Davis Warren gave Stanford exactly the kind of start it needed Friday night, and the Cardinal spent the rest of the evening hanging on just enough to knock off North Carolina State 31-28 in Stanford, Calif.
Warren was sharp from the jump, throwing for 303 yards and four touchdowns as Stanford (4-4, 2-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) built an early cushion and then survived a late push from the Wolfpack. He connected on touchdown passes on the first two drives, helping the Cardinal seize a 14-0 lead before NC State settled in.
“They made it easy on me,” Warren said. “Those guys are open and I was able to hit them, but it wasn’t anything special on my part. Just doing what I was told and what I was coached.”
Micah Ford powered the ground game with 150 rushing yards, while Nico Brown caught two touchdown passes. Caden High added nine receptions for 103 yards and a score, part of a productive night for an offense that looked far more dangerous than it had in recent weeks.
Stanford also kept doing its best work at home. Despite a crowd of 13,949, the Cardinal picked up their fourth win in five home games.
“People want to call it the library or talk about how many people show up or anything like that. It doesn’t matter,” Warren said.
“What matters is defending our home turf. As a team, they have to pay the price of admission to come in here to Stanford Stadium and play us.
We’ve done a pretty good job of defending our home turf and we take a lot of pride in that.”
That home comfort has stood in sharp contrast to Stanford’s struggles away from it. The Cardinal are 0-3 on the road and have been outscored by 44.3 points per game in those contests. With three straight road games coming up, they need to win at least one if they want any shot at reaching a bowl game for the first time since 2018.
“If I could explain it, I think it would be a lot better than it is,” coach Tavita Pritchard said of the home-road discrepancy. “All I can say is we have to stay in the mindset of being at our best every single day, regardless of circumstance.”
NC State (3-4, 1-3) had its own chances to swing the game. CJ Bailey threw for 256 yards and two touchdowns, and Will Wilson punched in two short scoring runs. But the Wolfpack also let opportunities slip away, including a touchdown erased by an offensive pass interference call against Victor Snow on the opening drive of the third quarter, followed by a punt that gave Stanford the ball back.
That sequence turned into a 90-yard Stanford march, highlighted by a 43-yard connection from Warren to Ford and a 15-yard personal foul on King Mack tacked on after the play. Warren finished the drive with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Brown on fourth-and-4, pushing the Cardinal ahead 28-14.
“It starts with me,” coach Dave Doeren said. “The guys didn’t play well enough which means I didn’t have them ready.”
NC State kept fighting. Wilson scored his second touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter to trim the deficit to seven, but Stanford answered with a field goal to restore a two-score margin. Bailey found the end zone again with 1:23 left, yet Stanford recovered the onside kick to close it out.
The game was tight in the middle after Stanford’s early burst. Warren’s first-quarter touchdown passes to Brown and Sedrick Irvin put the Cardinal up 14-0, but NC State answered with a 58-yard touchdown pass from Bailey to Deandre Desinor and a 2-yard run by Wilson to tie it. Stanford then closed the half with another 90-yard drive, capped by Warren’s 26-yard touchdown throw to High with 25 seconds remaining to make it 21-14.
Stanford’s offense had already shown signs of breaking out by the opening quarter, when it piled up 234 yards - its most in an opening quarter since 2017. That was a big change for a team that had been held to seven points or fewer in four of its last five games against FBS opponents.
NC State was playing its second game on the West Coast in the last 66 seasons after beating California in 2024, and the Wolfpack practiced late at night at home to adjust to the time change. It didn’t end up making much of a difference.
The Wolfpack return home to face California on Oct. 31.
Stanford heads to Louisville on Oct. 31.
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