01-10-2026, 11:11 AM
I get that everyone wants to remain optimistic and give the brain trust time to turn things around. I'm right there with you. I just can't help but feel we are not seeing the kinds of moves/additions that will change the trajectory for Stanford Football. Time alone doesn't fix anything -- and it's not clear from my seat that they are doing anything to change the direction of the program. You could make a strong argument to the contrary actually -- i.e., doubling down on a 'comfortable' staff that may or may not be up for the task. Tavita's a great guy and I'd would absolutely LOVE to see him turn the program around, but his coaching experience is quite limited, so he represents another roll of the dice for the program.
The comment about Indiana doing it 'smart' and not based on credentials is off base in my opinion. Cignetti's resume was the epitome of college football coaching credentials -- 30 years of college coaching experience when they hired him, trained under Saban, highest levels of success at 3 programs as HC before Indiana, picking up multiple conference coach of the year honors, conference titles and/or playoff appearance at every school -- he might not have been doing Vrbo commercials at the time, but the man was as well-credentialed as it gets. Give us that! Tavita has none of that, and for that matter Luck doesn't either. It's institutional nepotism -- that doesn't mean they'll fail, but it is what it is. Based on his on-field and on-paper resume, Tavita isn't ready to be a head coach in a power conference. Very few, if any, unbiased observers would argue otherwise. He might knock it out of the park, sure, but 00 comes up on the roulette wheel every day and that still doesn't make it a good bet. Subsequent coaching announcements seem similar to me, some obviously better than others, and the portal to date is a large net loss for the program, ranked 79th in the portal currently, with just 3 additions so far that 'might' yield one or two starters. Re finances, please... Stanford University has a bigger operating budget than a quarter of the U.S. States (google it, I'll wait). Money is not the problem. They seem to lack the will to shake things up and do what's needed to make real changes.
None of this is to say they won't improve next year; I suspect they will (or at least am optimistic they will). I'm just lamenting another off-season of lackluster changes after all the talk of big things coming. This isn't that, so far anyway.
The comment about Indiana doing it 'smart' and not based on credentials is off base in my opinion. Cignetti's resume was the epitome of college football coaching credentials -- 30 years of college coaching experience when they hired him, trained under Saban, highest levels of success at 3 programs as HC before Indiana, picking up multiple conference coach of the year honors, conference titles and/or playoff appearance at every school -- he might not have been doing Vrbo commercials at the time, but the man was as well-credentialed as it gets. Give us that! Tavita has none of that, and for that matter Luck doesn't either. It's institutional nepotism -- that doesn't mean they'll fail, but it is what it is. Based on his on-field and on-paper resume, Tavita isn't ready to be a head coach in a power conference. Very few, if any, unbiased observers would argue otherwise. He might knock it out of the park, sure, but 00 comes up on the roulette wheel every day and that still doesn't make it a good bet. Subsequent coaching announcements seem similar to me, some obviously better than others, and the portal to date is a large net loss for the program, ranked 79th in the portal currently, with just 3 additions so far that 'might' yield one or two starters. Re finances, please... Stanford University has a bigger operating budget than a quarter of the U.S. States (google it, I'll wait). Money is not the problem. They seem to lack the will to shake things up and do what's needed to make real changes.
None of this is to say they won't improve next year; I suspect they will (or at least am optimistic they will). I'm just lamenting another off-season of lackluster changes after all the talk of big things coming. This isn't that, so far anyway.