Elic Ayomanor details what led to his monster second half in 2023

Stanford wideout Elic Ayomanor put together a first season to remember for the Cardinal and looks forward to using that experience to launch an even better 2024.

A nasty ACL tear wiped out his true freshman season, but Ayomanor returned in 2023 with a vengeance, really coming on strong in the second half of the season. He was even able to reach the 1,000-yard mark for the season, with 806 of those coming in Week 6 or later.

Despite the strong season-long numbers, the slow start is something Ayomanor discussed as ACC Media Days. He believes he can come out of the gates much stronger.

“Yeah, I think I’ve been relatively inexperienced in the first half of the season,” he said. “Even the second half. This was my first year playing college football. I tore my ACL my freshman year.”

For him, building that confidence snowball is key, because once Ayomanor got rolling, there was no stopping him.

“I think a lot of it is not only building confidence within yourself, but also confidence within a team and within a coaching staff. Something like that can’t be built in an instant, it’s built through repetition, and doing things over and over again the right way.”

However, that hard work can all pay off in an instant, which it did midway through the 2023 season. Heading into Week 6, Ayomanor had just 15 receptions and 200 total yards in five games, but smashed those numbers in the Colorado game alone. He became an instant folk legend for the Cardinal, amassing 13 receptions and 294 receiving yards as Stanford erased a 29-0 loss and beat the Buffaloes.

From that point on the season through the end, Ayomanor was a different player. He would finish with 47 catches and the 800+ yards the rest of the way and now enters 2024 one of the top receivers in the country. According to Elic Ayomanor himself, it all starts with confidence.

“I think my own confidence in my ability to do stuff, my coach’s confidence in my ability to do stuff, allowed more of the onus to be put on myself to make plays in games,” he commented. “When those opportunities came, I did my best to capture them.”

He certainly did vs. Colorado. Now, with a full healthy offseason under his belt, and another year, Ayomanor could be in for a monster second season of football.