[BostonCard]

Well, sure, but Shaw could be doing even better from a recruiting perspective. You need to have deep, strong, comprehensive teams, and having a dud class really hampers a team down the road.

Shaw himself has said that Stanford, historically, has been a school with peaks and valleys -- and one of his goals is to take the valleys out. He's also said he wants to win titles. Both are worthy goals. If he wants to accomplish them, one excellent sub-goal would be to avoid 2013-style classes. Particularly at the line. Sadly, the odds are pretty strong that 2018 will resemble 2013.

It is better to look at two-year classes than single years.  Between fifth year seniors and players going pro after three years, more than half of a class will wind up playing their last year of football with either the class ahead of them or behind them.  The problem, as you pointed out, was that the 2013 class was followed by a 2014 that didn't solve the linemen problem.

Let's see what this class winds up with.  More than every once in a while you get a David Parry or a Ben Gardner (in back-to-back classes no less), guys who weren't all that highly recruited out of high school but wound up being stars.

BC

[BostonCard]

Well, sure, but Shaw could be doing even better from a recruiting perspective. You need to have deep, strong, comprehensive teams, and having a dud class really hampers a team down the road.

Shaw himself has said that Stanford, historically, has been a school with peaks and valleys -- and one of his goals is to take the valleys out. He's also said he wants to win titles. Both are worthy goals. If he wants to accomplish them, one excellent sub-goal would be to avoid 2013-style classes. Particularly at the line. Sadly, the odds are pretty strong that 2018 will resemble 2013.

It is better to look at two-year classes than single years.  Between fifth year seniors and players going pro after three years, more than half of a class will wind up playing their last year of football with either the class ahead of them or behind them.  The problem, as you pointed out, was that the 2013 class was followed by a 2014 that didn't solve the linemen problem.

Let's see what this class winds up with.  More than every once in a while you get a David Parry or a Ben Gardner (in back-to-back classes no less), guys who weren't all that highly recruited out of high school but wound up being stars.

BC