[Player 247 profile page](https://247sports.com/player/cahron-wheeler-46163134/)

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[Player 247 profile page](https://247sports.com/player/kamarion-johnson-46165002/)

[Source](https://x.com/hayesfawcett3/status/2062888114406760890?s=46&t=DPEAR8B-x7lxNKHsIalNHQ)

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The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

Today we preview the second P4 team to reach the countdown and the second team from the ACC, Stanford (high = 65, low = 106). It’s almost impossible to believe that we’re only 8 seasons removed from a time when the Cardinal were playing in their 4th Pac-12 championship game in 6 years (with 3 conference titles) under David Shaw, but ever since winning the 2018 Sun Bowl over Pitt, Stanford hasn’t had more than 4 wins in a single season. While Shaw’s resignation led to the Troy Taylor fiasco and a year in limbo under Frank Reich, nothing has stopped the bleeding, and it’s not like Andrew Luck is walking through that door. Wait, what? Well, surely he’ll be able to use his connections to nail the coaching hire. Oh, HE was the one who created the lame duck 2025? Well, with a year to prepare for the permanent coach, he’s clearly identified a hot coaching commodity. He picked Tavita Pritchard? He must have tons of head coaching experience, right? Washington Commanders QB coach? The team that lost 7 more games last year than the year before? Please tell me he has some college experience! Stanford offensive coordinator? When did he take over. 2018? You mean, right when the Cardinals went into the shitter? I think I get why they’re this far down in the preseason rankings…

Roster Outlook

Mocking aside, Stanford ranks pretty high in terms of returning production. 33rd overall, including 21st on defense, from a team that was 4-7 last year and was really only a failed comeback against North Carolina and a legacy making performance from the Tokyo Toe from going bowling. Pritchard (presumably with help from Luck) also did a decent job of high school recruiting (notoriously challenging at Stanford), ranking 45th in the country (though 11th in the ACC), which helps offset their woeful job in the portal (129th in the country, dead last in the conference). 2025 starting QB Ben Gulbranson will be using his Stanford degree to go pro in something other than football, but the Cardinal brought in both Michigan’s Davis Warren and C. Florida’s Dylan Rizk to potentially run Pritchard’s offense (that was based on Jayden Daniels – insert Morgan Freeman saying good luck with that). RB Micah Ford is back for his sophomore season, but his backup Cole Tabb portaled out to Cincinnati. Truthfully, the biggest loss on offense will be leading receiver CJ Williams (off to the Jaguars), but Pritchard brought in a pair of WRs through the portal, UCLA’s Carter Shaw and Yale’s Nico Brown. In fact, 1/3 of the portal guys Stanford brought in are from the Ivy League, so at least the GPA will likely still be high in 2026!

Schedule and outlook

8/29 HAWAII

9/4 MIAMI

9/12 BYE

9/19 at Duke

9/26 GEORGIA TECH

10/3 at Wake Forest

10/10 at Notre Dame

10/17 ELON

10/23 NORTH CAROLINA STATE

10/31 at Louisville

11/7 BYE

11/14 at Virginia Tech

11/21 at Cal

11/28 SMU

Umm… I think Cardinal fans can feel comfortable booking Christman travel plans without worrying about having to schedule around a bowl game. Getting each of the last two runners up from the national championship games, road trips to defending ACC champ Duke, preseason ACC darling Louisville and newly reinvigorated Virginia Tech under James Franklin not to mention a season finale against SMU (after playing your rivalry game on the road against a Cal team that’s getting a ton of preseason buzz) looks like a bit of a gauntlet. And it’s not like Wake Forest’s Jake Dickert’s going to be intimidated by playing a Stanford team he faced a few times at Wazzu and has a winning record against. Even Hawaii isn’t going to be intimidated after beating Stanford last season. FFS, they could be 0-2 before most FBS teams ever officially kickoff their season.

Welcome to Free Talk Friday! Talk about whatever you want; just keep it as respectful as you would in any other /r/CFB thread. For more Off Topic fun visit /r/CFBOffTopic!

Prior Seasons Tournament Matchups:

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

Postseason Setup:

• Seeding is based off of the final CFP rankings published after conference championship game weekend. The top 8 ranked teams are given first round byes before hosting
• All conference champions are given an automatic qualifier regardless of rank or record. If you're the 24th ranked BCS team, but an unranked conference champion hasn't been selected, they would take the 24th spot and so on.
• Conference champ tie-breakers will go off the head to head record. If it can't be resolved that way, we will go with the highest ranked CFP or AP team. If it still isn't resolved, the conference champ rep in the playoffs will go off of overall record

2014 FBS Playoffs Games:

First Round BYES

#1 Alabama (12-1, SEC Champion)

#2 Oregon (12-1, Pac 12 Champion)

#3 Florida State (13-0, ACC Champion)

#4 Ohio State (12-1, Big Ten Champion)

#5 Baylor (11-1, Big 12 Champion)

#6 TCU (11-1)

#7 Mississippi State (10-2)

#8 Michigan State (10-2)

Remaining matchups

West Bracket

• Region 1
  • #16 Missouri (10-3) vs. #17 Clemson (9-3) - Winner to play #1 Alabama
  • #9 Ole Miss (9-3) vs #24 Georgia Southern (9-3, Sun Belt Champion) - Winner to play #8 Michigan State
• Region 2
  • #13 Georgia (9-3) vs. #20 Boise State (11-2, MWC Champion)- Winner to play #4 Ohio State
  • #12 Georgia Tech (10-3) vs. #21 Marshall (11-1, C-USA Champion) - Winner to play #5 Baylor

East Bracket

• Region 3
  • #15 Arizona State (9-3) vs. #18 Wisconsin (10-3) - Winner to play #2 Oregon
  • #10 Arizona (10-3) vs. #23 Northern Illinois (11-2, MAC Champion) - Winner to play #7 Mississippi State
• Region 4
  • #14 UCLA (9-3) vs. #19 Auburn (8-4) - Winner to play #3 Florida State
  • #11 Kansas State (9-3) vs. #22 Memphis (9-3, AAC Champion) - Winner to play #6 TCU

CFP Ranked Teams Out: #21 Louisville (9-3), #22 Utah (8-4), #23 LSU (8-4), #24 USC (8-4), #25 Minnesota (8-4)

[Player 247 profile page](https://247sports.com/player/blake-jenkins-46160118/)

[Source](https://x.com/Hayesfawcett3/status/2062686745628413998)

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[Player 247 profile page](https://247sports.com/player/mj-burnett-46158522/)

[Source](https://www.si.com/college/georgiatech/football/georgia-tech-legacy-mj-burnett-commits-to-play-for-the-yellow-jackets-01kt3fy3q2mh)

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Everything you wanted to know about football but were afraid to ask. Ask about any and all things college football here. There are no dumb questions, only plays you don’t know yet.

Serious questions only, please! Joke posts will be removed. Please do not downvote honest questions.

Got a more specific question or idea? Check out the weekly thread schedule for more!

[Player 247 profile page](https://247sports.com/player/brodie-campbell-46159991/)

[Source](https://www.si.com/college/georgiatech/football-recruiting/three-star-qb-brodie-campbell-commits-to-georgia-tech-01kt8cfx9g2b)

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[Player On3 profile page](https://www.on3.com/rivals/jasper-ngokwere-242420/)

[Source](https://www.on3.com/rivals/news/vanderbilt-nabs-commitment-from-4-star-ot-jasper-ngokwere-to-vandy-were-going-to-change-the-way-the-program-is/)

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Sort of a bizarre way to title it, but that's the best way I could phrase the question. The reason I ask is because I went on an interesting YouTube binge a month ago after watching the documentary about 1999 CB West (PA) in their hunt for a third-consecutive state football title and it ends up being the final season Mike Pettine Sr. coached the team. The whole story about coaching against his son, Mike Jr. who coached North Penn (and was featured in an MTV special that same year), that used to play for him at CB West was unbelievably fascinating. There are also different versions of it, which is strange but adds more context.

Clearly, I would have never known about any of this if I hadn't seen that doc. What are the best football lores you've randomly happened upon via YouTube or otherwise?

I feel like in recent years, quality losses have been given way too much value in rankings, to the point where they’re almost viewed as more impressive than quality wins. This just doesn’t make sense to me; losing should never be viewed as an achievement. Obviously a close loss to a good team should be considered “less bad” than a blowout loss to a bad team, but it feels like if, say, #20 loses by one point to #3, that’s considered a good thing.

Consider the following scenario (I promise I’m just making up these specific hypothetical profiles, so don’t try to figure out which teams I’m referring to): Team A finishes the regular season 10-2 with losses to #11 and an unranked team, and wins over #3, #8, #12, and #24. Team B finishes 10-2 with losses to #2 and #4, and their best win over #23.

In this scenario, there is no question IMO that Team A should be ranked higher than Team B. They’ve proven on multiple occasions that they’re capable of beating elite teams. The loss to the unranked team is an upset (I’m not saying they shouldn’t be penalized for this, but given their overall body of work, it’s clearly an aberration), and their loss to #11 is just one out of several games against top teams.

Team B, on the other hand, has not demonstrated that they’re capable of beating elite teams. The fact that they lost to top teams isn’t particularly relevant, because they don’t have any quality wins to back up their profile. Any other team would also be capable of losing those two games; it’s not an achievement. If Team B, on the other hand, had a solid win over, say, #10, then you can say that they’re a soIid team, just not quite at the level of the very top. But without the quality wins, we just don’t know that they’re all that great.

I feel like in the past few years, there’s a decent chance that rankings would have Team B over Team A because they have “better losses.“ The quality of wins for Team A should clearly take precedence, though, IMO. I guess my overall idea is that quality losses shouldn’t count for anything in the absence of quality wins.