EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW (2026): Louisville v. Stanford

Pregame Prep: Things to Know Before the Game

Kickoff: 3:15 p.m. ET (Saturday)

TV / Radio: ACC Network / 93.9 The Ville

Uniforms:

Last Time These Two Met:

Fresh off an upset win at Clemson and re-entering the College Football Playoff rankings at #19, Louisville traveled to Palo Alto, Calif. for their first ever trip to The Farm in 2024. Duke Watson had 117 rushing yards and three touchdowns, but Stanford answered with quarterback Ashton Daniels throwing for three touchdowns, and wide receiver Emmett Mosley logging 13 catches for 168 yards and three touchdowns.

Tied at 35-35, Stanford was pushed into field goal range after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty by Louisville in the waning moments of regulation. Emmet Kenney then hit a 52-yard field goal as time expired to give Stanford a 38-35 upset victory over Louisville.

Notable Numbers:

• Stanford is 1-0 all-time against Louisville.
• Louisville is 1-3-1 all-time against FBS teams from the state of California, their only win coming in 1993 over San Jose State.
• Louisville quarterback Lincoln Kienholz has ten passing and rushing touchdowns apiece this season, making him the third QB in program history to hit double digit touchdowns in both categories in a single season (joining Lamar Jackson and Malik Cunningham). He’s also the fourth Louisville player in the Jeff Brohm era with 10+ rushing TDs in a season (joining Jawhar Jordan and Isaac Guerendo in 2023, and Isaac Brown in 2024).
• Louisville has nine sacks in its last two games, including a season-high five in their last win at Syracuse.
• Louisville has given up 400+ total yards in all but two games this season, including 462 in their last game against Syracuse.

First Down: Meet the 2026 Stanford Cardinal

The 2024 win over Louisville would be the last in Troy Taylor’s two seasons at Stanford, as he would be fired by newly hired general manager Andrew Luck in March 2025 following an investigation into bullying staff members. Stanford went 4-8 in 2025 with interim coach Frank Reich leading the program, and Luck hired Washington Commanders QB coach Tavita Pritchard as the head coach. Pritchard is a former Stanford quarterback and spent over a decade on staff with Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw.

Stanford is 4-4 entering this week, coming off back-to-back wins over FCS Elon and NC State. Stanford is two wins from reaching bowl eligibility for the first time since 2018.

Second Down: Stanford Cardinal Offense

Not only is Andrew Luck the GM overseeing Stanford Cardinal, he also has his name titled over the offensive coordinator position. Terry Heffernan was hired as the OC after being the offensive line coach at Virginia for the previous three seasons.

Stanford brought in Davis Warren from Michigan to lead the offense in 2026, a former Michigan quarterback who has played in some of the biggest games in the sport (including Michigan’s 2024 upset win over Ohio State in Columbus). He didn’t have particularly solid numbers in Ann Arbor that season (just seven passing touchdowns and nine interceptions), but he’s been efficient this season with 11 touchdowns and just two interceptions. He is also coming off a career day against NC State, where he threw for four touchdowns and 303 yards.

Overall, Warren has been very hot-and-cold as the starter. He’s averaging over 300 yards in their wins, but just over 160 in their losses (he also has similar splits in home versus road games). Warren isn’t asked to do much as a runner, but with Louisville’s struggles to prevent big passing plays, he has enough of an arm to give Louisville some challenges. Caden High (30 rec., 440 yards, four TDs) is coming off a strong performance versus NC State, logging nine catches for 103 yards and a touchdown. Tight end Benji Blackburn (28 rec., 244 yards, TD) is another top option for Warren.

Micah Ford has emerged as the impact player on offense this season, he is Stanford’s bell cow at running back and he does a little bit of everything at a high level for them. Ford enters this week with back-to-back games of 150+ rushing yards, and he’s fourth on the team in receptions so far (20 rec., 176 yards). He’s a downhill runner that can make a cut or bounce runs outside and get 15-20 yards consistently. Stanford is pretty consistent at avoiding falling behind the chains with Ford consistently avoiding tackles behind the line of scrimmage; the Cardinal are T-33rd nationally in TFLs allowed (32).

Players to Watch:

• QB Davis Warren (60% completion, 1,933 passing yards, 11 TDs, two INTs)
• RB Micah Ford (855 all-purpose yards, eight rushing TDs)

Third Down: Stanford Cardinal Defense

In addition to Pritchard, Stanford also went to the pros to fill some key spots in their coaching staff. Kris Richard arrived as the defensive coordinator after spending several years as an assistant in the NFL, most notably as a secondary coach and even defensive coordinator with the Seattle Seahawks during the Legion of Boom era.

However, Stanford has struggled in their first season under Pritchard and Richard on defense. The Cardinal enter this week as the lowest-ranked team in the ACC in total defense (443.1 YPG allowed), and have struggled with creating impact plays on defense. Stanford has just six sacks (fewest in the ACC), 31 TFLs (15th out of 17 ACC schools), and six takeaways (T-12th in ACC). Compounding matters is that Stanford will be without linebacker Matt Rose, who earned Second Team All-ACC honors and had 100+ tackles last season (he’s still third on the team in tackles and leading in TFLs after playing in the team’s first four games).

Edge rusher Gabe Kaminski leads the team in sacks (two), but Stanford has logged just one sack in their four losses this season. Jay Green and Sam Mattingly lead the team in tackles (49 apiece), they’ve been the leaders on defense while Rose is sidelined due to injury. Stanford has just three interceptions this season, and enters this week playing their last four games without a pick.

Notable Players

• S Jay Green (49 tackles, two TFLs; Honorable Mention All-ACC in 2025)
• DL Gabe Kaminski (19 tackles, two sacks, two PBUs)

Fourth Down: Keys to the Game

Can Louisville’s defense limit the Stanford running game?

Micah Ford is coming off back-to-back solid outings in the last two weeks, but that was after Stanford had a huge lull with their run game in the preceding five games. Stanford had under 100 rushing yards in each of those five games and averaged 2.51 yards per carry in that stretch. Louisville has generally been better at stopping the run than it has with the pass, so it should go without saying; prevent Ford from impacting the game, and hope that the back end can keep everything in front of them with defending the pass.

Will Louisville set the tone early with their passing game?

Even without star wide receiver Lawayne McCoy for Saturday, Louisville should still have options for challenging Stanford’s secondary with an explosive passing game. The Cardinal have given up just over ten yards per attempt in their losses this season, most notably Wake Forest and Miami averaging 10+ yards per attempt themselves (NC State also averaged over eight yards per attempt in Stanford’s win over the Wolfpack last week).

Tre Richardson is a speedster that should see more opportunities to stretch the field vertically, but this could be another big opportunity for TreyShun Hurry and tight end Jaleel Skinner. Hurry has had solid outings in his last few games (four catches for 66 yards last week versus Syracuse), and Skinner is due for a bounce back game (just four catches for 27 yards in his last three games). There’s also an opportunity for them to use Isaac and Keyjuan Brown more as pass catchers out of the backfield with McCoy out, especially after Isaac Brown had a 46-yard catch-and-run for a score against Syracuse.