Analyst Calls Out Stanford Fans For 'Lack Of Overall Respect' For The Program

Stanford has become notorious for playing games in front of half-empty stadiums

On Saturday, the Stanford Cardinal were hosting the No. 5 Washington Huskies with hopes of derailing their season and securing another win to boost the upward-trending Stanford program. 

Unfortunately for Stanford, they came up just short of pulling off the huge upset as they had a chance to move down the field to set up a game winner, but a failed fourth-down conversion ended their drive. The Huskies went on to win 42-33 dropping Stanford's record to 2-6, but the Cardinal continue to improve under Troy Taylor who is in his first year as the head coach in Palo Alto. 

After the game, play-by-play announcer Tim Brando of Fox Sports who was on the call took to the app formerly known as Twitter to call out Stanford students, faculty, and alumni for their lack of support of the team. ESPN reported that just 48% of the stadium was full, and even that number may have been generous. Something Brando was outraged by, and thinks there should be more support from fans. 

"We had another epic Saturday in CFB tonight at Stanford and as I hop on my redeye flight home I’m compelled to post this," said Brando. "I’ve never seen a 5th ranked team like Washington play before such a small audience on the road in a Conference game. What happened tonight was epic yet so few seemed the care on site. It’s my sincere hope that @StanfordFball garners more respect from its students, faculty and alumni in coming years under @CoachTroyTaylor! He and his team deserves better. Ya wonder why the @PAC12 is on the verge of extinction? Apathy and lack of overall respect for a mammoth tradition in CFB."

He continued, explaining that he feels for the program as there seems to be a lack of respect for the history and tradition.

"I have greater empathy for @StanfordFootball even more because this is their home and there seemingly were more vendors than fans in the stands. I understand CFB is not as big a deal in the Silicon Valley, but how about some respect for the rich history & tradition of your program. Let’s hope it improves before heading to the @TheACC Many thanks to the @StanfordFball and @UW_Football for giving us a great game," said Brando.

According to ESPN, Stanford's matchup against Arizona was their most attended game of the season with 75% of their stadium, which seats over 50,000 people, full. Stanford is certainly rich with tradition as it is one of the winningest programs in the past decade, leads the Pac-12 in NFL Draft picks since 2012, has had five Heisman finalists, and is just one of three Pac-12 teams to win a New Year's Six bowl game. 

This isn't a new feeling for new head coach Troy Taylor, who ended up generating a ton of interest in his program at Sacramento State, and even broke program attendance records. Obviously, the quickest way to fix attendance issues is winning games, which Stanford will eventually do under Taylor, but in the meantime, the fans of Stanford have certainly underwhelmed with their support. Something that can hurt team morale, recruiting, and players leaving the program in the transfer portal. 

Stanford has two more home games remaining, both of which are against their two biggest rivals in Cal and Notre Dame.