STANFORD — Ben Gulbranson’s first two games at Stanford could hardly have been worse – a combined 251 yards on 62 attempts, with three interceptions and no touchdowns. But the Oregon State transfer turned a corner just in time to lead the Cardinal to victory in the Bill Walsh Legacy Game.
Gulbranson threw for 444 yards, the third-most in Stanford history, and engineered an 80-yard touchdown drive in the final two minutes as the Cardinal beat San Jose State 30-29 Saturday night at Stanford Stadium.
The sixth-year player, who enrolled at Stanford after spring practice, completed 29 of 43 passes, with two TDs and no interceptions. His emergence gives Stanford (2-3, 1-1 ACC) hope to be competitive as it enters the heart of its ACC schedule after an open week, starting Oct. 11 at SMU.
“Every game he’s gotten better and better,” interim coach Frank Reich said. “Nothing flusters him. He’s got great poise and works really hard. So he deserves a lot of credit. He only got here in June. It’s not like we had a whole spring ball with him. We changed the offense and did a whole bunch of stuff, so some of it is just a natural progression of learning the offense and getting better every week.”
Only Davis Mills (504 in 2019) and Todd Husak (450 in 1998) have thrown for more yards in a game at Stanford.
Stanford Cardinal quarterback Ben Gulbranson (15) celebrates the winning touchdown against San Jose State Spartans in the last seconds of the second half of a college football game at Stanford Stadium in Stanford, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2024. Stanford Cardinal won 30-29. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
His biggest throw came on fourth-and-10 from the Stanford 41 with 1:18 remaining. The Cardinal were expecting San Jose State to blitz, so it kept tight end Sam Roush in to block and had South Carolina State transfer Caden High go long, knowing there was no safety help.
Sure enough, High got behind the defense and Gulbranson found him for a 34-yard completion.
“Huge play,” Reich said. “Really credit to Ben, Caden High, the offensive line. We saw that they like to bring blitz zero in that situation. We studied it hard. We worked on it hard. We talked about our answers all week. But you still got to execute it. They executed it to perfection. It worked exactly how we wanted it to work. But Ben just had all the poise in the world to sit in there, to trust his guys, and know you got a bunch of guys blitzing trying to breathe down your neck.”
Gulbranson then hit CJ Williams for passes of 10 and 14 yards to get down to the 1, and Sedrick Irvin punched it in with 19 seconds left to avenge last year’s last-minute loss at San Jose State.
Over the last three games, Gulbranson has thrown for 916 yards and is completing passes at a 66% clip, with six touchdowns and no interceptions.
“We are just trusting the process,” Gulbranson said. “I don’t think the process has changed. We just got better as the games go on, which is exciting for us, just to keep riding that momentum. We’re doing a good job of diagnosing what we’re doing right, wrong, and building on that each week.”
Stanford Cardinal’s Sedrick Irvin (26) celebrates with teammates their 30-29 win against the San Jose State Spartans at Stanford Stadium in Stanford, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2024. Irvin scored winning touchdown in the last seconds of the game. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
He has found a favorite target in Williams (12 catches for 138 yards), a Wisconsin transfer who has gone over 100 yards in consecutive games. High had 110 yards on five receptions Saturday, and two players had 50-yard catches – deep threat Bryce Farrell and running back Micah Ford.
“At the end of the day I’m really proud of our team and our guys, the whole team, but certainly Ben and the offense, to see how far we’ve come,” said Reich, a 14-year NFL QB. “In those first game or two there were times where I felt like we were really struggling to throw the ball, to protect, to get the ball down the field, to do much of anything in the pass game. To see where we’ve come, that’s pretty satisfying.”
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Gulbranson didn’t actually throw for the most yards in the game – San Jose State QB Walker Eget recorded 481 yards passing and three TDs. But safety Jay Green had a crucial pass break-up at the Stanford 27 with five seconds left to prevent a potential go-ahead field goal attempt for the Spartans (1-3).
With a last-second loss to Hawaii and a last-second win against SJSU, the Cardinal has shown it can be competitive against middle-tier Mountain West Conference competition. It needs to be much better if it hopes to compete with upcoming opponents like Miami, Florida State and Notre Dame.
But it now has added confidence, and with a win over Boston College two weeks ago and Louisville in the final home game last season, Stanford has a three-game home winning streak for the first time since 2018, which was the last time it made a bowl game.
“Trying to establish what this program is going to be all about, on one hand it takes a minute,” Reich said. “On the other hand, we need to show progress and we’re showing that. I think to have the two big wins at home is a good statement to make to show our fans, students here, everybody who is about Stanford football that we’re going to be tough to beat at home.”