The skyrocketing optimism surrounding a program being led by general manager Andrew Luck took a big hit this weekend in Hawaii. In Stanford’s first game with interim head coach Frank Reich at the helm, the Cardinal (0-1, 0-0 ACC) opened their 2025 campaign with a 23-20 loss to the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (1-0, 0-0 Mountain West).
After Hawaii’s kicker, Kansei Matsuzawa, knocked the ball through the uprights as time expired to hand Stanford the loss, Reich was already looking ahead.
“The message to the team was: we put in all that work, not for one game. It’s a long season,” Reich said. “So we didn’t get what we wanted today, but we still have a lot of opportunity to get better and to rectify things, even though we didn’t start off how we wanted to.”
The Cardinal offense was led by redshirt senior quarterback Ben Gulbranson, who recorded a shaky Stanford debut. Gulbranson, who spent five seasons at Oregon State, threw for just 109 yards and surrendered a costly interception in the fourth quarter. After building a 10-0 lead in the opening quarter, the offense could only muster up another 10 points in the final three quarters.
“I’m going to take responsibility for this one,” said Gulbranson. “I think I got to execute at a higher level. That starts with me offensively. And yeah, I just wasn’t good enough today.”
With Stanford holding a 20-17 lead, the offense was putting together a strong drive as the Cardinal looked to go up two scores late in the game. After one of Stanford’s longest plays of the game, a 36-yard pass play to redshirt sophomore tight end Chico Holt, the Cardinal found themselves approaching the red zone. The game took a major swing in Hawaii’s favor, however, as Gulbranson threw an interception at the Hawaii 24-yard-line. The turnover led to a game-tying field goal for the Rainbow Warriors.
“I just got to do a better job understanding the situation there and protecting the ball. I wish I could have that one back,” said Gulbranson.
If there was a bright spot, it was the ground game as sophomore running back Micah Ford led the charge. The New Jersey native shouldered the offense late, finishing with 26 carries for 113 yards and the go-ahead 2-yard touchdown with 9:47 left in the game. Junior running back Sedrick Irvin added 46 yards on 10 attempts as Stanford totaled 177 rushing yards on 43 carries. The strong rushing performance resulted in the Cardinal dominating the time of possession as they tallied 12 more minutes on offense than Hawaii.
Reich made it clear that the Stanford offense will lean into the running game this season, but expects the passing game to improve.
“We went into this season saying, ‘Hey, that’s what we have to do.’ That has to be a big part of what we do,” Reich said. “That better not be all we can do. We’re gonna have to be a whole lot better in the passing game than we were today.”
Gulbranson praised the backfield for shouldering the workload.
“I thought our o-line and our backs played their butts off today,” he said. “I gotta give a lot of props. They did an excellent job.”
Stanford’s ability to run and control tempo was undercut by inconsistencies elsewhere. The Cardinal were flagged seven times for 70 yards, including a costly unsportsmanlike penalty that helped spark a Hawaii touchdown in the final minute of the first half.
“There is a line that can’t be crossed, we talk about that, and we crossed it. We paid the penalty for that and it cost us points,” Reich said.
The Cardinal now have an early bye, which Reich called “a great opportunity to take this film and learn from it and get a whole lot better.” Stanford returns to action Sept. 6 at BYU in Provo, Utah. Kickoff is slated for 7:15 p.m. PDT.