The three biggest storylines of Stanford's 2023 fall camp

Stanford's first fall camp under Troy Taylor will be unlike any other camp Stanford has had

Believe it or not college football is less than 30 days away from starting, and while many are rightfully focused on the future of the Pac-12, football is still happening. 

If you haven't been made aware, the Pac-12 is fighting for its survival following the departure  of USC, UCLA, and most recently Colorado and is attempting to assemble a media rights deal. The higher ups met on Tuesday to see what their new deal could look like, and while they didn't agree on anything yet they do have another meeting in the near future. 

Now that we are caught up on that let's get back to the nitty gritty of what this is all about, football. Stanford is heading into their first fall camp and season of the Troy Taylor era, and while there are many interesting things to look out for there are three that stand out to me the most. Let's take a look at the three biggest storylines of Stanford's fall camp. 

The complete rebuild of the secondary

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Unlike the offensive line that was able to return one starter and add a couple transfers with experience, the secondary is starting from scratch. The Cardinal lost Kyu Blu Kelly (NFL), Kendall Williamson (NFL), Ethan Bonner (NFL), Patrick Fields (graduation), Salim Turner-Muhammad (Purdue) Nicolas Toomer (Indiana) and Jonathan McGill (SMU). To bring back someone with experience they did add fifth-year senior Zahran Manley who played in 17 games and started three from 2019-2021. Whether it is freshmen like Jshawn Frausto-Ramos getting a chance, or former reserves emerging this will be all new. Not ideal when the rest of the conference is poised to have elite passing attacks, but it will be interesting to see how the defense looks to help out this unit. 

Troy Taylor's offense

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With how inexperienced the wide receivers, quarterbacks, and offensive line are it will be interesting just how quickly Taylor's offense is able to be executed properly. He is an offensive guru that has found success everywhere he has set foot, but with so many players that haven't played meaningful snaps stepping into starting roles it could be difficult. This past season Taylor's Sacramento State offense scored 42.92 points per game, ranked No. 3 in total offense, No. 30 in passing offense, and No. 7 in rushing offense. He has weapons like running back EJ Smith and tight end Benjamin Yurosek at his disposal, and he may have to be as creative as he's ever been to get things going. 

Quarterback battle

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The quarterback battle is of course making the list due to the complete mystery that it is. There isn't a signal caller in the room that has more than 25 career passing attempts, and we don't know much of anything about any of them. Ari Patu has been viewed as the favorite due to being the one with the most playing time, but clearly neither he nor Ashton Daniels were able to pull away during spring ball. Syracuse transfer Justin Lamson brings in a dynamic athlete that was once an all-state safety in high school, and there is also four-star Myles Jackson who should be a senior in high school but reclassified. If this battle isn't settled by Week 1 it wouldn't be shocking, but who knows how long Taylor is willing to let it go. There are also questions if he will use a multiple quarterback scheme like he did this past season that saw Jake Dunniway be named a third team All-Big Sky selection, and Asher O’Hara was a first  team All-Conference pick at the all-purpose position. There is no indication of him planning to do so at Stanford, but this situation may call for creativity.