[OutsiderFan]

On Hogan:

I made a post on here a few weeks ago about my concern with Hogan being he has never led a game winning, final drive for Stanford, and I feared that was going to cost Stanford dearly this year.  That kind of pull from the fire performance was needed against Oregon.  Though he did lead the TD drive, he couldn't get the needed 2pt conversion to send it to OT.  And he did fumble away two snaps in the 4th quarter, one of which cost 3 pts, the margin in the game.  Nothing would make Stanford fans happier than to see Stanford be the team that has the final minute, game winning drive in this series for once.  But based on the fact he's never done it, I'm skeptical Hogan can do it.  Stanford just doesn't do well in close games, as I segue to Shaw...

David Shaw is 49-13 as a head coach at Stanford.  I think 9/13 of those losses are by 7 points or less, and Stanford had no business losing probably 6 or 7 of those 10, including the last two at South Bend (sorry).  If you look at his record and how competitive his teams are, he's phenomenal.  Of course, they do tend to have one game every year they just spit the bit.  This year was Northwestern.  The two years before that it was Utah.  The year before that it was UW.  You can afford one loss, but Stanford has been losing 2-games a year under Shaw, and one to a team he really should have beaten. 

Yes, it would be nice to have had one year where he didn't get that horrible loss, because Stanford would have been in the BCS title game or playoff without them, but... Is it really realistic to think Stanford can do better than this?  I mean the recruiting restrictions this program faces make even this performance remarkable when you really think about it.  But now even with those restrictions, the recruiting is getting to Top 10 in country territory. 

Most Stanford fans wish Shaw would be a little more daring with his play calls and game management, and I wish the passing game was more sophisticated, but I think we really need to see what happens with the next couple QBs to really judge too much.  As much of a winner as Hogan is, he has a slow release and that makes him ineffective against pressure.  There is a sentiment around here that if Stanford had the receiving weapons and a great pure passer, the offense might be a bit more dynamic against teams that load up to stop the run.  We'll see because these types of players are beginning to come into the program. 

[OutsiderFan]

On Hogan:

I made a post on here a few weeks ago about my concern with Hogan being he has never led a game winning, final drive for Stanford, and I feared that was going to cost Stanford dearly this year.  That kind of pull from the fire performance was needed against Oregon.  Though he did lead the TD drive, he couldn't get the needed 2pt conversion to send it to OT.  And he did fumble away two snaps in the 4th quarter, one of which cost 3 pts, the margin in the game.  Nothing would make Stanford fans happier than to see Stanford be the team that has the final minute, game winning drive in this series for once.  But based on the fact he's never done it, I'm skeptical Hogan can do it.  Stanford just doesn't do well in close games, as I segue to Shaw...

David Shaw is 49-13 as a head coach at Stanford.  I think 9/13 of those losses are by 7 points or less, and Stanford had no business losing probably 6 or 7 of those 10, including the last two at South Bend (sorry).  If you look at his record and how competitive his teams are, he's phenomenal.  Of course, they do tend to have one game every year they just spit the bit.  This year was Northwestern.  The two years before that it was Utah.  The year before that it was UW.  You can afford one loss, but Stanford has been losing 2-games a year under Shaw, and one to a team he really should have beaten. 

Yes, it would be nice to have had one year where he didn't get that horrible loss, because Stanford would have been in the BCS title game or playoff without them, but... Is it really realistic to think Stanford can do better than this?  I mean the recruiting restrictions this program faces make even this performance remarkable when you really think about it.  But now even with those restrictions, the recruiting is getting to Top 10 in country territory. 

Most Stanford fans wish Shaw would be a little more daring with his play calls and game management, and I wish the passing game was more sophisticated, but I think we really need to see what happens with the next couple QBs to really judge too much.  As much of a winner as Hogan is, he has a slow release and that makes him ineffective against pressure.  There is a sentiment around here that if Stanford had the receiving weapons and a great pure passer, the offense might be a bit more dynamic against teams that load up to stop the run.  We'll see because these types of players are beginning to come into the program.