[CTcard]

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure *Stanford* is much better than the 2012 version.

Interesting question.

My general impression is that 2012 would be in a close race with 2014 for the inherently least able team of Shaw's - or since 2009 for that matter.
My other impression is that the 2015 team is probably a pretty close second to 2011 for Shaw's best, with 2010 the best of the recent run.
Thus putting 2015 pretty far ahead of 2012.

At the bad end, the issues were on offense. 2012 was generally poor - though not necessarily a lot worse versus the better teams on the schedule. 2014 offense was overall less bad, but faltered against better teams (at least prior to UCLA). Both defenses were pretty good, 2014 better, leading to an overall roughly even team evaluation by me.
[And that is one reason I really loved the 2012 team. It accomplished the most (RB win) with a team that didn't seem as inherently capable.]

On the plus side, clearly 2011 and 2015 were Shaw's best offenses, but happen to have been coupled to the weakest defenses. I might give a nod to 2015 offense (3.52 pts/drive, 3rd in the country versus 3.47 pts/drive, 4th), but the 2011 defense was quite a bit better. Overall, even including the D's troubles this year, we have seen greater variation in the offense's performance than the defense.


The various power ratings don't quite reflect this appraisal, one of many reasons one might disagree.

[CTcard]

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure *Stanford* is much better than the 2012 version.

Interesting question.

My general impression is that 2012 would be in a close race with 2014 for the inherently least able team of Shaw's - or since 2009 for that matter.
My other impression is that the 2015 team is probably a pretty close second to 2011 for Shaw's best, with 2010 the best of the recent run.
Thus putting 2015 pretty far ahead of 2012.

At the bad end, the issues were on offense. 2012 was generally poor - though not necessarily a lot worse versus the better teams on the schedule. 2014 offense was overall less bad, but faltered against better teams (at least prior to UCLA). Both defenses were pretty good, 2014 better, leading to an overall roughly even team evaluation by me.
[And that is one reason I really loved the 2012 team. It accomplished the most (RB win) with a team that didn't seem as inherently capable.]

On the plus side, clearly 2011 and 2015 were Shaw's best offenses, but happen to have been coupled to the weakest defenses. I might give a nod to 2015 offense (3.52 pts/drive, 3rd in the country versus 3.47 pts/drive, 4th), but the 2011 defense was quite a bit better. Overall, even including the D's troubles this year, we have seen greater variation in the offense's performance than the defense.


The various power ratings don't quite reflect this appraisal, one of many reasons one might disagree.