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Football

Card On The Road Again

    Stanford (1-2, 0-1) heads back on the road for a showdown with No. 13/15 Oregon (3-1, 1-0) on Saturday night at Autzen Stadium.

    Saturday night’s game marks Stanford’s third straight against Top-20 opponents. That is the first time the Cardinal has played three-straight, Top-20 opponents since the final three games of the 2017 season (Nov. 25 vs. No. 9 Notre Dame; Dec. 1 vs. No. 11 USC; Dec. 28 vs. No. 13 TCU). The last time the Cardinal played three straight Top-20 opponents in the regular season was in 2012 (Nov. 10 vs. No. 13 Oregon State; Nov. 17 at No. 1 Oregon; Nov. 24 at No. 15 UCLA).

    Under David Shaw, Stanford has 29 wins against ranked opponents, including 10 on the road. Under Shaw, the Cardinal is 4-4 against the Ducks when they are ranked.

    The Cardinal has defeated a Top 20 opponent on the road in eight of Shaw’s 11 seasons.

    Early enrollee and true freshman David Bailey has started at EDGE in the first three games for Stanford. He became the first true freshman to record an official start in a season opener at Stanford since Owen Marecic (fullback) in 2007 and the first defensive player dating back to at least 2000.

    Junior running back Casey Filkins made his first career start on Saturday night at Washington in place of the injured E.J. Smith. Filkins set new career highs with 20 rushes for 100 yards in the game. Through three games, Filkins has rushed 42 times for 197 yards and his first two career touchdowns. He’s also added six catches for 87 yards.

    Fifth-year WR Michael Wilson tallied six catches for 176 yards and two touchdowns on Saturday night at Washington, nearly two years after he was injured on the same field in 2020 and missed 11 months. The 176 yards receiving was tied for the 10th-most by a Cardinal in a single game dating back to 1996. Saturday marked his second career 100-yard game (114 at Washington State, 11/6/19).

    Wilson has recorded two, multi-TD games in just three so far this season. He is the first Cardinal since Simi Fehoko in 2019 with two, multi-TD games in the same season. J.J. Arcega-Whiteside did so four times during the 2018 campaign.

    Stanford is one of four Power Five schools with a Black head football coach (David Shaw) and athletic director (Bernard Muir), joined by Maryland, Michigan State and Virginia. Stanford is one of two FBS schools to have had three Black head football coaches, joined by Colorado. Shaw (12th season) was preceded by Dennis Green (1989- 91) and Tyrone Willingham (1995-01) for a combined 22 seasons in the last 35. David Shaw is the longest tenured Black head coach (12th season) at one school in FBS history and has the most wins by a Power Five Black head coach in NCAA history.

    Fifth-year graduate transfer safety Patrick Fields was named to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team on Sept. 19, honoring student-athletes for their outstanding contributions to their communities. Fields is one of 11 FBS players on the team. After four years at Oklahoma, Fields joined the Cardinal in January and is pursuing his master’s in management science and engineering.  This past summer, Fields planned, fundraised, and executed a free, three-day educational, mentorship and networking event for high school and college students in his hometown of Tulsa, Okla. The event brought together the students with black business owners, leaders and mentors leading into Tulsa’s celebration of Juneteenth. While at Oklahoma, Fields founded the Black Wall Street Scholarship in collaboration with the OU National Black Alumni Association and also hosted the Patrick Fields Back To School Bash and football camp for economically vulnerable elementary students in July 2021. Fields in passionate about educating students, especially underrepresented students, about financial literacy, money management, credit and personal branding and founded Town Business to do just that in his hometown of Tulsa, Okla.