[msqueri]

• * The thing I love about "love of Stanford, a love of each other, a love of our coaches, a love of competition, a love of football" is it encapsulates the culture I perceive as missing from Stanford in recent years. I believe we've entered into a downward spiral in large part because football ceased being fun and joyful and that led to losses, which led to it being even less fun and joyful, and all of that interacted with things in Shaw's personality as well as secular trends across the university and sport that frayed the bonds of brothership between the players. The result was a toxic culture - a culture of losing and leaving. The things Taylor is focused on instilling and fostering love for address that. Players who love Stanford, each other, and their coaches will be more likely to stay and actually build something. Players who love competition and football will do the hard things necessary to get better. It obviously remains to be seen how well Taylor can translate his rhetoric into results, but the rhetoric is exactly what I want to hear, and what he did at Sacramento State shows he's done it before.
  
• * When he talked about the kind of players we'll be going after, he said it will be players who "love football, love each other, and love Stanford." Yes, in that order please! Real evidence he gets it in terms of the players we need to succeed.
  
• * Taylor doesn't strike me as a Harbaugh-like sloganeer, but "fervor, excitement, and love that's never been seen before" does seem like a very intentional turn of phrase. Actually, he has quite a few phrases (many of which I quote or paraphrase in this post) distilling his philosophy, so maybe it only doesn't come across as sloganeering because he intersperses them so naturally. By the way, "fervent" and "fervor" were two of the primary words in the word cloud for this press conference, from both Muir and Taylor. I don't think that's an accident either - fervor is probably the word Taylor used to sell himself and that stuck with the search committee.
  
• * Inviting every player on the roster back was an extremely interesting piece of news. On one level, this seems at odds with a desire to instill a new culture. Surely there are steak eaters who don't help the team. However, I see Taylor extending this invitation as a nod to pragmatism on two levels. First, the mass hemorrhaging telegraphed before Shaw stepped down (reinforced by immediate transfer portal entries) creates a massive roster management issue. Taylor steps into a position at significant risk of not coming close to a full, rational allocation of allowed scholarships and potentially numerous gaping holes on the depth chart. Given Stanford's posture these are holes that can only be plugged by incoming transfers to a modest extent, if that. Ultimately there's a major stanching the bleeding aspect to Taylor inviting everybody back. He referred to this as "calming the waters" in light of understandable anxiety at a time of turmoil after so much stability. Second, it's easier to preach love and camaraderie through inclusivity than exclusivity. If Taylor started picking winners and losers on the roster, that undercuts any message of love irrespective of football quality/health status/etc., and also runs the risk of pitting individuals against each other or at least fostering resentments. Taylor has opted for "we're all in this boat together." As much as I want him to purge the program of Shaw's influence as quickly as possible, including by turning over the roster, this is probably prudent. He's going to have to coach this team in 2023 and inviting everybody back arguably helps immediate competitive prospects and lends credibility to the overall message he's selling. 
  
• * Taylor articulately and deftly handled the NIL and transfer landscape issue but I still don't feel like I have any better sense of what Stanford will actually do and the support Taylor will get from the administration. This will be interesting to watch. 
  
• " We will be champions here, I don't know when it will happen but we will be champions" was a great note to finish his opening statement. Confident but realistic. He has a job ahead of him. He believes in his philosophy and approach but he knows that it may take years, some unknown number of years. I like leaders with vision, confidence, and humility. Not the easiest mix to get right and obviously these are only words, but again the right notes.
  
• * Others have noted this but it was noticeable how many Sacramento reporters asked questions. An observer could be forgiven for not knowing which program plays major college football based on the level of interest from local media. I hope Sacramento State has more good football years ahead, but I hope even more we can get past all the indignities of the irrelevance Shaw sunk us into. People should care about a Power Five program. [In fairness, there was a decent variety of media outlets at this press conference and they asked solid questions] Because he's a Sacramento legend, I also wonder if Sacramento media will now start taking a much larger interest in Stanford. Some of the hometown reporters were asking Stanford-specific questions.
  
• * Notable that Taylor's indication of Muir/Stanford integrity was the willingness to let Taylor finish out the playoffs at Sacramento State. We'll never know what that would have looked like had the Hornets kept winning, and it could have been dicey for getting our rebuild off on the right foot. But I do appreciate the point about integrity. 
  
• * He said all the right things about the number one priority being taking care of the student-athletes and providing them the support they need but this gets back to my point on public relations vs. the nitty gritty exigencies of football. Taylor can't lose sight of getting players to graduate and academic support and such, but the reality is that's not what will be hard about his job or what we really need him for. Shaw leaned in to a lot of Stanford Man stuff that either takes care of itself or can be overseen by others. We need from Taylor a focus on football. Again, he might be saying these things just because they're the right PR things to say. It also occurs to me that he just went through a whole interview process in which he had to sell Stanford powers-that-be, and that means articulately and passionately delivering all of these company lines, so rhetoric in this press conference could be significantly shaped by the mental modules he's downloaded in recent weeks.
  

[msqueri]

• * The thing I love about "love of Stanford, a love of each other, a love of our coaches, a love of competition, a love of football" is it encapsulates the culture I perceive as missing from Stanford in recent years. I believe we've entered into a downward spiral in large part because football ceased being fun and joyful and that led to losses, which led to it being even less fun and joyful, and all of that interacted with things in Shaw's personality as well as secular trends across the university and sport that frayed the bonds of brothership between the players. The result was a toxic culture - a culture of losing and leaving. The things Taylor is focused on instilling and fostering love for address that. Players who love Stanford, each other, and their coaches will be more likely to stay and actually build something. Players who love competition and football will do the hard things necessary to get better. It obviously remains to be seen how well Taylor can translate his rhetoric into results, but the rhetoric is exactly what I want to hear, and what he did at Sacramento State shows he's done it before.
  
• * When he talked about the kind of players we'll be going after, he said it will be players who "love football, love each other, and love Stanford." Yes, in that order please! Real evidence he gets it in terms of the players we need to succeed.
  
• * Taylor doesn't strike me as a Harbaugh-like sloganeer, but "fervor, excitement, and love that's never been seen before" does seem like a very intentional turn of phrase. Actually, he has quite a few phrases (many of which I quote or paraphrase in this post) distilling his philosophy, so maybe it only doesn't come across as sloganeering because he intersperses them so naturally. By the way, "fervent" and "fervor" were two of the primary words in the word cloud for this press conference, from both Muir and Taylor. I don't think that's an accident either - fervor is probably the word Taylor used to sell himself and that stuck with the search committee.
  
• * Inviting every player on the roster back was an extremely interesting piece of news. On one level, this seems at odds with a desire to instill a new culture. Surely there are steak eaters who don't help the team. However, I see Taylor extending this invitation as a nod to pragmatism on two levels. First, the mass hemorrhaging telegraphed before Shaw stepped down (reinforced by immediate transfer portal entries) creates a massive roster management issue. Taylor steps into a position at significant risk of not coming close to a full, rational allocation of allowed scholarships and potentially numerous gaping holes on the depth chart. Given Stanford's posture these are holes that can only be plugged by incoming transfers to a modest extent, if that. Ultimately there's a major stanching the bleeding aspect to Taylor inviting everybody back. He referred to this as "calming the waters" in light of understandable anxiety at a time of turmoil after so much stability. Second, it's easier to preach love and camaraderie through inclusivity than exclusivity. If Taylor started picking winners and losers on the roster, that undercuts any message of love irrespective of football quality/health status/etc., and also runs the risk of pitting individuals against each other or at least fostering resentments. Taylor has opted for "we're all in this boat together." As much as I want him to purge the program of Shaw's influence as quickly as possible, including by turning over the roster, this is probably prudent. He's going to have to coach this team in 2023 and inviting everybody back arguably helps immediate competitive prospects and lends credibility to the overall message he's selling. 
  
• * Taylor articulately and deftly handled the NIL and transfer landscape issue but I still don't feel like I have any better sense of what Stanford will actually do and the support Taylor will get from the administration. This will be interesting to watch. 
  
• " We will be champions here, I don't know when it will happen but we will be champions" was a great note to finish his opening statement. Confident but realistic. He has a job ahead of him. He believes in his philosophy and approach but he knows that it may take years, some unknown number of years. I like leaders with vision, confidence, and humility. Not the easiest mix to get right and obviously these are only words, but again the right notes.
  
• * Others have noted this but it was noticeable how many Sacramento reporters asked questions. An observer could be forgiven for not knowing which program plays major college football based on the level of interest from local media. I hope Sacramento State has more good football years ahead, but I hope even more we can get past all the indignities of the irrelevance Shaw sunk us into. People should care about a Power Five program. [In fairness, there was a decent variety of media outlets at this press conference and they asked solid questions] Because he's a Sacramento legend, I also wonder if Sacramento media will now start taking a much larger interest in Stanford. Some of the hometown reporters were asking Stanford-specific questions.
  
• * Notable that Taylor's indication of Muir/Stanford integrity was the willingness to let Taylor finish out the playoffs at Sacramento State. We'll never know what that would have looked like had the Hornets kept winning, and it could have been dicey for getting our rebuild off on the right foot. But I do appreciate the point about integrity. 
  
• * He said all the right things about the number one priority being taking care of the student-athletes and providing them the support they need but this gets back to my point on public relations vs. the nitty gritty exigencies of football. Taylor can't lose sight of getting players to graduate and academic support and such, but the reality is that's not what will be hard about his job or what we really need him for. Shaw leaned in to a lot of Stanford Man stuff that either takes care of itself or can be overseen by others. We need from Taylor a focus on football. Again, he might be saying these things just because they're the right PR things to say. It also occurs to me that he just went through a whole interview process in which he had to sell Stanford powers-that-be, and that means articulately and passionately delivering all of these company lines, so rhetoric in this press conference could be significantly shaped by the mental modules he's downloaded in recent weeks.