Troy Taylor is going to lift the Cardinal in Year 2, especially with Stanford returning 19 of 22 starters. Taylor, the former Utah offensive coordinator, went 30-8 at Sacramento State before taking over at Stanford. His Cardinal offense will be electric with Ashton Daniels and Elic Ayomanor connecting repeatedly. Though the defense remains suspect, I like the host Cardinal to do enough offensively to hang within this number.

TCU opened last season at home against Colorado in one of the biggest games of Week 1. It will be a far different scenario late night on a Friday in the Bay Area, and the growth of Troy Taylor's program from Year 1 to Year 2 could end up being the difference in the Cardinal putting the Frogs on upset alert in the first edition of #ACCAfterDark in Palo Alto.

Stanford returns 6 of their top 7 top tacklers on defense, plus their starting QB, top three receivers, top two running backs, and all five starters on the offensive line. Troy Taylor's team should be interesting to watch in the ACC (though that's very, very strange to say). TCU is upgraded on defense and I'll never doubt the offense with Sonny Dykes but this is too many points. TCU 35, Stanford 30

TCU returns 16 starters from last season while the Cardinals returns 11. Last season, Stanford was last in the country in success rate and both teams struggled in the redzone, settling for more field goals than touchdowns. The Cardinals had seven home games in 2023, they scored more than 23 points once. They should want a slower paced game to get the running game involved. Last season, when Stanford was a home dog and the total was less than 60, the game went under in four of five.