Stanford players in white and cardinal line up at the line of scrimmage on the Stanford Stadium field, with a large red S logo on the turf and crowded stands behind.

One Saturday, Two Wins, Two Different Maps: Stanford and San José State at Midseason

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Editor-in-Chief

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Top image: Stanford hosts UCLA at Stanford Stadium in 2013. Photo: Daniel Hartwig via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0

Silicon Valley’s two major college football programs both won on Saturday, by a combined 58-18. Stanford beat Elon 34-7 at its Reunion Homecoming, and San José State won 24-11 at UTEP. Both teams reached the midpoint of the season with something to build on. The schedules ahead of them show how differently the region’s two programs now live.

Stanford: a record day and a needed reset

Running back Micah Ford scored four touchdowns against Elon, an FCS team, tying Stanford’s single-game record, according to Stanford Athletics. The last one came on an 81-yard run on his first touch of the fourth quarter. Quarterback Davis Warren added a 27-yard touchdown pass to Sedrick Irvin in the third quarter.

It was not clean. The first quarter was scoreless after both teams missed field goals, and coach Tavita Pritchard said he challenged his team at halftime. “I don’t think we played with the energy and focus that we needed to in the first half,” Pritchard said, “and I think we did a better job in the second half.”

The win mattered after two weeks on the road. Stanford lost 57-3 at Wake Forest on Oct. 3 and 58-7 at Notre Dame on Oct. 10, the team’s schedule shows. The Cardinal are 3-4 overall and 1-3 in conference play. They host NC State on Friday, Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m., then go to Louisville on Oct. 31 and Virginia Tech on Nov. 14 before the 129th Big Game at Cal on Nov. 21 and SMU at home on Nov. 28.

San José State: 11 sacks and a freshman quarterback

In El Paso, San José State’s defense recorded 11 sacks and 14 tackles for loss, according to SJSU Athletics. That is the program’s highest sack total this century and two short of the school record set in 1981. Jayland McGlothen had 3.5 sacks, and Dylan Lee had two sacks and a team-high 12 tackles. The Spartans have 20 sacks over their last two games.

Running back Viliami Teu ran for a career-high 156 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries, including a 67-yard run in the third quarter that made it 21-0. Daniel Rolovich, making his first career start, completed 12 of 23 passes for 193 yards and a touchdown. He is just the second true freshman to start for the Spartans since 1998, and the fifth Spartan to start at quarterback since 2024, the athletic department said. Freshman receiver Carson Clark caught five passes for 104 yards, including an 11-yard touchdown.

The Spartans are 4-3 overall and 2-1 in the Mountain West, after a 16-13 overtime homecoming loss to Wyoming the week before. Six regular-season games remain, according to the schedule: at Nevada on Oct. 24, then New Mexico, Northern Illinois, at Air Force, UNLV and North Dakota State. The Mountain West championship game is Dec. 4.

Two maps

Stanford now plays in the Atlantic Coast Conference. When the ACC released the 2026 schedule, Stanford noted that the team would play five games in the Eastern time zone this season, all in a nine-week span that began at Duke on Sept. 19. The first three of those trips, to Duke, Wake Forest and Notre Dame, were all losses, including the season’s two most lopsided. Two more, Louisville and Virginia Tech, are still ahead.

San José State’s remaining conference trips are to Reno and Colorado Springs, and its other league opponents, New Mexico and UNLV, come to CEFCU Stadium. Its travel is regional in a way Stanford’s is not.

The long view

The Valley’s two programs now play on different maps. Stanford is a national program by schedule, if not yet by results, and this season has shown how hard that travel can be. San José State is building in a conference where a freshman quarterback and a defense that can produce 11 sacks give it a chance to compete for a title.

Neither model is proven yet. November will show more. Stanford needs three wins in its last five games to reach six, with two of those games in the East. San José State needs two wins in its last six to get there. Both are within reach.

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