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The last few seasons have been tough for the Stanford football program. Longtime head coach David Shaw was fired a couple of years ago. His replacement, Troy Taylor, was fired earlier this year after just two seasons in charge, mostly due to misconduct. Now, program legend Andrew Luck leads the Cardinal as general manager. After firing Taylor, Luck hired former NFL head coach Frank Reich to serve as interim head coach for this season. On Tuesday, the Stanford football team chose Oregon State transfer Ben Gulbranson as its starting quarterback, according to On3's Pete Nakos on X (formerly Twitter).
Stanford has named Oregon State transfer Ben Gulbranson its starting quarterback, a source tells @On3sports. @slmandel first.
Will make his debut in Week 0 against Hawaii. https://t.co/pAHqeD9rL9 pic.twitter.com/UAlbhNl6aa
— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos_) August 12, 2025
“Stanford has named Oregon State transfer Ben Gulbranson its starting quarterback, a source tells @On3sports,” posted Nakos. “@slmandel first. Will make his debut in Week 0 against Hawaii.”
Gulbranson beat out fellow transfer Dylan Rizk and redshirt freshman Elijah Brown for the starting role. Now, the veteran signal caller hopes to lead the Stanford football program back to prominence. As the Cardinal enters their second year in the ACC, the amount of changes undergone by the program have been numerous. How will the players adjust to a new starting quarterback?
Stanford football entering brand new era filled with changes
Reich was hired to help stabilize the program. Luck will be in charge of finding the long-term answer at head coach, but for now Reich is leading the team. Gulbranson has plenty of starting experience and played in 17 games with Oregon State. He's a great choice to lead the team out of the gate, as they play four out of their first six games on the road. That includes the season opener in Hawaii, which is a long flight for any program.
After that trip, road games at BYU in week two, Virginia in week four and SMU in the sixth week each pose a unique test for the Cardinal. Gulbranson's experience should help him with that slate. Following multiple seasons under .500, can Gulbranson and the rest of his Stanford football teammates get the program back to the winning ways of the early Shaw days? If so, then things will be much brighter in Palo Alto once Luck hires the program's new head coach.
