[washingtonismoney]

It seems very safe to say Stanford football is no longer just a few good teams.  It is now a football program, with the foundation in place to be sort of the De La Salle of college football.  It's not ever going to have the armada of elite athletes other top programs will put on the field, but the discipline, toughness, and competitiveness the team plays with will make up for most shortcomings on the athlete side of the ledger.  It might not be too crazy to think about playing for a crystal football.

We'll say for sake of argument that you're correct -- I would like the conclusion to be true and there seems to be a decent enough chance it is. The key thing, in this scenario, concerns competition -- to avoid teams like Alabama, which have all of the qualities you describe plus the convoy of elite athletes.

So that's the danger when looking at a U.S.C. Fun aside, I'm not so sure Kiffin is quite the disaster he's been made out to be -- his 2011 season was almost as good as his 2012 season was bad. But one thing I'm certain of is that he'll never reach that Saban or Carroll-esque blend of elite talent with elite development -- which gives us space to thrive. If they fire Kiffin and replace him with Gary Patterson (to take one hypothetical), well...

[washingtonismoney]

It seems very safe to say Stanford football is no longer just a few good teams.  It is now a football program, with the foundation in place to be sort of the De La Salle of college football.  It's not ever going to have the armada of elite athletes other top programs will put on the field, but the discipline, toughness, and competitiveness the team plays with will make up for most shortcomings on the athlete side of the ledger.  It might not be too crazy to think about playing for a crystal football.

We'll say for sake of argument that you're correct -- I would like the conclusion to be true and there seems to be a decent enough chance it is. The key thing, in this scenario, concerns competition -- to avoid teams like Alabama, which have all of the qualities you describe plus the convoy of elite athletes.

So that's the danger when looking at a U.S.C. Fun aside, I'm not so sure Kiffin is quite the disaster he's been made out to be -- his 2011 season was almost as good as his 2012 season was bad. But one thing I'm certain of is that he'll never reach that Saban or Carroll-esque blend of elite talent with elite development -- which gives us space to thrive. If they fire Kiffin and replace him with Gary Patterson (to take one hypothetical), well...