Stanford star Elic Ayomanor named as one of PFF's top returning wide receivers in CFB

The Stanford Cardinal will return one of college football's best wide receivers in Elic Ayomanor

With Stanford entering a new era of Cardinal football in 2023, the team had lost nearly every starter from the year prior and badly needed someone to emerge as a star.

It didn't really matter who or what position they played, the Cardinal just needed someone to assert themself as a leader for the team to rely on to make big plays and lead by example. Coming into the year, the most proven player was kicker Josh Karty. At the season's end, it was quite clear who their next big star was.

After missing his freshman season due to injury, Elic Ayomanor supplanted himself as the team's top receiver, and will be the focal point of the offense moving forward.

Elic Ayomanor / John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports

While he wasn't on most people's radar across the country, he burst onto the scene in Stanford's historic comeback against Colorado. While being covered by one of the top corners in college football, Travis Hunter, for a majority of the second half, Ayomanor posted a mind-boggling 13 catches for 294 yards, and three touchdowns.

That game not only put him on the map, but changed something internally for him and the team as he went on to average nearly six catches per game for the rest of the season. His strong finish to the season earned him a nod on PFF's top-10 receiver rankings heading into the 2024 season. Max Chadwick of PFF ranked him as the No. 7 receiver in all of college football, raving about his elite play despite having some of the worst statistical quarterback play in the country.

Ayomanor suffered a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus in 2022, which caused him to miss all of his freshman season. Finally healthy in 2023, Ayomanor became a breakout star with 1,022 receiving yards, which ranked fifth among returning Power Five receivers. He’s a bigger receiver at 6-foot-2 who takes advantage of that size, his 14 contested catches this past year were tied for fourth among Power Five pass-catchers. Ayomanor did all of that while dealing with the worst quarterback situation of anybody on this list. As a team, Stanford’s 57.7 PFF passing grade was 112th in the FBS.

The wide receiver corps around Ayomanor should be better with Tiger Bachmeier taking the next step, and talented youngsters like Emmett Mosley or Ahmari Borden pushing Mudia Reuben for that third spot. Stanford should also see an improvement at quarterback with Ashton Daniels having 10 starts under his belt, and a highly-touted freshman in Elijah Brown looking to take the job from him.

The Cardinal will be joining the ACC next season and are looking to reach their first bowl game since 2018. They will also look to exceed their projected 3.5-win total, which is the lowest in the ACC.

As for who else was on the list, notable names like Missouri's Luther Burden, Arizona's Tetairoa McMillan, and Oregon's Tez Johnson and Evan Stweart all graced the list as well.