Stanford Football: 5 reasons why Cardinal will stink in 2017

Stanford football has pretensions of reclaiming the Pac-12 crown that might just be misguided. Here are five reasons why the Cardinal will stink in 2017.

Last season Stanford was knocked from their perch atop the Pac-12. The Cardinal lost out on the Pac-12 North to Washington, falling 44-6 in Seattle to sustain their first loss before the end of September. Things got even worse when Stanford fell to Washington State at home on the first weekend of October. They also tumbled at home to Colorado in a surreal 10-5 final.

It was a far cry from the Cardinal’s 2015 season when they won the Pac-12 and the Rose Bowl. Instead, Stanford lost three conference games for the first time since 2009. They fell to third in the divisional hierarchy, yet that reality was papered over by the school’s sixth 10-win campaign in the past seven seasons.

If you take a longer view of college football history, it is astonishing to think that Stanford fans have expectations that their team will do anything but stink. But with conference contention a perennial prerequisite these days, the Cardinal fan base has become spoiled by recent successes.

Last year’s 10 wins were a disappointment in many ways. Cardinal fans should prepare themselves for more disappointment in the upcoming season. Just getting back to nearby Santa Clara for the Pac-12 championship game is going to be a tall order. Here are five reasons why Stanford will stink in 2017.