[JohnR34231]

Unproven backups the quality of Costello and Mills >>>>>> Burns.

Any sane coach would start Mills with a massively limited playbook over Burns, let alone RS Costello.  Burns has proven he is capable of keeping Stanford in games, but he doesn't do anything well other than throw a nice fade pass.  Other than that, he is below average at everything. 

Mills had a 34 to 1 TD to INT ratio as a Senior in high school.  And it's 66 to 10 for his career.  His completion percentage this year was almost 70%.  Those numbers are Jake Browning-like from high school, and Mills has a much better arm.  Costello might not have put up such crazy numbers, but he played in one of the best high school football leagues in the country and has a year of learning a college offense under his belt.

The bottom line is Stanford played 2016 with a mediocre OL and much below average QB production.  With just above average QB production, Stanford probably goes 11-1.  I don't think they could have overcome playing without Meeks and Holder to beat UW, but you never know.  They certainly wouldn't have been blown out, and very well could have played in the Rose Bowl or maybe even snuck in above UW as Ohio State did Penn State despite losing to them.

College football is the entertainment business.  You simply can't subject your fans to Burns playing QB ever again, when you have talents like Costello and Mills available.  It doesn't even make sense to have Burns be the backup, IMO, when they young guys are so much more talented.  You're going to have better winning odds playing talented and inexperienced QBs - especially against good teams - over an experienced one who is well below average for the position.

Against Washington we were so dominated in every facet of the game I don't think there is any college QB in the land who could have led us to victory. A top notch QB leads us to victory over Colorado and possibly Wazzu (in a shootout).
It will be very interesting to see what Shaw does about the QB situation leading up to next fall. It will certainly give us a lot to discuss on the Cardboard.

[JohnR34231]

Unproven backups the quality of Costello and Mills >>>>>> Burns.

Any sane coach would start Mills with a massively limited playbook over Burns, let alone RS Costello.  Burns has proven he is capable of keeping Stanford in games, but he doesn't do anything well other than throw a nice fade pass.  Other than that, he is below average at everything. 

Mills had a 34 to 1 TD to INT ratio as a Senior in high school.  And it's 66 to 10 for his career.  His completion percentage this year was almost 70%.  Those numbers are Jake Browning-like from high school, and Mills has a much better arm.  Costello might not have put up such crazy numbers, but he played in one of the best high school football leagues in the country and has a year of learning a college offense under his belt.

The bottom line is Stanford played 2016 with a mediocre OL and much below average QB production.  With just above average QB production, Stanford probably goes 11-1.  I don't think they could have overcome playing without Meeks and Holder to beat UW, but you never know.  They certainly wouldn't have been blown out, and very well could have played in the Rose Bowl or maybe even snuck in above UW as Ohio State did Penn State despite losing to them.

College football is the entertainment business.  You simply can't subject your fans to Burns playing QB ever again, when you have talents like Costello and Mills available.  It doesn't even make sense to have Burns be the backup, IMO, when they young guys are so much more talented.  You're going to have better winning odds playing talented and inexperienced QBs - especially against good teams - over an experienced one who is well below average for the position.

Against Washington we were so dominated in every facet of the game I don't think there is any college QB in the land who could have led us to victory. A top notch QB leads us to victory over Colorado and possibly Wazzu (in a shootout).
It will be very interesting to see what Shaw does about the QB situation leading up to next fall. It will certainly give us a lot to discuss on the Cardboard.