28th-Vs. #8 Washington
Saturday, November 4th-At Washington State
Saturday, November 11th-At #17 Oregon State
Saturday, November 18th-Vs. Cal (126th Big Game)
Saturday, November 25th-Vs. #18 Notre Dame
*Rankings ascribed are final AP rankings for 2022 season after national championship game
I’ll provide a more in-depth analysis of the schedule as we get closer to the games getting played, but for now, I’ll just provide some brief on the surface thoughts.
The first thing that jumps out is starting on the road at Hawaii. That’s a unique place to play and Stanford will get an extra day off in-between that game and the road game at USC, which is nice.
The game at USC of course will be the final game played between the two schools while they are both members of the Pac-12. At least for the foreseeable future. I still have a belief this whole Big Ten move could blow up for the LA schools and that they could come back to the Pac-12 eventually if the league finds a way to stick together and find quality candidates to join their league (hello San Diego State). But I digress. It’s the last game played between the two schools while they are both members of the Pac-12 for at least a good while and we are yet to see if the rivalry will rekindle while they are out of conference members. So, this game will be pretty historic and intense for both sides.
The first home game being against Troy Taylor’s former team Sacramento State is pretty cool. That’s going to be an emotional game for Taylor, the staff he brought over from Sac State, as well as the entire Sac State program. We also should have a good feel for the kind of offense is Taylor is looking to run as it will be Stanford’s third game of the season. Sac State was a really good team last year and could end up being a decent test for Stanford in their home opener. Stanford honestly couldn’t have scheduled a better opponent to kick things off on The Farm for the Troy Taylor era.
Stanford will be facing a couple of Pac-12 teams they didn’t face last year: Arizona at home and Colorado on the road. Colorado has a new head coach of their own in Deion Sanders. So it’ll be fun to see the first matchup between Taylor and Coach Prime. Both Arizona and Colorado were pretty bad last year, giving Stanford an opportunity to pick up some wins as well. Of course, Stanford was bad as well last year, so there is no game they can look at and say it’s an automatic victory.
Facing Oregon at home will be fun. The last time the Ducks came to The Farm, Stanford stunned them, knocking the Ducks off their perch as the #3 team in the nation. This will be the first big-time opponent Taylor will face on The Farm as head coach and there should be a lot of energy and excitement in the week leading up to that game.
Having a bye week the weekend of October 7th is nice. Last year, they got an early bye and that seemed to hurt them. Ideally, your bye week is in the middle of the season, so it's nice for them to get that this time.
Like the USC game, this will be the last time UCLA faces Stanford as Pac-12 opponents for the foreseeable future. We of course don’t know the long-term fate of the rivalry between the California schools and if USC and/or UCLA will ever come back to the Conference of Champions again. As I’ve said before, I think there’s a chance, but the Pac-12 will need to make the right moves going forward.
The Stanford-USC game has more sizzle to it than the Stanford-UCLA game and for UCLA, I would say their game against Cal is a bigger deal for them since they are both the top schools in the UC system. But still, all four schools have formed rivalries with each other. The last Pac-12 game against UCLA will still have a lot of meaning for Stanford as well.
Not to throw shade on the Washington schools or Oregon State, but I don’t have as much to say about those matchups other than all three will not be easy for Stanford. Washington finished the season as a top-10 team in the nation, Oregon State finished the season as a top-20 team, and Washington State is never easy to beat up in Pullman. So, while I don’t have as much to say about each of those matchups individually, that doesn’t mean they’re going to be easy. That actually will be one of the toughest three-game stretches the Cardinal will have all season.
Stanford will get the chance to close out their season at home with two straight games. The 126th Big Game against Cal on November 18th will have extra weight because Troy Taylor is a Cal alum. So, it’ll be a weird feeling for him to coach against his alma mater, but at the same time, he has to be extra fired up to beat them as well. Especially since they didn’t come calling to hire him as they have put all their faith in Justin Wilcox, who is 30-36 overall and 17-32 in the Pac-12 during his time in Berkeley.
To Wilcox’s credit, under his watch Cal did end their nine game losing streak to Stanford in 2019 as well as guide Cal to three Big Game victories in four years. That’s been a major reason why his job security has been so good in Berkeley. Even though Stanford of course was down during that stretch.
For Stanford, this Big Game will have some meaning because in addition to being Taylor’s first Big Game as head coach, it’ll also give them a chance to reclaim the Stanford Axe for the first time since the 2020 Big Game in Berkeley. Stanford should be plenty fired up to bring the Axe back home and also give their head coach his first Big Game victory.
Finally, Stanford closes out with the Notre Dame game at home. Hopefully this is one rivalry game that will continue to stick around. No reason to think it won’t. Stanford did get the victory at Notre Dame last season, so this will them a chance to pick up two trophies in a row to end their season. Notre Dame will have blood in their eye from what happened last season, so Stanford better come into this game focused and ready to go.
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