STANFORD, Calif. — The final four practices of Tavita Pritchard’s first spring ball as the Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football are in the books. The four-week, 15-practice spring ball session wrapped up on Saturday morning.
The final week of spring saw a few added wrinkles to the schedule. Wednesday and Friday’s practices were held inside Stanford Stadium, the first opportunity for the players to be “on the grass,” as Pritchard likes to say. Friday’s stadium practice was a light one, followed by Saturday’s competition-heavy practice with several team periods and officials.
The steady progression of play from the first spring ball practice to the final one was evident. With more 11-on-11 sessions, the competition continued to rise, which was consistent with the messaging from Pritchard all spring. His goal for this was to be “comfortable in the arena of competition,” and by the time the final week of spring rolled around, the team lived up to that billing.
“I love the way we compete. I knew that this practice field was where we were going to make our biggest gains,” said Pritchard following the final practice at his media availability. “Coming into this job, putting the staff together, we knew it had to be built on how we compete out here. That is what I’m most proud of.”
There wasn’t just one side of the ball that dominated spring, either. Specific to the offense and defense, there were days where the offense was moving the ball well, and other days when the defense was imposing its will. That came down to the final snap of spring ball, where the team was working on two-point conversions in a best-of-five drill. Tied at two apiece, the defense won the final rep.
“That’s what I also loved about this spring…all phases of the game had their moments,” Pritchard added. “All three phases had times when they had great days. I loved the push and pull of that, because I felt like it was making us better.”
There is always a certain energy around spring ball that is palpable, and that was no different in 2026. Over the last few seasons, there has been a noticeable uptick in spring energy, and while the sample size is small, that has carried over into the fall. In 2025, Stanford’s spring practices were some of the most energetic in recent memory, and it was the first time in a decade that the Cardinal won more games than it did the previous season.
The energy is high when wins are stacked, and that was something else that Coach Pritchard preached all spring: double wins. That comes when both sides of the ball, regardless of the outcome, are giving their best to make the other side of the ball better. It was clear after 15 practices that double wins occurred across the board.
One area Stanford fans are most intrigued by is the quarterback room. Stanford brings four quarterbacks into the 2026 season, with Charlie Mirer as the only quarterback who has played a snap at Stanford, and that came in last year’s season finale against Notre Dame.
Two new faces are in the room this season: Michigan transfer Davis Warren and freshman Mike Mitchell Jr. While it is too early to tell who has the inside track to be the Cardinal’s Week 0 starter when it opens the season Aug. 29 against Hawai’i, Pritchard liked what he saw from the room in April.
“These guys are all different, and that’s exciting,” explained Pritchard. “What excites me most is that we get to find how to slot in each of these guys’ superpowers and how to find what each guy does well, so we can tailor the offense to that. It was fun to see some of those things come to fruition.”
Pritchard then went on to discuss how he felt the quarterback position fits in relation to the current landscape in college football, highlighting the importance of rapport at the position and how experience is valuable, citing his time with other Stanford greats like Tanner McKee and Davis Mills. Continuity is key, and at the position currently, there isn’t a lot of that.
So that naturally brings out the question: how did Warren assimilate into the offense during his first spring? He was the biggest name Stanford brought out of the transfer heading into the 2026 season. The former Michigan starting quarterback when the Wolverines were the defending national champions fit like a glove, Pritchard said, immediately connecting with his teammates.
“For a guy who has been at a different place, to come in and immediately gel with our locker room in the position that he is in, I can’t say enough about the kind of person and leader he is,” Pritchard noted. “He’s also an experienced football player. He’s run different systems, spoken different languages, but he’s a junkie. He loves talking about concepts and footwork. He fits right into our culture, because me, [quarterbacks coach] Lindgren, Andrew [Luck] all love to nerd out on that stuff.”
On the defensive side of the ball, Pritchard was particularly excited about bringing in Kris Richard as the Willie Shaw Director of Defense. His NFL experience, beginning with the “Legion of Boom” in Seattle, and featuring play-calling duties across multiple positions, is rare to find in a college defensive coordinator. The energy he brings to The Farm is also a perfect fit.
“I knew that the person we brought in to oversee the defense needed to own so much of the culture of our program. Coach Richard is intense and has a high standard, and our guys feel that,” explained Pritchard. “I’m really pleased with how the defense has looked, especially with how it came on in the last week. There are a lot of veteran guys with a lot of snaps under their belts. We spent a lot of the early practices learning that system, getting the calls in, but they really got to play fast here in the last week.”
The Cardinal will not be in action again until the final days of July, when fall camp begins in advance of the season opener against Hawai’i on Aug. 29 inside Stanford Stadium. The first two games in the Tavita Pritchard era are at home, including Stanford’s Sept. 4 game against Miami.