Stanford Cardinal tight end Sam Roush becoming involved in offense

Jason Burke | Oct 28, 2024

Oct 26, 2024; Stanford, California, USA; Stanford Cardinal tight end Sam Roush (86) breaks a tackle by Wake Forest Demon Deacons defensive back Zamari Stevenson (17) during the fourth quarter at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images / Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images

While the Stanford Cardinal have been struggling on the football field of late, dropping each of their past five contests after a 2-1 start, there have still been some standout performances that are catching our attention. One of those performers has been Stanford tight end Sam Roush, who has started to become a much larger part of the offense over the past two games.

In each of those games Roush has been targeted eight times and picked up six receptions, easily giving him his two best games of the season, totaling 131 yards. On the year, Roush has hauled in 26 passes, so the 12 he has in the past two games is nearly half that total. The 131 yards is more than half his season total of 241. Roush is also two catches off from his career-high of 28 in a season, which he set last year in 12 games (ten starts).

With four games to go in the season and the current pace that he's on, he should set a number of new personal bests.

What has been most impressive over this two game stretch is that the Cardinal have used two different quarterbacks under center, yet Roush has been as involved in the offense in each game. In the first game against SMU, it was largely freshman QB Elijah Brown that was finding the junior tight end.

Stanford on SI asked coach Troy Taylor if getting Roush involved in the offense more with the freshman under center was by design after that game.

"No, it wasn't. Just calling our offense. Elijah does a really good job of going through his progression and finding open receivers. A couple times no one was open when he took a sack. Obviously got to see the film, but Sam did some good things in the pass game, for sure."

Coach must have liked what he saw from Roush in the game film, because Ashton Daniels was also finding his tight end plenty on Saturday.

The reason this increased involvement could end up paying dividends, is because it gives the Cardinal someone else to catch passes on a consistent basis besides the highly touted Elic Ayomanor. Spreading the ball around a bit more could open up Ayomanor for some big plays, and with the offensive line struggling most of this season, with the QB under pressure, utilizing Roush will help the offense continue to move the ball forward without taking as many negative plays.