[CTcard]

Peat 90% gone.
Cajuste 75% gone
Carter 60% gone all my guesses.

So which 3 games will Cajuste play in next year? [Or I guess 1 for Peat or 5 for Carter?]
[emoticon]

Either Carter or Peat leaving would break a long streak (since Teyo Johnson?) of no Stanford player leaving before going through their academic-senior year. I don't know either personally so have no idea what they wish to do. I would think both would have being a reasonably high NFL draft pick as an option.

Cajuste would seem to be a lower draft pick, but is an academic senior.

OL: If Peat stays the Oline should be improved next year based on the dramatic improvement we've seen over the last 3-4 weeks of this year. (up)

Even if Peat leaves I think the Oline should be improved next year. Four returning starters is WAY better than four starters who need replacing. More than any other unit, the Oline really needs to know each other and work as a group - which was a significant problem this year.

I wonder what the coaching staff thinks of Casey Tucker. They seemed very high on him early, but I think he hasn't played since the third week of the season or so. It would seem this was not a great redshirt burning.

LB: We lose Vaughters and Tarpley, but have a lot of talent waiting to increase rotation time including Kalambayi, davis, palma, alfieri, etc. We have shown ourselves to be quite adept at replacing stud linebackers and I don't forsee a major problem here. (=)

DB: Assuming Carter stays and Lyons gets a 5th year from the NCAA, we lose Richards (big loss), and Olugbode. We will need Whitfield and others to step forward, but should still have an excellent DB corps. (down)

I might switch those two ratings, depending on who is back.

We have three returning LBers who have played a lot - Martinez, Anderson, Kalambayi; and two other who have played a bit, Palma and Davis, though I think heavily weighted to garbage time. There is potential there, but guys who either haven't played or haven't played much will have to emerge.

I thought the dbs were much improved this year, though there were a few cases of hideously blown coverages and Hoffpauir is a little slow for many of the guys he is asked to cover. IF Carter and Lyons return, we lose only 1 starter and 1 backup off the four-position depth chart. That is pretty good, and we have heard some encouraging things about the young guys (much from Hulk). Add in a second season of coaching from Akina and I see the possibility of good improvement here.

The bigger issue on defense is similar to last year's. How much were Anderson, Parry, Tarpley, Vaughters, and Richards really the heart of the defense? Or rather, how much are the next guys ready to be that heart?
At least the coaching track record here has been solid.

1.  Can we run between the tackles?  Can we present a running threat on 3rd and 4?  Can we regularly convert on 3rd and 2?  Christian probably isn't the answer, even with 8-10 more good pounds.  Chris Warren may have to be--assuming we get him--because Brandon Scarlett--assuming him--won't be recovered and built up enough to play power back.

I think that the size of the RB has been over-emphasized on the running between the tackles question. One evidence for that is Stanford actually ran fairly well between the tackles this year, particularly in the last several games, even though we didn't do it very much compared to the past half-dozen years. We do need a RB who can break some tackles, which Wright seemed to start to do late. I agree that doesn't seem to be quite McCaffrey's strength, though he's not particularly small. On the other hand, he hasn't been asked to do so often. 

[CTcard]

Peat 90% gone.
Cajuste 75% gone
Carter 60% gone all my guesses.

So which 3 games will Cajuste play in next year? [Or I guess 1 for Peat or 5 for Carter?]
[emoticon]

Either Carter or Peat leaving would break a long streak (since Teyo Johnson?) of no Stanford player leaving before going through their academic-senior year. I don't know either personally so have no idea what they wish to do. I would think both would have being a reasonably high NFL draft pick as an option.

Cajuste would seem to be a lower draft pick, but is an academic senior.

OL: If Peat stays the Oline should be improved next year based on the dramatic improvement we've seen over the last 3-4 weeks of this year. (up)

Even if Peat leaves I think the Oline should be improved next year. Four returning starters is WAY better than four starters who need replacing. More than any other unit, the Oline really needs to know each other and work as a group - which was a significant problem this year.

I wonder what the coaching staff thinks of Casey Tucker. They seemed very high on him early, but I think he hasn't played since the third week of the season or so. It would seem this was not a great redshirt burning.

LB: We lose Vaughters and Tarpley, but have a lot of talent waiting to increase rotation time including Kalambayi, davis, palma, alfieri, etc. We have shown ourselves to be quite adept at replacing stud linebackers and I don't forsee a major problem here. (=)

DB: Assuming Carter stays and Lyons gets a 5th year from the NCAA, we lose Richards (big loss), and Olugbode. We will need Whitfield and others to step forward, but should still have an excellent DB corps. (down)

I might switch those two ratings, depending on who is back.

We have three returning LBers who have played a lot - Martinez, Anderson, Kalambayi; and two other who have played a bit, Palma and Davis, though I think heavily weighted to garbage time. There is potential there, but guys who either haven't played or haven't played much will have to emerge.

I thought the dbs were much improved this year, though there were a few cases of hideously blown coverages and Hoffpauir is a little slow for many of the guys he is asked to cover. IF Carter and Lyons return, we lose only 1 starter and 1 backup off the four-position depth chart. That is pretty good, and we have heard some encouraging things about the young guys (much from Hulk). Add in a second season of coaching from Akina and I see the possibility of good improvement here.

The bigger issue on defense is similar to last year's. How much were Anderson, Parry, Tarpley, Vaughters, and Richards really the heart of the defense? Or rather, how much are the next guys ready to be that heart?
At least the coaching track record here has been solid.

1.  Can we run between the tackles?  Can we present a running threat on 3rd and 4?  Can we regularly convert on 3rd and 2?  Christian probably isn't the answer, even with 8-10 more good pounds.  Chris Warren may have to be--assuming we get him--because Brandon Scarlett--assuming him--won't be recovered and built up enough to play power back.

I think that the size of the RB has been over-emphasized on the running between the tackles question. One evidence for that is Stanford actually ran fairly well between the tackles this year, particularly in the last several games, even though we didn't do it very much compared to the past half-dozen years. We do need a RB who can break some tackles, which Wright seemed to start to do late. I agree that doesn't seem to be quite McCaffrey's strength, though he's not particularly small. On the other hand, he hasn't been asked to do so often.