On Monday, Stanford football had their weekly press conference in advance of Friday’s season opener at home against TCU. Head coach Troy Taylor spoke to the media along with fifth-year offensive tackle Connor McLaughlin and fifth-year middle linebacker Tristan Sinclair.
VIDEO: Stanford Football Weekly Press Conference: TCU
Starting with head coach Troy Taylor, it sounds like the team is excited for the season to begin. With it being year one of the ACC era, that alone brings a new sense of excitement. He was asked about the travel and the challenges of that. As he has said before, he’s not too worried about that. However, he did mention that the humidity and climate at some of these ACC schools could pose some challenges. I thought it was interesting that he found that to be a bigger concern.
Something on the minds of everybody going into this week is who will he start at quarterback. Ashton Daniels, Justin Lamson, and true freshman Elijah Brown all remain possibilities, but Taylor did not commit to naming who the starter would be. Personally, I think we’ll see Daniels start and Lamson get some time in goal line situations due to his running. I think the bigger question is whether or not we’ll see Brown and if so, in what kind of ways. Healthwise, Taylor said they do have some guys banged up, but overall are feeling pretty good on that front. Not a whole of concern there. He also said that they pretty much know who they are going to play and that there really isn’t much they are going to change. It does sound like at the running back position there’s a lot of different possibilities they might role with, which will be interesting.
Taylor has a good amount of familiarity with TCU head coach Sonny Dykes. As a Cal grad, Taylor has followed the Golden Bears program closely over the years and was very familiar with the Sonny Dykes era in Berkeley. So, that’s something that should help him prepare for the Horned Frogs.
I asked Taylor about how he goes about creating new plays and developing his offense. He said the offseason is the main time of year for experimenting and trying new stuff. At this point, the players pretty much all know what kind of plays they’re going to be running and what the offense is. I thought it was interesting to get a window into his play calling philosophies a bit.
Building off that, Taylor said with the increased depth they have, he feels a lot more confident in their abilities to run the kind of offense he wants to run. From what we said, it sounds like he’s ready to let it rip and that there really shouldn’t be much if any limitations in terms of executing the kind of plays that he hopes to have them run. The new freshmen running backs Cole Tabb, Chris Davis Jr., and Micah Ford seem to be a big reason why.
One thing Taylor is excited about is the in-helmet communication. He’s talked about this before, but that’s a tool that he’s looking forward to using now that they are able to use it. It sounds like on offense, whoever is playing quarterback will have it and then on defense it will likely be one of the middle linebackers. Players will have one helmet that has the in-helmet communication built in and one that doesn’t. Only one player on the field can have it at a time and that helmet must be labeled with a green sticker. That will be something refs will check to make sure teams are being honest.
Switching gears to McLaughlin, he sounds confident that the offensive line has made strides from last year and is better. He’s really enjoyed being coached by both Al Netter and Viane Talamaivao. He feels like having two offensive line coaches helps a ton because they explain things different ways and sometimes it helps to have a second guy explaining a concept to you. That was the main thing that stood out to me from what McLaughlin said. Of course, he’s a fifth-year guy and knows he has a lot on his shoulders to be a leader on the offensive line.
As for Sinclair, as one of the guys who will be tasked with the in-helmet communication, he’s looking forward to having that tool. He loves being one of the key positions on defense that communicates with so many guys. He said it’s been helpful to have a coach talking to him and getting a feel for that tool, so it’s going to be interesting to see what impact that has.
I thought it was cool to get more of a window into Sinclair’s relationship with fellow inside linebacker Gaethan Bernadel. The two of them are extremely close. They work really hard together and communicate well on the field together. I think it’s neat to see two teammates who are so close and in sync with one another. Bernadel was a new guy a year ago after transferring in from FIU, but now he’s one of the veterans on the team and it feels like he’s been at Stanford for a while. Sinclair also had great things to say about fellow inside linebacker Jahsiah Galvan, who transferred in from Northern Iowa. It sounds like he’s made a great adjustment to life at Stanford and ready to be an instant contributor.
In conclusion, it’s an exciting week for Stanford. It’s game week. I think it’s no coincidence Sinclair and McLaughlin were the ones to represent the team this week. Stanford is going to need their veteran guys to step up this year and really lead out. Both of those players are going to be crucial to Stanford having an improved season. As for Troy Taylor, he does seem a lot more confident in his crew. Friday night against TCU will give us a window into how much better his team really is.
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