Will the move to the ACC reawaken Stanford football? A season full of coast-to-coast road trips will determine that. For the time being, the depth of the Cardinal’s slumber is evident in the fact that visiting TCU is a 9-point favorite for the teams’ season opener in northern California on Friday night.

And this isn’t the Horned Frogs who went to the national championship game, which came at the end of the 2022 campaign. These Frogs are coming off a 5-7 record, and covered the spread three times in final eight games a year ago. Yet they remain a clear road favorite over a Stanford team coming off its third consecutive 3-9 season, and which covered just three of its final 11 games in 2023.

TCU vs stanford Odds

Odds as of August 27

TCU Vs stanford Picks – Week 1

While Stanford last year recorded one of the season’s most memorable comebacks—rallying from 29-0 down at Colorado as 13-point underdogs—this was a team with one of the nation’s worst defenses. The Cardinal gave up 462 yards per game and suffered five losses by 33 or more points. Any hope of hanging with TCU hinges on an improved D, and toward that end, Stanford added key transfers in tackle Clay Patterson from BYU and linebacker Jasiah Galvan from Northern Iowa.

TCU suffered four losses last season by a touchdown or less, showing how close it was to a very different campaign in Fort Worth. While 1,200-yard rusher Emani Bailey is off to the NFL, Josh Hoover returns behind center after passing for 15 scores and running for two more last year. Savion Williams remains a standout receiver. The questions for the Frogs are on defense, where coach Sonny Dykes made a change in coordinator after the 2023 campaign. And yet, the Frogs still averaged 31 points and were in almost every game. Stanford has a ton of players returning, but still—those guys were awful last year.

This is Year 2 for Cardinal coach Troy Taylor, and the personnel hasn’t yet been elevated to a level that would make us comfortable taking Stanford against a very capable major-conference opponent, even at home.

TCU vs Stanford Week 1 Pick: TCU -9.0 (-110)

Despite allowing bushels of points, Stanford went OVER the total just five times last season thanks to an offense that squeezed out 20 points per game. Lots of those same players return for the Cardinal, though their best—tight end Benjamin Yurosek—bolted to Georgia. TCU went OVER just four times in 2023, largely due to turnovers. This one feels like a grinder in which the Frogs pull away in the end.

TCU vs Stanford Week 1 Pick: UNDER 61.5

TCU Vs stanford news

Cam Cook, the heir apparent to Bailey at running back for TCU, was limited late in fall camp due to a hamstring issue, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Dykes expected Cook, who carried the ball just 16 times last season, to be ready for the opener. The news was worse on starting cornerback Avery Helm, who according to reports, is out indefinitely with an apparent knee injury.

TCU Vs stanford Betting Trends