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Football

Cardinal Travels to Clemson for Primetime Matchup

Stanford travels to Clemson for its second straight road ACC matchup

Game Coverage

The Opening Kickoff

  • Stanford returns to the East Coast for the second time in as many weeks with an ACC tilt against No. 21 Clemson. Saturday's kickoff is scheduled for 4:00 pm PT on ESPN.
  • The Cardinal is coming off its first-ever ACC win by beating Syracuse 26-24 on the road last Friday night, handing the Orange its first loss of 2024. Stanford led for a majority of the game but needed a 39-yard field goal from Emmet Kenney as time expired to escape with the victory.
  • The Cardinal has been great away from The Farm since Troy Taylor took over in 2023. The Cardinal is 4-2 in road games since the start of last season, with three of those wins coming in conference play. In all three of those conference wins, Stanford has trailed in the fourth quarter.
  • Defensively against the Orange, the Cardinal were aided by a pair of interceptions from quarterback Kyle McCord. The first was returned by Mitch Leigber 71 yards for a touchdown, the first pick-six by a Cardinal since Kyu Blu Kelly against USC on Sept. 11, 2021.
  • Not only did Leigber provide a huge spark, but he also made Stanford history by scoring a defensive touchdown. Leigber was forced to play running back in 2022 due to injuries to the running back room and wound up scoring twice. Now with a defensive touchdown on his résumé, he becomes the first Cardinal since Owen Marecic (2007-10) to score an offensive and defensive touchdown in his career.
  • Defense has been the reason for the strong start to the 2024 campaign. Last year, the Cardinal defense allowed 461.7 yards per game, the most in program history. This season, they are limiting opponents to just 350.3 yards per game, and have recorded five turnovers.
  • A theme of Stanford in wins under Coach Taylor has been the Card's ability to stop the run. Stanford is allowing an average of just 36.4 rushing yards per game to opponents in wins since the start of the 2023 season, or 182 yards in five games. Through four weeks of the 2024 season, Stanford's run defense ranks third in FBS and leads the ACC, allowing just 51.7 rushing yards per game.