Travel, Time Zones, or Tough Opponents? Tavita Pritchard Weighs in on Stanford's Road Woes

The Stanford Cardinal have been terrific at home, holding a 4-1 record that has them within striking distance of a bowl game after scoring 30+ points in four out of five games. On the road, they're 0-3 and have failed to score more than seven points in any of their three losses. 

At home, the Cardinal have outscored their opponents 136-89 in those wins. When you add in the loss to No. 1 Miami on The Farm, Stanford is only up 142-134. 

On the road, they have been outscored 150-17. 

One look at that and you'd probably say that Stanford is having a tough time adjusting to games away from home, either due to the travel, the time difference, early kickoffs, or some combination of those factors. 

They've also faced much stiffer competition away from The Farm, taking on the ACC champion Duke Blue Devils, No. 5 Notre Dame, and No. 14 Wake Forest. That's a daunting schedule for any football program in the country, let alone a rebuilding Stanford squad. 

This week we asked Stanford head coach Tavita Pritchard how he and his staff differentiate between road woes that need to be addressed and just facing stiff competition. 

"I'm a big believer in creating great habits, creating a great process, and not being at the whim of results," Pritchard said. "With that being said, we've obviously had some different kickoff times. We've had different parts of the country. We've had different variables at play." 

He also noted that against Duke, school wasn't in session yet, while against Wake Forest, kickoff time was at 12 o'clock local time (9 a.m. PT), and they were in school at that point. Notre Dame was on a back-to-back after the Wake Forest trip, giving them two cross-country trips. 

"As much as I can, I try to keep it like a regular game week for our guys so that they have the opportunity to say, 'this is what we do on Tuesday. This is what we do on Wednesday,'" Pritchard said. "So that they stay in the rhythm of this is how I can focus on my constant improvement, and showing up and being in the moment all the time." 

He also knows that those routines need to be flexible and that he has to be open to new information that can change how those routines look, noting that it's a constant evaluation process for the coaching staff with the goal of always looking toward preparing the team the best they can. 

The tricky part is that the coaches will never know for certain which changes or new processes that were implemented one week were the ones that contributed to a result, so it will be constant tinkering in order to find that mix. 

The Cardinal will be on the road for their next three games against Louisville, Virginia Tech, and Cal, but the back-to-back travel won't be a concern this time around. After the Louisville game on Saturday, Stanford will enjoy a bye week, then fly out to Virginia Tech for a game on Saturday, November 14. 

From there, the travel is fairly simple, just up the road a ways to take on Cal in the 129th Big Game. 

During this three-game stretch we should get a better sense of how much of Stanford's struggles earlier this season were competition-based versus road issues that need to be addressed moving forward.