Stanford Cardinal head coach Troy Taylor as seen here Sep 9, 2023 against the UCS Trojans in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Taylor hopes to improve this season after finishing 3-9 in 2023. (AP News photo)

On Headline Sports podcast with Michael Roberson:

#1 Head coach Troy Taylor has had a rough last two seasons finishing with duplicate records of 3-9. Coach Taylor is hoping to get things turned around with a league and with Ashton Daniels under center.

#2 Stanford enters the 2024 season with it’s worst three year losing record since 1958-1960 can being in the ACC make a difference, bring optimism and a new foundation in the ACC?

#3 Elic Ayomanor is someone that Taylor and Daniels will be relying on. Aymmanor will be looking for some key passes and if Stanford is to win this year’s he’ll be carrying a good amount of passes.

#4 The Cardinal have a lot of holes on both sides of the ball but defense is a major concern. Stanford has been rated with the worse defense in college football coming in and there was not much movement in the portal to fix it in the off season.

#5 The Cardinal opened up against the TCU Horned Frogs Fri Aug 30. The Horned Frogs were below .500 last season and head coach Sonny Dykes says he hoping for a shot to return to the National Championship game where they were in 2022. In 2023 the Horned Frogs struggled finishing two games below .500 at 5-7. Taking both teams 2023 experiences in account do you think this opener Friday could be a tight contest?

Michael Roberson is the Stanford Cardinal beat writer for http://www.sportsradioservice.com and podcasts Stanford football Thursdays.