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The Stanford football team is in Year 1 of its ACC membership, and it seems the cross-country travel is already taking a toll. Head coach Troy Taylor spoke on his preparations ahead of an upcoming matchup with Clemson.
The Cardinal will travel 2,500 miles this week, leaving the friendly confines of Paolo Alto for upstate South Carolina.
The trip comes fresh off the heels of a road contests against new conference foe Syracuse, located 2,800 miles away. That makes for more than 10,000 miles in the air over the last two weeks – and it’s still won’t match what the school’s volleyball team will endure!
While the league did do Stanford some favors by scheduling that matchup with the Orange on a Friday, it still didn’t allow for much downtime.
Troy Taylor said in his most recent press conference that his group got back home around 4 AM local time on Saturday morning. That gave the team about 24 hours to unwind before putting the focus back on football.
Tuning into Stanford coach Troy Taylor’s weekly presser ahead of Clemson game on Saturday. He says they got back home at 4 am Pacific after the Syracuse game last Friday and gave guys Saturday off — back to work on Sunday.
-Chapel Fowler / X: @chapelfowler
The reason for that return home? Classes started this week!
Had they not, Taylor implied that a week-long stay on the East Coast might’ve been an option.
Stanford coach Troy Taylor says a big part of the team coming back to the West coast between the Syracuse and Clemson games as opposed to staying back was that the players start school this week and that’s important. Also, the importance/comfort of using your home facilities, he says.
-Chapel Fowler / X: @chapelfowler
With the travel between coasts, the head coach noted that there is an adjustment period.
Stanford football is travelling ridiculous lengths.
The Cardinal spent their first two weeks of the season in California as they hosted TCU and Cal Poly. While a bye week preceded the trip to Syracuse, players were briefly forced to get on an East Coast “body clock” to face the Orange before then heading back home to the Golden State.
Taylor says that he’ll try to keep his players on West Coast time for as long as possible, even after landing in Clemson.
Stanford coach Troy Taylor says the team will fly to SC on Thursday and they’re going to keep their players on a West Coast “body clock” despite being on the East Coast — i.e., the 7 p.m. ET Sat game will be 4 p.m. PT for their planning. And they’ll practice Friday at a local HS.
-Chapel Fowler / X: @chapelfowler
The Stanford coach did note that opposing schools are doing their best to accommodate, providing practice facilities and even doing the team’s laundry. Still, it hasn’t made for a smooth transition!
Many blasted those added travel demands after seeing the latest round of conference realignment. We now have more than a few former PAC 12 teams making regular trips across the country.
Administrators have done their best to propose ideas to better make expansion work, including virtual academic options, flight sharing, and doubling up on similarly located conference foes while visiting certain destinations.
Still, Troy Taylor’s recent comments show that not all of the issues can be resolved!
Stanford plans to get to Clemson on Thursday, practice Friday, and play a football game on Saturday before again returning home in the wee hours of the night.
Luckily, they’ll be playing at home the following week when they host Virginia Tech.