Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman Raves About Stanford's Troy Taylor

Notre Dame's head coach sees the vision for Stanford under Troy Taylor

Oftentimes, success in sports is viewed as something that is black and white, with most people looking at wins and losses as the biggest factor of determining whether or a team or coach is successful. 

However, wins and losses don't always show the full story and that is the case for Stanford's 2023 football season. The Cardinal finished the year 3-9 for the third straight year, as they ended Troy Taylor's first season as head coach with a loss to rival Notre Dame. 

The game itself was close at times, and even saw Stanford have a couple of chances to go up by double digits, but six unanswered touchdowns for Notre Dame were the difference in the second half. Regardless of what the scoreboard said, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman took time to compliment Taylor and the job he has done in year one at Stanford in his postgame press conference. 

“I can’t remember every single play," said Freeman when talking about Stanford's first-half showing. "But one of them, they had a unique formation where they put the running back in the B gap and leaked him out of a deep pass. They did a great job. I told coach [Troy] Taylor before the game, they did a great job of what they’ve done this year at Stanford offensively, what they did at Sac [Sacramento] State. They’ve done a really good job in terms of their offensive scheme. So, very challenging.”

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman / Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Stanford had one of the most inexperienced teams in the country this season after losing nearly all of their starters from a year ago. Unlike other programs that can just reload in the portal, Stanford's strict academics prevent them from being big players in the portal. This puts more of an emphasis on recruiting and developing.

Something Taylor and company will now turn their attention to this recruiting cycle as their class currently ranks as the No. 27 class in the country, and they not only need to make sure they don't lose anyone, but also flip some recruits from other places prior to the December 20 early signing day. 

Stanford Falls In Final Game Of The Pac-12 Era To Notre Dame