Ford's Late TD Lifts Stanford Past Hawaii
Tavita Pritchard's coaching debut nearly slipped away before Micah Ford and Tevarua Tafiti scored twice in the final 90 seconds to beat Hawaii 37-27.
Pritchard's debut turns into a signature win
Tavita Pritchard's first game as Stanford's head coach ended with him getting doused on the same field he once played quarterback on, after Davis Warren went 22 of 34 for 310 yards and a touchdown in his first start in nearly 20 months. Warren, the Michigan transfer who tore his right ACL in the 2024 ReliaQuest Bowl, threw a 6-yard touchdown to Atticus Joseph and hit freshman Zion Robinson for a 48-yard gain, and the offense never turned the ball over, according to gostanford.com.
The number that mattered most came on the last possession: Warren went 5 for 5 for 58 yards to set up the winning score, and Micah Ford said afterward it was the reason the fourth quarter did not turn into a disaster. "I'm just happy that we have a quarterback that can lead us through that and stay poised in that type of situation because it's definitely not easy," Ford said, per the same recap.
Pritchard, for his part, framed the whole night as proof of concept for a program he has been rebuilding since spring. "It's been a theme throughout our entire early goings together through the offseason, in the spring, up until training camp is how we finished. We finished tonight," he said, via CBS Sports. The team's own account posted the same sentiment two words at a time: "Congrats, @coachtpritchard."
Hawaii nearly stole it before Tafiti stole it right back
Stanford led 23-7 and looked in control before Hawaii ripped off 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, taking a 27-23 lead with 4:07 to go — the Warriors converted three straight touchdown drives, and Brett McMurphy was tracking it live as the lead flipped twice in under a minute of game clock. It was the kind of collapse that could have turned a coaching debut into a cautionary tale.
TEVAAAAAAAA ‼️SCOOP AND SCORE ‼️ t.co/mrIFaUVhPN
Instead Ford took over. He finished with 99 yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries, and his 2-yard score with 1:41 left put Stanford back in front for good, according to gostanford.com. Hawaii quarterback Micah Alejado had already alluded to wanting to avoid slow starts after last year's opener — instead it was a fumble in the final minute that finished the game.
Tevarua Tafiti scooped that fumble and took it 31 yards to the house with 1:12 remaining, the exclamation point on a 37-27 final. The Cardinal's own account had the call in real time — "TEVAAAAAAAA SCOOP AND SCORE" — and it is the play that turned a nervy finish into a laugher of a final margin.
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Per Covers' injury table, left tackle Niki Prongos was out for an undisclosed injury against Hawaii. Prongos started all 12 games at left tackle last year — the only Stanford lineman to start every game at one spot — so his absence left a real hole in front of Warren for his first start under center, as detailed in our own coverage.
It did not show up on the scoreboard. Warren was not sacked into a turnover and threw for 310 yards without giving the ball away, and the line held up well enough for Ford to grind out 99 yards on 25 carries. Hawaii had its own opening-week hole at receiver, with leading target Pofele Ashlock out with a knee injury, so both offenses were missing a piece they were built around and it was Stanford's group that adjusted better.
Next up: a live-underdog spot at home against Miami
Stanford is right back at it Friday night vs. Miami, with the Cardinal a big underdog off a win instead of the loss that would have made a Pritchard debut look shaky. The line opened with Miami favored by 24.5 points, a gap the Cardinal have no business closing on paper against an ACC opponent that is 0-0 but coming off a competitive loss at Indiana a year ago.
Nobody on The Farm is going to pretend Miami is Hawaii, but Stanford gets to walk into that one with real film of Warren operating a two-minute drill and Ford finishing runs, instead of the total unknown it had a week ago. That is worth more than the line suggests.