[msqueri]

The leaving scholarships open thing drove me crazy and I do think was unwise, but it's not a massive depth issue IMHO. Even accounting for that we always had top 25 rosters top to bottom under Shaw (per 247's tracking of roster quality). I mean, think about the roster without Marcus Graham (indeed, he didn't last), Silas Starr, Scotty Edwards, and Coco Lukrich. Zero meaningful impact on the team's depth. Going without a marginal extra recruit a year was in essence the situation in the years you mentioned we didn't fill our scholarship allotment. The 80th-85th spots on the roster are not what makes or breaks depth. What makes or breaks depth is however many spots into a class a program can go getting no doubt about it Power Five players until they've reached their ceiling. Alabama never reaches that ceiling, so their depth is incredible. Vanderbilt doesn't get very far at all before they have to take guys lucky to be playing above Group of Five or even FCS. When you line all teams nationally up along this spectrum, Stanford is in the 20s. Good depth.

[msqueri]

The leaving scholarships open thing drove me crazy and I do think was unwise, but it's not a massive depth issue IMHO. Even accounting for that we always had top 25 rosters top to bottom under Shaw (per 247's tracking of roster quality). I mean, think about the roster without Marcus Graham (indeed, he didn't last), Silas Starr, Scotty Edwards, and Coco Lukrich. Zero meaningful impact on the team's depth. Going without a marginal extra recruit a year was in essence the situation in the years you mentioned we didn't fill our scholarship allotment. The 80th-85th spots on the roster are not what makes or breaks depth. What makes or breaks depth is however many spots into a class a program can go getting no doubt about it Power Five players until they've reached their ceiling. Alabama never reaches that ceiling, so their depth is incredible. Vanderbilt doesn't get very far at all before they have to take guys lucky to be playing above Group of Five or even FCS. When you line all teams nationally up along this spectrum, Stanford is in the 20s. Good depth.