“It’s definitely been busy,” Taylor said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “But it’s been fun.”

Taylor wound up signing 14 of the 17 players from the Class of 2023 that had committed to Stanford under previous coach David Shaw. In total, 19 players signed letters of intent to play for the Cardinal Wednesday, forming a class that 247Sports ranked as 48th in the FBS and 8th in the Pac-12.

“I was hoping that the whole class wouldn’t de-commit as a group and go out,” Taylor said. “So that’s the worst scenario obviously, but that didn’t happen. So I was pleasantly surprised they hung with the commitment in spite of there being a period of time where there was no coach.”

Taylor offered a scholarship to everyone who had previously committed. After being hired one day after his Sacramento State team lost in the FCS quarterfinals, he was able to talk to the recruits and their families and explain his vision and philosophy for the program.

“Obviously, that’s more challenging when you’ve just been on the job for a week,” Taylor said. “I mean, it’s hard to establish those things in a short amount of time, but all you can do is be yourself and reach out and try and make a connection.”

He said Stanford’s academic reputation helped close the deal, despite the uncertainty.

“I think Stanford is not a transactional relationship with these players,” Taylor said. “It’s not a four-year decision. It’s a 40-year decision or a lifetime decision, where they know it’s going to impact their life for a very long time.”

The class is highlighted by quarterback Myles Jackson, who reclassified from the Class of 2023 and committed two days before Taylor was hired. The Long Beach native is ranked as high as No. 13 at his position nationally by Rivals and enters a program that doesn’t have an established starting QB now that Tanner McKee declared for the NFL Draft.

The class also includes Berkeley High receiver Jackson Harris, who led the state in regular-season receiving yards and receiving touchdowns.

Defensively the class is led by Jshawn Frausto-Ramos, a consensus top-40 cornerback from Los Angeles who played on St. John Bosco’s national champions.

Getting high school seniors into the program is even more important at a school like Stanford, whose high academic standards preclude the football program from reloading in the transfer portal. The Cardinal had one transfer on the team last season.

Stanford currently has 17 players in the transfer portal, according to 247Sports’ tracker, including nine who have already committed to other programs. That list includes leading tackler Levani Damuni (Utah), offensive lineman Jake Hornibrook (Duke), Myles Hinton (Michigan) and Drake Nugent (Michigan), defensive captain Jonathan McGill (SMU) and punter Ryan Sanborn (Texas).

Taylor said he is holding spots open for players in the transfer portal in case they decide to return.

2022 STANFORD FOOTBALL SIGNEES

Edge Chip Allers (6-3, 218) Bend, Ore.Led the state of Oregon in sacks and QB pressures in 2022

WR Tiger Bachmeier (6-1, 185) Lake ElsinoreFour-star recruit by Rivals and 247Sports

OL Luke Baklenko (6-6, 295) Thousand OaksRanked No. 29 offensive tackle by 247Sports

WR Ahmari Borden (6-3, 185) Bainbridge, Ga.Ranked No. 34 wide receiver by ESPN

WR Ismael Cisse (6-0, 180) Denver, Colo.Consensus top-10 recruit in Colorado

Edge Carter Davis (6-4, 223) Eagle, IdahoPlans on serving 2-year LDS mission

P/K Aidan Flintoft (6-2, 194) Pacific PalisadesRanked nation’s best P/K by PrepStar

DB Jshawn Frausto-Ramos (6-0, 184) Los AngelesConsensus top-40 CB who led St. John Bosco to a national championship

Edge Gavin Geweniger (6-4, 245) Scottsdale, Ariz.Ranked No. 7 in Arizona by Rivals

WR Jackson Harris (6-3, 190) Berkeley/Berkeley HighState leader in regular-season receiving yards (1,492) and receiving TDs (24)

RB Sedrick Irvin (5-10, 190) Miami, Fla.Led Christopher Columbus High to a state championship

QB Myles Jackson (6-2, 190) Lakewood, Calif.Unanimous top-35 QB who graduated early and reclassified to Class of 2023

DB Aaron Morris (5-11, 186) Lowell, Mass.Emigrated from Jamaica in 2018 after playing for the Jamaican National Cricket Team

OL Simione Pale (6-4, 315) Elk GroveNation’s ninth-best offensive guard by ESPN

Edge Omar Staples (6-3, 230) Oakland/Oakland TechRanked No. 92 in California by PrepStar

OL Charlie Symonds (6-8, 300)  South Kent, Conn.Father Toby played soccer and football at N.C. State

OL Allen Thomason (6-5, 275) Little Rock, Ark.Won four straight football state titles and a wrestling state title

ILB Tre Williams (6-2, 225)  Farmers Branch, TexasFather, Tom, played inside linebacker and coached at Stanford

OL Zak Yamauchi (6-4, 300) Las Vegas, Nev.Plans to serve a two-year mission before attending college

An eventful 24 hours Thursday saw Stanford lose starting quarterback Tanner McKee to the NFL and a four-star commit to Utah, while gaining another QB prospect and having former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett announce he was no longer interested in being the team’s coach.

Two-year starter Tanner McKee announced he would declare for the NFL Draft Thursday, meaning whoever replaces Shaw will not have an established quarterback.

McKee set a freshman record by accounting for 19 touchdowns in 2021, and was one of three Stanford freshmen to throw for 2,000 yards. But he didn’t make a leap forward this season – a situation that wasn’t helped by Stanford losing all scholarship running backs and leading receiver Michael Wilson to injuries during the year — and he was overshadowed by the star transfer quarterbacks who came to the Pac-12. In 12 games, McKee finished 10th in the conference in pass efficiency and threw for 13 TDs and eight interceptions.

Still, his departure leaves just two scholarship quarterbacks, sophomore Ari Patu and freshman Ashton Daniels. Patu started one game against Oregon State last season when McKee was injured, while Daniels saw action as a wildcat quarterback this season.

The quarterback room gained a player when Myles Jackson of Millikan High in Long Beach reclassified from the Class of 2024 to the Class of 2023 and announced his commitment to Stanford Thursday, despite not knowing who his coach would be. Jackson, who is graduating a year early and reportedly will enroll at Stanford in June, is listed as the 28th-best QB nationally and the 39th-best prospect in California by 247Sports.

The addition of Jackson came just after Utah native and four-star edge rusher Hunter Clegg announced he was switching his commitment from Stanford to Utah. Jackson was the second four-star prospect to de-commit from Stanford after Shaw resigned.

Jackson will be joined by linebacker Levani Damuni, Stanford’s leading tackler last season, who already announced his transfer to Utah. Damuni is one of 15 Stanford players who entered the transfer portal since it opened this week.

The new coach responsible for replacing McKee, Damuni and other starters won’t be Garrett, though. He was reportedly a finalist to replace Shaw and had been spotted on the Stanford campus Thursday. But Thursday night he posted on Twitter: “Thanks so much to AD Bernard Muir and everyone at Stanford! While I enjoyed exploring a great opportunity at such a special place, I’m so excited to continue my work at NBC on Football Night in America and with Notre Dame Football!”

With Garrett out of the mix, Sacramento State coach Troy Taylor is the only finalist who has been publicly identified.

The former Cal quarterback is completing his third full season at Sacramento State. His Hornets are undefeated, ranked No. 2 in the country at the FCS level and will play in an FCS quarterfinal game on Friday night.

Specifically, Muir said the school is willing to admit more transfer students, provided they meet the academic qualifications to be admitted.

“We can’t build a roster full of transfers, but certainly we can at least hopefully dip our toe in the water there and see if there are the right individuals that can join this program,” Muir said.

According to the 247Sports database, Stanford has had 22 scholarship players transfer out of the program since 2020. Only one student, safety Patrick Fields from Oklahoma, transferred in during that period.

Depth has been a major issue for the Cardinal in recent years – Mitch Leigber, who ended this season as the team’s only healthy running back, had to switch positions from safety midway through the season.

Muir said that the school is also discussing how to utilize name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities for athletes.

“We are going to continue to evaluate NIL and find appropriate balance as to how we can provide the education for our student-athletes to thrive in that space,” Muir said. “We know others are more aggressive in that space right now, and we just have to find what is right for Stanford.”

Muir was speaking at the final official press conference for Shaw, Stanford’s all-time winningest coach, who resigned late Saturday night after his 12th season.

Shaw led Stanford to three Rose Bowls and a Fiesta Bowl in his first five years but is leaving after back-to-back 3-9 seasons. He announced his retirement at a postgame news conference at 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning following the team’s 35-26 loss to visiting BYU.

Muir got home at 2 a.m. that night and received a call from a search firm two hours later – an indication of how quickly coaching searches move. The Cardinal already had a high-profile decommitment early Monday from four-star tight end Walker Lyons, a Folsom native who had committed over the summer.

Current players can enter the transfer portal starting Dec. 5, while most top high school seniors will sign Dec. 21 on early signing day.

But this is still Stanford, so Muir said he will be forming a committee of undisclosed members from the Cardinal community and would be deliberate in its search.

Muir said he didn’t have a set list of criteria, such as Power Five head coaching experience or ties to the West Coast. Instead, he’s looking for someone who values the balance between academics and athletics and has integrity.

Those qualities certainly applied to Shaw, who spent half of his 50 years affiliated with Stanford – as the son of football assistant Willie Shaw, as a wide receiver under Dennis Green and Bill Walsh, as an assistant coach under Jim Harbaugh and finally as head coach since 2011.

Shaw said he finalized his decision to step down over the Thanksgiving holiday and is at peace with the choice. He doesn’t have any concrete plans, other than to spend time with his family.

“I’m going to take my time,” Shaw said. “And when the right thing presents itself, whether it’s in the near future or down the road, I’ll know. We’ll pray about it and think about it and make the right decision at the right time. But for right now, proud to be a Stanford fan. That’s my big occupation right now, outside of time with my family.”

After going 82-26 in his first eight seasons, with five finishes at No. 12 or higher in the AP poll, Shaw went 14-28 in his last four seasons.

He wasn’t interested Monday in delving into what changed or could have been done differently during Stanford’s recent downturn. Instead, he said his entire tenure at Stanford could be summed up by one word: magical.

“For me, I look at this as an entirety and not first part versus second part,” Shaw said. “I’m proud of everything we did. I’m proud of this staff. I’m proud of every single student-athlete that stepped on the field for us.”

It’s now up to Muir to find a replacement for Shaw that can bring Sanford back to its former greatness.

“We have the moniker ‘home of champions’ for a reason, and I think people will be attracted to be a part of that,” Muir said. “We have to support them. We understand that, as we talked about, navigating this landscape can be challenging, but it’s a heck of an opportunity for someone.”

But after two minutes, he cleared his throat. And in his typical understated way, he made a massive announcement.

“Just informed the team that I just coached my last game at Stanford,” Shaw said. “It’s been a great 16 years.”

Questions about his future had been circulating for weeks. But Shaw refused to address the topic before the season ended, not wanting to take the focus away from the Big Game, or take attention away from his seniors on Senior Day.

But as Saturday night turned to Sunday morning following a 35-26 season-ending loss to BYU, there were signs something was up. Shaw’s postgame news conference didn’t start until 12:30 a.m., more than an hour after the game.

And Shaw’s extended family was there to meet Shaw outside of the locker room, despite the cold and windy conditions.

Shaw later said he delayed speaking to the media because he had to hug the entire football team, one at a time.

Many of those players sent messages of appreciation on Twitter during the announcement.

“A true leader, role model, man, and one hell of a human being,” senior receiver Elijah Higgins wrote. “Forever grateful for the support, wisdom, love, and trust you showed me and everyone around. Taught me more than you’ll ever know.”

Former players from across the country reacted as they woke up the next morning.

“Proud of him and grateful for everything he gave me personally and the program,” All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman wrote. “Enjoy your next phase.”

That next phase is still unclear – the 50-year-old Shaw said he had no immediate plans.

Athletic director Bernard Muir will hold a news conference Monday to address the process of replacing the winningest coach in Stanford football history. But some names have already risen to the forefront.

Chris Peterson, who went 55-26 at Washington from 2014-19 before stepping down, was reportedly a candidate for the Stanford job that went to Shaw.

There are also coaches with connections to The Farm, including former Stanford assistants like Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman and Rice coach Mike Bloomgren.

And then there are coaches with experience at schools with tougher-than-most academic requirements, like Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson, former Stanford assistant Derek Mason (Vanderbilt) and former BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall (Virginia), and former players like Cincinnati Bengals wide receivers coach Troy Walters, who was an All-American receiver at Stanford.

It’s been a steady decline from Orange Bowls and Heisman finalists to the bottom of the Pac-12. But Shaw insisted that, despite back-to-back 3-9 seasons, Stanford is in a better position than its record indicates.

It’s possible a change at the top will cause immediate improvement. Two of the teams who appear to control their own destiny for playoff spots, undefeated TCU and one-loss USC, changed coaches last offseason. So did Washington, who like USC was 4-8 last season, and LSU, which won what is considered the toughest division in college football, the SEC West.

Of course, those schools also made use of the biggest changes in college football recently – the transfer portal and NIL payments. Stanford hasn’t adjusted its strict academic requirements to take advantage of the portal yet, but Shaw said that he’s had discussions with Muir, president Marc Tessier-Lavigne and dean of admissions Rick Shaw about adjusting its standards, with the realization that teams have to be active in the transfer portal in order to be competitive.

“As slowly as Stanford has changed, we’re trying to do it the right way,” Shaw said. “The combination of NIL and then the illegal pay for play that people are calling NIL and the transfer portal is a really, really interesting combination that everyone is dealing with.”

Stanford only started allowing early enrollees in 2021, years after other top programs used that to entice top prospects to come to join their teams.

Those discussions will now take place without Shaw, a receiver for Stanford in the early 1990s who came back to his alma mater to be the offensive coordinator under Jim Harbaugh and then raised it to unprecedented heights four years later when Harbaugh left for Michigan.

The only four-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year, Shaw went to three Rose Bowl Games and won at least 11 games four times in his 12 seasons. His 65 conference wins are tied for the fifth-most in Pac-12 history, and he finished with a winning record (29-28) against AP Top 25 teams. He surpassed the legendary Pop Warner (71 wins) in 2017 to be the program’s all-time winningest coach.

But after finishing in the Top 10 in four of his first five seasons and winning at least nine games in seven of his first eight seasons, the Cardinal went 14-28 in the past four years – the team’s first losing seasons since Harbaugh first arrived.

Now it will be up to another coach to engineer a turnaround.

“We’re not that far away,” Shaw said in that final press conference as Stanford coach. “I’m still saying we. We are not that far away.

“There are a lot of people that think this program is down. That’s what our record says. But I look at the components. I look at the people here, the support that I’m hearing coming from our athletic director, from our university president, the people that are behind the scenes. We’re not that far away. But once again, a week ago, 10 days ago, I was gung-ho to be the person to lead us there, and over the last few days I realized it was time. It was time for me to step aside, time for the next group to come in, and hopefully whoever they hire next wins more games than I do. That would be awesome. I would love that.”

The Cougars (7-5) scored touchdowns on all four of its first-half possessions to take a 28-12 lead at the break, and extended the lead to 35-12 with 12:48 remaining. Stanford scored two touchdowns in the final 10 minutes to close the scoring.

Redshirt sophomore Tanner McKee finished 31-of-40 passing for 313 yards and a touchdown – his third in the final seven games – in what may be his final game at Stanford.

Cal transfer Christopher Brooks ran 23 times for 164 yards for the Cougars, who outrushed the Cardinal 358-53.

Stanford’s season ended on a chilly night in a home stadium filled with visiting fans, a last-place finish in the Pac-12 already assured. The result meant that the seniors who were being honored on Senior Day have gone 13-27 against FBS competition over the last four seasons.

The Cardinal went 1-8 in the Pac-12 this year, its worst mark since Walt Harris’s final season in 2006.

Karty is 40-for-40 on kick attempts this season, with 24 extra points and 16 field goals. That includes a school-record 61-yard field goal on the final play of Stanford’s 27-20 Big Game loss last week – the second-longest field goal in Pac-12 history, and the longest by an FBS kicker this season by five yards.

Warming up at Cal, Karty made a 58-yarder against the wind, so he told the coaches his range was 63-65 in the other direction, where Stanford would be going in the second half.

Even when the outcome was no longer in doubt, he continued warming up on the sidelines. So with five seconds left, he was prepared when Stanford chose to kick a long field goal down 10 points — even if it meant ending his perfect season.

“You think about the what ifs and you fear what could go wrong, that’s normal for anyone who has a streak going,” Karty said. “But I saw it more as an opportunity. Because those kicks are low-risk, high-reward, just let it fly, let it rip, and see what happens.”

The kick went through as time expired and Cal immediately started celebrating, so Karty initially thought he missed.

“The entire stadium started cheering, so I was like, ‘Shoot, it’s short,’” Karty said. “But then I saw the ref’s signal. It was weird for sure. Really wished it could be under different circumstances to help impact the game a little more. It was definitely awkward.”

The kick tied for the sixth-longest in FBS in the last 25 years. The school record had been 59 yards, set by Rod Garcia in 1973 and matched by Mark Harmon in 1981.

Karty’s Stanford career is a full-circle moment for Joel and Valerie, who attend every home game.

Joel was a rower at Stanford and was back on The Farm to receive his Ph.D. in physical and organic chemistry. The stadium used to be open to the public before it was renovated, and Joel and Valerie would run around the track and up and down the stadium stairs for exercise after Joel was done working at the chemistry lab.

As soon as Valerie found out she was pregnant, she asked Joel to meet her for an early workout and told him the news.

“Never in a million years would I have ever thought I would be giving birth to a football player,” the 5-foot-3 Valerie said. “It doesn’t surprise me (Joshua’s) at Stanford. It does surprise me he came back as a football player.”

Concerned about head injuries, Valerie only signed the form allowing Joshua to play high school football because he told her that kickers weren’t allowed to get hit. It was two games into the season before Valerie thought to ask what happens if his kickoffs don’t result in a touchback.

That’s rarely been an issue for Karty. He has 38 touchbacks on 50 kickoffs this year, and the Cardinal ranks sixth nationally in kickoff return defense (16.1 yards per return).

Joshua’s origin story might make it seem like he was preordained to play football at Stanford. But growing up, his dream was to play soccer. Two weeks before entering Western Alamance High School in Burlington, North Carolina, he agreed to help train with a friend who wanted to try out for football.

On a lark, Karty attempted – and made – a 30-yard field goal on his first try. Then a 40-yarder, and a 45-yarder. His 50-yarder was just short, but it was enough for his friend to suggest playing football as well.

Karty made the varsity football team as a freshman, but he still preferred soccer – he even showed up at halftime to a few football games because of soccer conflicts. But he focused solely on football after his sophomore season and was eventually the consensus No. 1 kicker in the 2020 recruiting class.

A down year for the Cardinal (3-8) would have been even worse without Karty, who kicked the winning field goal in the fourth quarter in both of Stanford’s wins against FBS opponents. The junior is one of two kickers nationally with 16 field goals without a miss, and that includes a nation-best 12 field goals of more than 40 yards.

It’s his field goal prowess that led Karty to win the Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week award four times this season.

He didn’t attempt a field goal in the team’s first three games, but made a 53-yarder in the fourth game against Oregon, Stanford’s longest field goal since 2009.

He then scored 25 of the team’s 31 points in Stanford’s two wins against FBS opponents this season. His 43-yard kick with 10 minutes left was the final score in Stanford’s 16-14 win at Notre Dame. And he made all five field goal attempts, including the go-ahead 47-yard kick with 6:28 to play, to account for all of the Cardinal’s points in a 15-14 win over Arizona State.

Karty should be named a finalist on Tuesday for the Lou Groza Award, which goes to the nation’s top kicker. His main competitor is reigning winner Jake Moody of Michigan, who currently has an FBS-best 122 points and is on pace to be the first kicker in 12 years to lead the FBS in scoring.

Though it won’t go down in history like Cal’s kickoff return in 1982, it was still another devastating defeat for the Cardinal in a season full of them.

With Stanford up by 3, a fumble by freshman option QB Ashton Daniels was picked up by Cal, fumbled again, and then ultimately returned 37 yards for a touchdown by Jackson Sirmon with 10 minutes remaining. The Bears scored another TD in the final minute to win the 125th Big Game 27-20 and retain The Axe for a second straight season.

“Hurt for our seniors,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “Wanted this one really bad for them. So many guys really gave their best effort.”

Stanford had won six straight at Memorial Stadium, including the 2020 game when the Cardinal blocked an extra point in the final minute to win by 1.

The Cardinal (3-8, 1-8 Pac-12) looked like it would keep that streak alive in front of a sellout crowd of 51,892. It was ahead 17-6 entering the fourth quarter on Saturday before giving up 21 straight points.

Stanford’s only Pac-12 win this season was by one point at home against Arizona State, and its 1-8 conference record is its worst since 2006.

The Cardinal finishes its fourth straight season without a bowl game next Saturday night against BYU.

“We missed an opportunity to get our seniors The Axe and now we have an opportunity to send them out with a win at Stanford Stadium,” Shaw said. “It’s the least we can do for our seniors is get them one more victory at the Stadium.”

Stanford had only scored five touchdowns in its previous five games, but it reached the end zone on the opening possession Saturday. Daniels ran 43 yards on a keeper, running back Mitch Leigber had a one-handed catch to the 1 and then Leigber ran for a 1-yard score.

That would be the only TD of the first half. Junior safety Alaka’i Gilman had a diving interception late in the second quarter, the first pick of his career, and the Cardinal led 10-6 at halftime.

Elijah Higgins, whose brother Kaleb is a cornerback for the Bears, broke three tackles on a 9-yard TD catch to put Stanford up 17-6 midway through the third quarter.

But Stanford’s turnover issues came back to bite it at the worst time.

Although he’s a QB, Shaw said that Daniels works on ball security with the running backs. But with Stanford nursing a 17-12 lead with 10 minutes left, he was stripped at the Cardinal 40. Daniels forced the original returner to fumble, but Sirmon scooped the ball up and ran it in.

After Daniels’s fumble, Tanner McKee was intercepted forcing a pass to tight end Benjamin Yurosek with three minutes left. The interception was returned to the Stanford 9, leading to Cal’s final score.

Stanford scored touchdowns on its opening possessions of the first and second half, but otherwise didn’t reach the end zone as Cal limited big plays.

“It boils down to playcalling, execution, whatever you want to call it,” Shaw said. “We’re not dynamic enough to go down the field six yards at a time.”

McKee finished 29 of 45 passing for 271 yards. Leigber, who switched over from safety last month due to injuries to Stanford’s running backs, had 22 carries for 83 yards and seven catches for 53 yards.

Kicker Joshua Karty made a 61-yard field goal on the final play, the longest kick in Stanford history and second-longest in Pac-12 history. He has made all 16 of his field goal attempts, providing one of the only bright spots in a rough season that now includes a Big Game loss.

No one knows that better than Stanford senior inside linebacker Tristan Sinclair, whose father Andy played football at Stanford and whose mother Julie, sister Alina and two aunts all attended Cal.

Andy has season tickets at Stanford and Julie’s parents have season tickets at Cal, so Tristan would always attend the Big Game growing up. The family will experience the 125th Big Game Saturday in a whole new way when Tristan plays at Memorial Stadium for the first time.

“It’s something that is kind of surreal,” Tristan said. “When I think about all those moments of being a little kid and just being a spectator, now being able to play in it is really crazy.”

Julie will sit in the Stanford family section, though she’s planning to wear a neutral gray sweater.

“I give my mom some flack sometimes,” Tristan said. “I’m like, ‘You should stay true to your school.’ But while I’m here she’s going to support me.”

Julie said she’s not conflicted at all as long as Tristan is playing in the rivalry.

“I want Stanford to kill them,” Julie said.

Still, she might not be able to help herself from singing the fight songs that she’s known after decades of attending games at Cal. So she’s bringing binoculars in case she needs to move to a more secluded area.

“Tristan knows all the songs too,” Julie said. “But he probably won’t admit that.”

This will be Tristan’s first time playing at Cal, since he missed the 2020 Big Game due to injury.

“It means a lot to us and I’m sure at kickoff we’ll all be reflecting a lot and super happy for Tristan,” Andy said. “It’s a dream come true for our family.”

Tristan’s sister, Alina, grew up rooting for Cal alongside her mom – Alina dressed up as a Cal cheerleader when she was 6, which led to plenty of ribbing for Andy from his former Stanford teammates. Alina wound up graduating from Cal and married a former Cal rugby player earlier this year.

But the choice wasn’t as clear-cut for Tristan and his brother Connor when they went to the Big Game growing up.

“I probably leaned Stanford over the years, but it was definitely always a thing of, who were we going to root for? What jersey are we going to wear?” Tristan said. “There were definitely times when my brother and I had a Cal T-shirt with a Stanford jersey over it.”

Tristan even wore a Cal T-shirt for his sophomore yearbook photo at San Ramon Valley High – a photo that Julie promised she wouldn’t share until Tristan graduated, but “as soon as he’s done playing, it’s coming out.”

But Tristan’s fondest football memories growing up happened at Stanford. Before Stanford Stadium was renovated in 2006, the players would walk outside the stadium to get to the locker room. Tristan and Connor would get gloves and wristbands from the players and then play football in their backyard with the game-worn equipment.

Tristan remembers talking to Richard Sherman after a game when he was about 8 years old and telling the then-Stanford cornerback that his dream was to play for the Cardinal.

“When I’m running out of the tunnel, it still gives me that feeling of being a little kid sitting up in the stands,” Tristan said. “It’s always a special moment.”

Still, Tristan was recruited heavily by Cal, which offered him a scholarship before Stanford did. Julie said one of the biggest thrills in her life was getting to ride all over the Berkeley campus on the golf cart – “I texted my sorority group ‘You’re never going to believe it’” – but Tristan eventually picked Stanford over Cal and Notre Dame.

“It was a hard decision,” Tristan said. “I thought it over a bunch. It was more than a football decision. Because you have to think about what’s after football. So that’s why I came to Stanford. It was a life decision.”

Andy will be returning to the scene of the most frustrating loss of his career on Saturday. He went 2-1-1 in Big Games as the starting center under coach Jack Elway from 1985-88, winning both games at Stanford Stadium, but was a sophomore when 1-9 Cal topped 7-2 Stanford.

It’s evidence that anything can happen in the Big Game. Tristan, who played in his first Cal-Stanford game last year, said that it felt different.

“They say playoff football is like a different speed. Rivalry games are a different speed,” Tristan said. “Everyone’s getting a little bit harder, running faster, playing harder. I think that’s just like the rivalry spirit. We don’t like them, they don’t like us. That’s the way it goes.”

With both teams guaranteed to have losing seasons this year, there is just one trophy left to play for – the Axe — which should add to the emotion.

“That’s something for everyone to fight for,” Tristan said. “The season hasn’t gone the way we wanted it to go. Beating our rival always leaves a good taste in your mouth to close out the season.”

A Stanford win would make the Sinclair family happy as well – for the most part.

“I think my daughter and son-in-law will probably stick to their Cal roots,” Julie said. “But the rest of us will be all for No. 8.”

The Cardinal (3-7, 1-7 Pac-12) hasn’t topped 16 points in any of its previous five games. It lost 42-7 on Saturday night at 13th-ranked Utah.

Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee, who has just one touchdown pass in the last five games, was sacked seven times against the Utes (8-2, 6-1) and finished 11 of 23 passing for 155 yards.

Stanford coach David Shaw said the playbook was streamlined to try and get the ball in the hands of the team’s best players, but the passing game had trouble connecting.

“It’s the combination of making the plays when we get protection, and making sure that we get enough time to get the ball off,” Shaw said.

It didn’t help that Stanford didn’t have any healthy running backs. Sophomore Mitch Leigber, who played running back in high school and switched over from safety three weeks ago, had 40 yards on 12 carries. Shaw didn’t know if any of Stanford’s regular running backs would be available Saturday at Cal.

Elijah Higgins had seven catches for 105 yards against Utah, including a 51-yard catch early on that set up Stanford’s only score. But the Cardinal went three-and-out on its three second-quarter possessions and then punted on all four of its third-quarter possessions as the Utes scored 42 unanswered points.

Tavion Thomas’s 180 rushing yards for Utah were more than Stanford’s entire output of 178 yards.

ESPN play-by-play announcer Dave Pasch joked at one point that “McKee (is) sacked by about 17 Utes” and called Stanford’s offense “inept.”

Stanford’s two games before Utah were a 52-14 loss to Washington State and a 38-13 loss at UCLA. Those three successive blowouts wiped away any hope for a winning season or a first bowl appearance since 2018. But senior linebacker Levani Damuni said the team was still motivated knowing that Cal (3-7, 1-6) is on deck.

The Bears won 41-11 at Stanford Stadium last year.

“There’s no bowl contention anymore but we still have purpose, we’re still playing for a trophy,” Damuni said. “I know we’re locked in on getting that Axe back. Just moving forward we still have drive on this team. We won’t stop until it’s over.”

Fortunately for Stanford, Cal’s defense doesn’t seem as imposing as it did in years past under coach Justin Wilcox. The Bears have allowed at least 38 points to each of their last three opponents – Oregon, USC and Oregon State – and entered the weekend ninth in the Pac-12 in yards allowed at 427.7 a game, 0.2 better than Stanford.

Shaw isn’t worried about getting his players’ best effort next Saturday.

“The Big Game. That’s the message,” Shaw said. “It’s about recognizing that we’ve got some seniors that have given this program a lot, and the Axe is about the seniors and the tradition of holding that thing and taking pictures with it. It’s been a while since we had it and with all the things behind us, I can’t worry about any of that stuff. Right now we’re trying to get that Axe for the seniors. That’s the focus. Nothing else.”

Leigber is the only running back listed on the depth chart for Stanford (3-6, 1-6 Pac-12) against the Utes (7-2, 5-1).

Austin Jones and Nathaniel Peat transferred in the offseason, E.J. Smith and Casey Filkins suffered season-ending injuries, and freshman Arlen Harris left the team last month. The team’s only remaining scholarship running back, Brendon Barrow, and walk-on Caleb Robinson also got banged up recently, leading coach David Shaw to ask Leigber if he wanted to switch positions.

“When I got that call I took it as a challenge and an opportunity to help the team,” Leigber said. “I wouldn’t have expected it if you told me this would happen at the beginning of the season, but it’s been exciting and it’s been fun just being out there with the guys.”

Leigber played both running back and safety as a sophomore and junior at Laguna Hills High School, recording 1,579 rushing yards, 824 receiving yards and 34 touchdowns on offense, and 186 tackles and five interceptions on defense (his senior season was postponed because of COVID-19).

He enjoyed playing on both sides of the ball but was recruited as a safety. He appeared in two games as a freshman and was primarily on the scout team this season when he was approached by Shaw about moving to offense leading up to the Oct. 29 game at UCLA.

“He didn’t really force it on me, just said it was an option,” Leigber said. “It was something I saw as an opportunity for me, so I was excited to get in that position and help out the team in any way I can.”

With Barrow available but limited due to injury last week against Washington State, Leigber started and had 11 carries for 23 yards and three catches for 32 yards.

“He’s got a great passion for the game, and he’s really smart, so we’re excited about the transformation that he’s made,” Shaw said. “Still believe at some point in time he’s going to be a starting safety for us, but right now he’s doing a heckuva job at running back and he’s going to be better this week than he was last week.”

As expected, Leigber had an up-and-down day in the blowout loss to the Cougars, losing a fumble but also gaining 23 yards on a nice over-the-shoulder catch. He also held up well in pass protection.

“For a guy who’s playing safety to be able to go through his reads and protection, and then get fitted up on a linebacker inside or a defensive back outside, it’s impressive,” Shaw said.

Leigber said the advice he’s received from teammates and coaches centered around having fun and not putting too much pressure on himself or getting too upset over little mistakes.

The lack of a true running back is a far cry from when Stanford fielded Heisman finalists Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love in the backfield, and one of the reasons the Cardinal is a 24-point underdog on Saturday.

Stanford’s other running options include freshman option QB Ashton Daniels, who has 17 rushes, and sophomore fullback Shield Taylor, who hasn’t attempted a run yet in college.