[CTcard]

So, what's caught your eye in the Pac 12 this year so far?

Here are the issues I've noticed - all trends Stanford is participating in. 

1. What QB is in?
Stanford - ???
Arizona - but for crashing into the bench on a run vs Colorado, Dawkins would still be their QB and they'd be nestled at the bottom of the south (maybe)
WSU - wasn't Falk supposed to be a Heistman candidate?
Utah/Oregon/OSU at least I understand injuries.

Meanwhile, old friends Max Browne has just about the same PER at Pitt as Darnold at $C (but is injured now) and MacMaryion is leading the resurgence at Fresno.

2. Good Days/Bad Days

Teams always play much better on some days than others, but it seems to me to that this year we are seeing more up and down performances from most everybody.

Stanford - we've talked about a ton.
$C - vs Stanford/ASU compared to vs und/Texas/Utah/WSU (though Pullman is a tough place in which to play)
cal - vs WSU/Miss/UNC compared to ... well everything else.
ASU - vs UW/Utah compared to $C/Texas Tech/Us(?)
Colorado - vs cal/Col.St./Ariz compared vs WSU (possibly the worst performance I've seen this year, 174 yds offense)
OSU - vs Colorado/Stanford compared to everything else.
etc.

3. Other-Worldly Performances/emerging stars:
Bryce Love.
Khalil Tate.
Cory Hall.

Players not winning the Heistman trophy this year:
Sam Darnold
Josh Rosen
Luke Falk

[CTcard]

So, what's caught your eye in the Pac 12 this year so far?

Here are the issues I've noticed - all trends Stanford is participating in. 

1. What QB is in?
Stanford - ???
Arizona - but for crashing into the bench on a run vs Colorado, Dawkins would still be their QB and they'd be nestled at the bottom of the south (maybe)
WSU - wasn't Falk supposed to be a Heistman candidate?
Utah/Oregon/OSU at least I understand injuries.

Meanwhile, old friends Max Browne has just about the same PER at Pitt as Darnold at $C (but is injured now) and MacMaryion is leading the resurgence at Fresno.

2. Good Days/Bad Days

Teams always play much better on some days than others, but it seems to me to that this year we are seeing more up and down performances from most everybody.

Stanford - we've talked about a ton.
$C - vs Stanford/ASU compared to vs und/Texas/Utah/WSU (though Pullman is a tough place in which to play)
cal - vs WSU/Miss/UNC compared to ... well everything else.
ASU - vs UW/Utah compared to $C/Texas Tech/Us(?)
Colorado - vs cal/Col.St./Ariz compared vs WSU (possibly the worst performance I've seen this year, 174 yds offense)
OSU - vs Colorado/Stanford compared to everything else.
etc.

3. Other-Worldly Performances/emerging stars:
Bryce Love.
Khalil Tate.
Cory Hall.

Players not winning the Heistman trophy this year:
Sam Darnold
Josh Rosen
Luke Falk

[oldalum]

Heistman candidate
Heistman trophy

I like what you did there, given how often it's been stolen from a Stanford player.

[oldalum]

Heistman candidate
Heistman trophy

I like what you did there, given how often it's been stolen from a Stanford player.

[JJJ]

At the risk of being unpopular, I wasn't a big fan of Cory Hall's pregame "INFLICT PAIN!!!" rant. Sure, he had them playing well, and he kept the energy level going the whole game but still, not my cup of tea. ymmv.

[JJJ]

At the risk of being unpopular, I wasn't a big fan of Cory Hall's pregame "INFLICT PAIN!!!" rant. Sure, he had them playing well, and he kept the energy level going the whole game but still, not my cup of tea. ymmv.

[CTcard]

Sure, he had them playing well, and he kept the energy level going the whole game but still, not my cup of tea. ymmv.

Well, I was really commenting upon the first two parts.
Though I do suspect that part of what has them playing well is lack of Gary Andersen.

[CTcard]

Sure, he had them playing well, and he kept the energy level going the whole game but still, not my cup of tea. ymmv.

Well, I was really commenting upon the first two parts.
Though I do suspect that part of what has them playing well is lack of Gary Andersen.

[BostonCard]

The risk of that approach is it only works as long as players believe in it.  If they come to see that it continues to produce losses, how long until the players start to mail it in?

EUTM worked because we had the wins to back it up after the first couple seasons.  But I wonder what would have happened had Harbaugh not rallied the team to win the greatest upset ever.

BC

[BostonCard]

The risk of that approach is it only works as long as players believe in it.  If they come to see that it continues to produce losses, how long until the players start to mail it in?

EUTM worked because we had the wins to back it up after the first couple seasons.  But I wonder what would have happened had Harbaugh not rallied the team to win the greatest upset ever.

BC

[FarmBoy]

The risk of that approach is it only works as long as players believe in it.  If they come to see that it continues to produce losses, how long until the players start to mail it in?

EUTM worked because we had the wins to back it up after the first couple seasons.  But I wonder what would have happened had Harbaugh not rallied the team to win the greatest upset ever.

BC

EUTM worked because we had wins in the first season. Beating 'SC and Cal were landmark wins out of the gate for Harbaugh and company. I do wonder what would have happened had we not won those two games. A two win season in 2007 may have impacted a few key recruits and slowed our overall progress, but Toby was already on board as was Luck, right? Would be interesting to peek into that other universe.

Reading this thread triggered a couple of things I found interesting:
* It led me to look up the Stanford wikipedia page where I found that there is about three times as much space dedicated to the Harbaugh era as there is to the David Shaw era, despite almost twice the tenure and several times the 10 win seasons under his belt. Even if Shaw wins a NC, some people will say he owes it all to Harbaugh. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_C...l_football
* The folks at BI continue to re-litigate whether Dykes or MacIntyre would have been the better hire back in the day. But they all seem to agree 100% that Wilcox is going to lead them to the promised land and so whether Dykes was worse than Mac, he eventually led to their savior. It's amazing how quickly they seem ready to go all in on a coach who's shown some promise. https://bearinsider.com/forums/2/topics/76616

[FarmBoy]

The risk of that approach is it only works as long as players believe in it.  If they come to see that it continues to produce losses, how long until the players start to mail it in?

EUTM worked because we had the wins to back it up after the first couple seasons.  But I wonder what would have happened had Harbaugh not rallied the team to win the greatest upset ever.

BC

EUTM worked because we had wins in the first season. Beating 'SC and Cal were landmark wins out of the gate for Harbaugh and company. I do wonder what would have happened had we not won those two games. A two win season in 2007 may have impacted a few key recruits and slowed our overall progress, but Toby was already on board as was Luck, right? Would be interesting to peek into that other universe.

Reading this thread triggered a couple of things I found interesting:
* It led me to look up the Stanford wikipedia page where I found that there is about three times as much space dedicated to the Harbaugh era as there is to the David Shaw era, despite almost twice the tenure and several times the 10 win seasons under his belt. Even if Shaw wins a NC, some people will say he owes it all to Harbaugh. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_C...l_football
* The folks at BI continue to re-litigate whether Dykes or MacIntyre would have been the better hire back in the day. But they all seem to agree 100% that Wilcox is going to lead them to the promised land and so whether Dykes was worse than Mac, he eventually led to their savior. It's amazing how quickly they seem ready to go all in on a coach who's shown some promise. https://bearinsider.com/forums/2/topics/76616