While the Stanford football team ended a drought, with a running back scoring a touchdown after not scoring any last season, the program still lost to the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors on Sunday, 23-20. With the Stanford football team led by general manager Andrew Luck, head coach Frank Reich would speak about the performance after the heartbreaking defeat.
Being the interim head coach for the Cardinal, he would say how the opening loss to Hawaii “hurts” and “stings” since the team held a 20-17 lead, midway into the fourth quarter. However, the team couldn't keep the lead, giving up back-to-back field goals, including the game-winner when the clock hit the end.
“Just to start out, obviously a tough loss,” Reich said, according to On3 Sports. “I give Hawaii credit. They played a tough game, made the plays they needed to make to win the game. We came in off what I felt was a very good week of practice, a very good six months of preparation, of hard work. And so, this hurts. You know, I’m not gonna lie. This stings. I know it stings for all of us. Especially for the players. All of us coaches.
“But we know this,” Reich continued. “The message really to the team was we put in all that work not for one game. It’s a long season. So, we didn’t get what we wanted today, but we still have a lot of opportunity to get better and to rectify things. Even though we didn’t start off how we wanted to today.”
Stanford football's Frank Reich looks at Ben Gulbrandson's performance
As Reich looks for long-term success with the Stanford football team, despite the unique coaching situation he's in, the offense on Sunday wasn't up to the standard he looks for. The Cardinal were led by starting quarterback Ben Gulbranson, who, against the Rainbow Warriors, threw for 109 yards and an interception on completing 15 of his 30 pass attempts.
It would be a solid day for the ground game as running back Micah Ford recorded 113 yards to go along with the touchdown that broke the aforementioned drought. In the passing game, however, Reich would speak about Gulbranson's performance, expressing that it might not all be on his fault, since the team was “running for our life,” though the team will look at the film.
“We’ll have to look at the film,” Reich said. “Playing the quarterback position, there’s a lot that goes into it, right? Some of our protection. We had some protection problems early, where we’re having to throw the ball away. We’re running for our life. So, that’s not all on Ben. But we’ll look at it. Every one of us have to look and hey, how do we put him in better position? We want to challenge every player to play better. Quarterbacks are included with that.”
At any rate, the Cardinal start the season 0-1 as the team looks to bounce back on Saturday, Sept. 6, against BYU.
