What Does Success Look Like for Stanford Football? Tavita Pritchard Explains

The Stanford Cardinal are 4-5 entering their final three regular season games and have already tied last season's win total in the program's first season under head coach Tavita Pritchard.

Back-to-back four-win campaigns after four straight three-win seasons is a step in the right direction, especially when you consider Stanford's five losses have come against either ranked teams or teams that have received votes to be ranked here in November. 

Many fans would consider winning two of the next three games and becoming bowl eligible a successful season, but Stanford Roundtable asked Pritchard what he thought would constitute a successful season for the Cardinal.

"I won't hide the fact that absolutely we want to earn a fourth game," Pritchard said. "That's a big part of some of our late-season goals as we look at what sits right in front of us."

Pritchard went on to say that the best way to achieve those goals is to handle the game in front of them, which this week is against Virginia Tech. 

Early in the season when speaking with the media, Pritchard said one of his goals for the year was to have the team playing progressively better football each week and making improvements each time they take the field. 

"Especially these last three games, that's what I'm looking towards," Pritchard said. "I am certainly looking at: how have we gotten better? How have we improved in our units individually? As a team? And what kind of trajectory does that set us on?" 

While earning that fourth game — a bowl game — is in the team's sights and is the ideal ending for the season, it's also not the only measure of success for the program. 

It's difficult to assess that progress at a quick glance given the challenges of the schedule being dispersed throughout the season. The year had road matchups with No. 5 Miami and ACC champion Duke in two of its first three games, then faced No. 11 Wake Forest and No. 3 Notre Dame in back-to-back weeks, also on the road, giving the Cardinal three tough road matchups in a span of four weeks.

Still, they won the home game they had against Georgia Tech and have seemed to showcase noticeable improvements over the course of the season. 

Of course, those improvements began in wins at home against Elon and NC State following the Notre Dame game, but also carried over into the first half of the Louisville game. The offensive line has been making strides in the past three games, helping lead to big performances from running back Micah Ford (401 rushing yards in the past three games) and QB Davis Warren (852 passing yards in the past three games). 

That production has all started up front on the offensive line.

The next test for Stanford to take a big step will be winning a game on the road and playing a full four quarters. Their next shot comes on Saturday at Virginia Tech, where a win would also put them in a great position to get that fourth game added to the schedule.