Stanford looks ahead to ACC Media Days
Next week from July 22nd-July 25th, the ACC will have their annual football media days in Charlotte, North Carolina. Stanford head coach Troy Taylor will be in attendance to represent the Cardinal along with redshirt sophomore wide receiver Elic Ayomanor, junior quarterback Ashton Daniels, and graduate student inside linebacker Tristan Sinclair. This will be the first season in the ACC for Stanford along with Cal and SMU.
Taylor is entering his second season at the helm for the Cardinal after they went 3-9 overall and 2-7 in the Pac-12 in his first season. Taylor is in the midst of a rebuild, trying to bring the Cardinal program back to life after it was in a state of inertia at the end of the David Shaw era. In order for the Cardinal to have an improved season, Taylor is going to need to be able to implement more of the kind of offense that he is hoping to run as well as the kind of defense that defensive coordinator Bobby April III wants. If that is to happen, the players who will be joining him at media day will need to have strong seasons.
Starting with Elic Ayomanor, he is coming off a season in which he had 62 receptions for 1,013 receiving yards and six touchdowns in 12 games played as a redshirt freshman. Listed at 6’2”, 210 pounds, he has great physical tools, most notably his speed. He is coming off surgery and missed the spring practice period, but is back doing workouts with the team and should be a full participant in fall camp. If he can take his game up a notch this season, that would be huge for the Cardinal as they look to make a bit of noise in their first season in the ACC.
Moving on to Ashton Daniels, he won the starting quarterback job last season over fellow junior Justin Lamson as he ended up starting 10 of the 12 games Stanford played. Daniels went 191-325 (58.8%) for 2,247 yards, 11 touchdowns, and eight interceptions. He showed an ability to throw the deep ball and make winning plays, though at times he also made poor decisions, showing his youth and inexperience. This season, Daniels should look a lot more comfortable under center now that he has a year under his belt as the starter. He’s got a good body on him at 6’2”, 215 pounds, capable of handling the pounding that comes with being a quarterback.
I should note that Daniels will have some competition in fall camp for the starting job in true freshman Elijah Brown and redshirt freshman Myles Jackson. For now, Daniels is the front runner to be the starter, but how things go in fall camp at the quarterback position is something to keep an eye on.
Ending with Tristan Sinclair, he has become the heart and soul of the Cardinal defense. In 12 games started last season, he had 71 total tackles (38 solo), five tackles for loss, and one sack. At 6’1”, 221 pounds, Sinclair plays physical, tough, and passionate. He put the hurt on Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza during Big Game and was wrongly called for targeting, winning his appeal to play the entire Notre Dame game the following week. He has everything you want in an inside linebacker both from a mentality and physical tools standpoint. He plays the game the right way and should look to have his best season ever as a fifth year guy.
With ACC media days just around the corner, it’s truly a sign that football season is coming up. Fall camp will start next month and then at the very end of the month, the Cardinal will have their first game of the season at home against TCU. If you have not already checked out the Cardinal’s schedule, you can do so below. In the coming weeks, I’ll provide a more detailed breakdown of the schedule, but for now, you can at least familiarize yourself with it so that you can plan accordingly.
Bold = home.
Italics = away.
Friday, August 30th vs. TCU (7:30 PM PT).
Saturday, September 7th vs. Cal Poly (4:00 PM PT).
Friday, September 20th at Syracuse (4:30 PM PT).
Saturday, September 28th at Clemson.
Saturday, October 5th vs. Virginia Tech.
Saturday, October 12th at Notre Dame.
Saturday, October 19th vs. SMU.
Saturday, October 26th vs. Wake Forest.
Saturday, November 2nd at NC State.
Saturday, November 16th vs. Louisville.
Saturday, November 23rd at Cal.
Friday, November 29th vs. San Jose State (1:00 PM PT).
Saturday, December 7th (ACC Championship Game).
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