12-13-2022, 10:51 PM
* I like optimists so I I liked the line about going into every situation thinking it's going to work and then adapting when it doesn't work. Shaw talked about this too, but I think the players and fans stopped believing it long ago. I think a big part of the bump horrible teams can often get with a move like this is you start giving players permission to believe again. In some sense Taylor and Shaw can say the same things but the guy who hasn't driven the program into the ground will have a chance of getting people to believe, and that belief is a really big part of winning. And then of course if Taylor really can walk the walk in terms of adapting effectively when things aren't working that will be key to success.
* I don't want to get too carried away in praising his savvy on question on his Cal ties as that was the most obvious one in the world to have to answer and thus one he probably thought a lot about, but there was something slick and disarming about how he tackled that question. In essence, he praised Cal for forging him and made no apologies/defenses of himself for essentially no longer being a Bear. He's got a way of speaking that sounds (for all I know totally is) very genuine and grounded without falling into traps or seeming naive. I'm sure he'll fall in traps in press conferences to come, but this one was deftly handled.
* The way he talks about his time at Utah under Whittingham is somewhat more reserved than how he talks about some of his other experiences, which makes sense as that period was famously less of a success than all his others, but there's nonetheless a confidence in how he talks about that time being "invaluable" for him in getting Pac-12 game planning experience. My views haven't changed on how to think about that time (a relatively less positive mark on his resume but still one that provides some confidence as he was at least mediocre as a Pac-12 coordinator and presumably has grown since then). What's most notable and part of what I mean by reserved on this aspect is how quick he is to note how important all his stops were. Clearly he doesn't see Utah as the big formative stop in his journey.
* What he does seem to see as the big formative stop in his journey is the time in high school. He dwelled on two things here I found notable. First, he noted it's where he became a coach because he had to learn how to coach at different levels. That's an interesting way to think about it, and I think a refreshingly humble thing for somebody to say that he didn't really "coach" until the high school experience. Recall that he was a multi-year college position coach before that. This is a nice insight into what I was talking about earlier that we shouldn't necessarily turn our nose up at the benefits a high school perspective/experience can provide. Maybe somebody who's coached high school can scheme to utilize marginal athletes or get more out of a backup better than somebody with a more conventional background.
* The second thing he credited high school with doing for him was teaching him how to build a culture. This ("this game is all about culture") was the highlight of the press conference for me. I'm a broken record on this but I think it's what all of this comes down to. He'll succeed or fail based on the culture he builds. That he's so attentive to it inspires confidence. He defines culture as relationships, building a belief in yourself and your teammates, and going out with a great deal of confidence. If I had to boil down why I have more faith in Taylor going forward than I had in Shaw, this is it. Shaw was too aloof for me to believe in the relationships part and too accustomed to failure by the end for me to believe anybody in the program truly believed in themselves or their teammates. Taylor is a turning of the page and that alone is worth its weight in gold, but crucially he appears to believe in his culture-building philosophy and we've seen evidence we should believe too.
* Just as another data point on culture, his affection for his senior class at Sacramento State largely owes to how they "changed the climate." That this is his takeaway further reinforces how intentional and central culture building is for him. We're now going to want to hope past is prologue and that Taylor will be able to bring along current youngsters in the Stanford program to really change our climate. Even though he didn't recruit them, it's the current true freshman class and the incoming 2023 class that will define Taylor's culture building. Things to watch in the coming weeks, I think, are whether we can keep all the current freshmen in the fold (others are aggressively courting Bailey I'm sure) and whether we can add some volume to the 2023 class. Provided they're not scrubs, I'm all for adding more players to the 2023 class so that more people can come in with Taylor and be on the ground floor of the culture building. Think what Skattebo meant for Taylor at Sacramento State, or what Marecic and Masifilo meant for Harbaugh in the class he came in with.
* Ok, another culture data point (spoiler alert, I'm not going to stop talking about this for a long time): Taylor turned the question about adapting to the new transfer portal/NIL landscape as being about relationships and creating a culture. YES! He understands that the fundamental feature of the new system is choice and autonomy for student-athletes and that's not an inherently bad thing. His job is to make them want to stay. Yes, yes, yes. We can talk all we want about Stanford becoming more permissive of transfers, but what will really be pivotal to Stanford competing in this environment is being a program people want to play at. We're not that anymore. What Taylor understands and will strive to do is making us that kind of program. Culture. It's all about culture.
* The specific way Taylor says he wants to create culture - making players feel like a family because they feel valued, accepted, and challenged for who they are as individuals (read: different for different players) and being authentic in how you do that - will take relationships and emotional intelligence. It's not just pretty words in a press conference or team meeting. I don't know the man and can't comment on his ability to do that (other than to say it seems like he did it at Folsom and Sacramento State) but I'm getting good vibes.
* Proof will be in the pudding but I love that he said he wants players to complete their athletic careers at Stanford. This was in direct response to the question on navigating the transfer portal dynamics. I am hoping (and encouraged by this answer) that he gets that the mentality of so many Stanford people that it's only natural for players to transfer out to get grad degrees elsewhere is a loser's mentality when you're talking about players the football team actually needs.
* I don't want to get too carried away in praising his savvy on question on his Cal ties as that was the most obvious one in the world to have to answer and thus one he probably thought a lot about, but there was something slick and disarming about how he tackled that question. In essence, he praised Cal for forging him and made no apologies/defenses of himself for essentially no longer being a Bear. He's got a way of speaking that sounds (for all I know totally is) very genuine and grounded without falling into traps or seeming naive. I'm sure he'll fall in traps in press conferences to come, but this one was deftly handled.
* The way he talks about his time at Utah under Whittingham is somewhat more reserved than how he talks about some of his other experiences, which makes sense as that period was famously less of a success than all his others, but there's nonetheless a confidence in how he talks about that time being "invaluable" for him in getting Pac-12 game planning experience. My views haven't changed on how to think about that time (a relatively less positive mark on his resume but still one that provides some confidence as he was at least mediocre as a Pac-12 coordinator and presumably has grown since then). What's most notable and part of what I mean by reserved on this aspect is how quick he is to note how important all his stops were. Clearly he doesn't see Utah as the big formative stop in his journey.
* What he does seem to see as the big formative stop in his journey is the time in high school. He dwelled on two things here I found notable. First, he noted it's where he became a coach because he had to learn how to coach at different levels. That's an interesting way to think about it, and I think a refreshingly humble thing for somebody to say that he didn't really "coach" until the high school experience. Recall that he was a multi-year college position coach before that. This is a nice insight into what I was talking about earlier that we shouldn't necessarily turn our nose up at the benefits a high school perspective/experience can provide. Maybe somebody who's coached high school can scheme to utilize marginal athletes or get more out of a backup better than somebody with a more conventional background.
* The second thing he credited high school with doing for him was teaching him how to build a culture. This ("this game is all about culture") was the highlight of the press conference for me. I'm a broken record on this but I think it's what all of this comes down to. He'll succeed or fail based on the culture he builds. That he's so attentive to it inspires confidence. He defines culture as relationships, building a belief in yourself and your teammates, and going out with a great deal of confidence. If I had to boil down why I have more faith in Taylor going forward than I had in Shaw, this is it. Shaw was too aloof for me to believe in the relationships part and too accustomed to failure by the end for me to believe anybody in the program truly believed in themselves or their teammates. Taylor is a turning of the page and that alone is worth its weight in gold, but crucially he appears to believe in his culture-building philosophy and we've seen evidence we should believe too.
* Just as another data point on culture, his affection for his senior class at Sacramento State largely owes to how they "changed the climate." That this is his takeaway further reinforces how intentional and central culture building is for him. We're now going to want to hope past is prologue and that Taylor will be able to bring along current youngsters in the Stanford program to really change our climate. Even though he didn't recruit them, it's the current true freshman class and the incoming 2023 class that will define Taylor's culture building. Things to watch in the coming weeks, I think, are whether we can keep all the current freshmen in the fold (others are aggressively courting Bailey I'm sure) and whether we can add some volume to the 2023 class. Provided they're not scrubs, I'm all for adding more players to the 2023 class so that more people can come in with Taylor and be on the ground floor of the culture building. Think what Skattebo meant for Taylor at Sacramento State, or what Marecic and Masifilo meant for Harbaugh in the class he came in with.
* Ok, another culture data point (spoiler alert, I'm not going to stop talking about this for a long time): Taylor turned the question about adapting to the new transfer portal/NIL landscape as being about relationships and creating a culture. YES! He understands that the fundamental feature of the new system is choice and autonomy for student-athletes and that's not an inherently bad thing. His job is to make them want to stay. Yes, yes, yes. We can talk all we want about Stanford becoming more permissive of transfers, but what will really be pivotal to Stanford competing in this environment is being a program people want to play at. We're not that anymore. What Taylor understands and will strive to do is making us that kind of program. Culture. It's all about culture.
* The specific way Taylor says he wants to create culture - making players feel like a family because they feel valued, accepted, and challenged for who they are as individuals (read: different for different players) and being authentic in how you do that - will take relationships and emotional intelligence. It's not just pretty words in a press conference or team meeting. I don't know the man and can't comment on his ability to do that (other than to say it seems like he did it at Folsom and Sacramento State) but I'm getting good vibes.
* Proof will be in the pudding but I love that he said he wants players to complete their athletic careers at Stanford. This was in direct response to the question on navigating the transfer portal dynamics. I am hoping (and encouraged by this answer) that he gets that the mentality of so many Stanford people that it's only natural for players to transfer out to get grad degrees elsewhere is a loser's mentality when you're talking about players the football team actually needs.