[amartinsu13]

I'll just assume Cajuste will be on lock down for the Rose Bowl.  Looking for Rector to have a big day ;)

He just called his (position?) coach his best friend. 

[amartinsu13]

I'll just assume Cajuste will be on lock down for the Rose Bowl.  Looking for Rector to have a big day ;)

He just called his (position?) coach his best friend. 

[fullmetal]

King is 5'11", 200lbs.  Cajuste will drive him into the Gatorade cart on all manner of run plays...and then win some jump balls.  I guess we'll see McCaffrey or Love split wide as well...

[fullmetal]

King is 5'11", 200lbs.  Cajuste will drive him into the Gatorade cart on all manner of run plays...and then win some jump balls.  I guess we'll see McCaffrey or Love split wide as well...

[ChicagoCard]

I'll just assume Cajuste will be on lock down for the Rose Bowl.  Looking for Rector to have a big day ;)

He just called his (position?) coach his best friend.

Who, Rector? Great, maybe that'll sway him to return next season.

[ChicagoCard]

I'll just assume Cajuste will be on lock down for the Rose Bowl.  Looking for Rector to have a big day ;)

He just called his (position?) coach his best friend.

Who, Rector? Great, maybe that'll sway him to return next season.

[BrewHawk]

King is 5'11", 200lbs.  Cajuste will drive him into the Gatorade cart on all manner of run plays...and then win some jump balls.  I guess we'll see McCaffrey or Love split wide as well...

It is worth mentioning that King's run support is probably as big a reason as his coverage skills that won him the Thorpe.

Like your board here.  I'll try to give a rundown of Iowa's team and approach when I have some more time.  Good luck to you guys.  My initial blush is that I really don't like this matchup much for Iowa, but I haven't watched a ton of Cardinal football this year yet, so will need to digest some of your games before giving further opinion.

[BrewHawk]

King is 5'11", 200lbs.  Cajuste will drive him into the Gatorade cart on all manner of run plays...and then win some jump balls.  I guess we'll see McCaffrey or Love split wide as well...

It is worth mentioning that King's run support is probably as big a reason as his coverage skills that won him the Thorpe.

Like your board here.  I'll try to give a rundown of Iowa's team and approach when I have some more time.  Good luck to you guys.  My initial blush is that I really don't like this matchup much for Iowa, but I haven't watched a ton of Cardinal football this year yet, so will need to digest some of your games before giving further opinion.

[Langdude]

Welcome, Brewhawk!

We almost always appreciate lurkers from other teams here. This isn't your ordinary fan site. Hopefully just as passionate while a bit less myopic and more thoughtful. And we talk about the Civil War and grammar.

-m.

[Langdude]

Welcome, Brewhawk!

We almost always appreciate lurkers from other teams here. This isn't your ordinary fan site. Hopefully just as passionate while a bit less myopic and more thoughtful. And we talk about the Civil War and grammar.

-m.

[Rally]

Welcome Brewhawk.  Are you a coffee drinker?  :)  (Inside joke.)  every year a Notr.e D.ame fan shows up and the resulting discussion is fun, thoughtful and informative for both sides.  I look forward to your insights.

[Rally]

Welcome Brewhawk.  Are you a coffee drinker?  :)  (Inside joke.)  every year a Notr.e D.ame fan shows up and the resulting discussion is fun, thoughtful and informative for both sides.  I look forward to your insights.

[Nan3cy]

Typo alert - I think our new correspondent's name is Brewhawk...

[Nan3cy]

Typo alert - I think our new correspondent's name is Brewhawk...

[Rally]

Typo alert - I think our new correspondent's name is Brewhawk...

Fixed it.  Thanks.

[Rally]

Typo alert - I think our new correspondent's name is Brewhawk...

Fixed it.  Thanks.

[stupac2]

[quote author=fullmetal link=topic=14011.msg147441#msg147441 date=1449824556]
King is 5'11", 200lbs.  Cajuste will drive him into the Gatorade cart on all manner of run plays...and then win some jump balls.  I guess we'll see McCaffrey or Love split wide as well...

It is worth mentioning that King's run support is probably as big a reason as his coverage skills that won him the Thorpe.

Like your board here.  I'll try to give a rundown of Iowa's team and approach when I have some more time.  Good luck to you guys.  My initial blush is that I really don't like this matchup much for Iowa, but I haven't watched a ton of Cardinal football this year yet, so will need to digest some of your games before giving further opinion.
[/quote]

Please do, I love when opposing fans give us sober analysis of their team. For a quick hitter, what games would you say we should watch to get a sense of what this Iowa team can do? I'm assuming Northwestern and MSU would be the top two, but I may be wrong.

[stupac2]

[quote author=fullmetal link=topic=14011.msg147441#msg147441 date=1449824556]
King is 5'11", 200lbs.  Cajuste will drive him into the Gatorade cart on all manner of run plays...and then win some jump balls.  I guess we'll see McCaffrey or Love split wide as well...

It is worth mentioning that King's run support is probably as big a reason as his coverage skills that won him the Thorpe.

Like your board here.  I'll try to give a rundown of Iowa's team and approach when I have some more time.  Good luck to you guys.  My initial blush is that I really don't like this matchup much for Iowa, but I haven't watched a ton of Cardinal football this year yet, so will need to digest some of your games before giving further opinion.
[/quote]

Please do, I love when opposing fans give us sober analysis of their team. For a quick hitter, what games would you say we should watch to get a sense of what this Iowa team can do? I'm assuming Northwestern and MSU would be the top two, but I may be wrong.

[ColoradoTree]

King is 5'11", 200lbs.  Cajuste will drive him into the Gatorade cart on all manner of run plays...and then win some jump balls.  I guess we'll see McCaffrey or Love split wide as well...

Yeah, it seems more likely that Iowa would put King on Rector (or Irwin, when he comes in) as the speedy downfield threat, and they're more similar in size.  That said, Cajuste is likely going to get many more targets than Rector, so it'll be interesting to see who King covers. 

[ColoradoTree]

King is 5'11", 200lbs.  Cajuste will drive him into the Gatorade cart on all manner of run plays...and then win some jump balls.  I guess we'll see McCaffrey or Love split wide as well...

Yeah, it seems more likely that Iowa would put King on Rector (or Irwin, when he comes in) as the speedy downfield threat, and they're more similar in size.  That said, Cajuste is likely going to get many more targets than Rector, so it'll be interesting to see who King covers. 

[Langdude]

Typo alert - I think our new correspondent's name is Brewhawk...

My bad. Fixed.

-m.

[Langdude]

Typo alert - I think our new correspondent's name is Brewhawk...

My bad. Fixed.

-m.

[BrewHawk]

Typo alert - I think our new correspondent's name is Brewhawk...

Wondered if it was another inside joke of some sort ;D

[BrewHawk]

Typo alert - I think our new correspondent's name is Brewhawk...

Wondered if it was another inside joke of some sort ;D

[BrewHawk]

King stays to one side of the field, so will cover whomever is on his side.

As for games to watch, I like to watch teams that match up more similarly with who the next game's opponent is, style wise.  Don't know enough about Stanford to say for sure, but a true representation of our team was seen vs. Michigan St (minus Canzeri).  Beyond that, I would take a look at the closer games such as Minnesota or Indiana to see how we react when the game's on the line.  I don't know how much there is to learn in blowouts, but you can get a good look at our 3rd string RB Wadley in the Northwestern game.

[BrewHawk]

King stays to one side of the field, so will cover whomever is on his side.

As for games to watch, I like to watch teams that match up more similarly with who the next game's opponent is, style wise.  Don't know enough about Stanford to say for sure, but a true representation of our team was seen vs. Michigan St (minus Canzeri).  Beyond that, I would take a look at the closer games such as Minnesota or Indiana to see how we react when the game's on the line.  I don't know how much there is to learn in blowouts, but you can get a good look at our 3rd string RB Wadley in the Northwestern game.

[ColoradoTree]

King stays to one side of the field, so will cover whomever is on his side.

A la Richard Sherman, eh?  Interesting.  I wonder what our coaching staff does with that.  Putting Cajuste (6'4", 230) on that side consistently, or splitting Hooper (6'4", 250) out wide that way could create some nice size mismatches for 50/50 balls and intermediate routes.  Putting Rector out there wouldn't, and would make for an interesting matchup of two speedy guys, but I'd be awfully nervous about the 50/50 balls out to that side, particularly with Hogan tending to underthrow at times. (This is not meant to be a knock on Hogan.  I love the guy and expect him to have a big day with Iowa keying on stopping McCaffrey.  But he has an unfortunate tendency to underthrow guys.)

[ColoradoTree]

King stays to one side of the field, so will cover whomever is on his side.

A la Richard Sherman, eh?  Interesting.  I wonder what our coaching staff does with that.  Putting Cajuste (6'4", 230) on that side consistently, or splitting Hooper (6'4", 250) out wide that way could create some nice size mismatches for 50/50 balls and intermediate routes.  Putting Rector out there wouldn't, and would make for an interesting matchup of two speedy guys, but I'd be awfully nervous about the 50/50 balls out to that side, particularly with Hogan tending to underthrow at times. (This is not meant to be a knock on Hogan.  I love the guy and expect him to have a big day with Iowa keying on stopping McCaffrey.  But he has an unfortunate tendency to underthrow guys.)

[stupac2]

King stays to one side of the field, so will cover whomever is on his side.

As for games to watch, I like to watch teams that match up more similarly with who the next game's opponent is, style wise.  Don't know enough about Stanford to say for sure, but a true representation of our team was seen vs. Michigan St (minus Canzeri).  Beyond that, I would take a look at the closer games such as Minnesota or Indiana to see how we react when the game's on the line.  I don't know how much there is to learn in blowouts, but you can get a good look at our 3rd string RB Wadley in the Northwestern game.

This got me curious, so I decided to try to make a "similarity score" for Stanford. I took the FEI ratings and used a sum of the squares of the differences between Stanford's raw offensive, defensive, special teams, and FVE (roughly field position advantage) rankings to come up with a single number that represents how similar teams are to Stanford overall. The closest P5 team is Notre Dame and farthest away is Boston College, which I think actually jibes pretty well with what I would've guessed.

Anyway, the closest team to Stanford that Iowa played, by this metric, is MSU, though they're all the way down at #22 closest. Nebraska is next at #28, followed closely by Pittsburgh at #29 and Indiana at #31. Minnesota and Illinois are pretty far down the list at 54 and 58, respectively.

So I suppose those are the games to prioritize, at least by this metric. I think I'll go through and find the most similar offenses and defenses to see if that turns up anything different.

[stupac2]

King stays to one side of the field, so will cover whomever is on his side.

As for games to watch, I like to watch teams that match up more similarly with who the next game's opponent is, style wise.  Don't know enough about Stanford to say for sure, but a true representation of our team was seen vs. Michigan St (minus Canzeri).  Beyond that, I would take a look at the closer games such as Minnesota or Indiana to see how we react when the game's on the line.  I don't know how much there is to learn in blowouts, but you can get a good look at our 3rd string RB Wadley in the Northwestern game.

This got me curious, so I decided to try to make a "similarity score" for Stanford. I took the FEI ratings and used a sum of the squares of the differences between Stanford's raw offensive, defensive, special teams, and FVE (roughly field position advantage) rankings to come up with a single number that represents how similar teams are to Stanford overall. The closest P5 team is Notre Dame and farthest away is Boston College, which I think actually jibes pretty well with what I would've guessed.

Anyway, the closest team to Stanford that Iowa played, by this metric, is MSU, though they're all the way down at #22 closest. Nebraska is next at #28, followed closely by Pittsburgh at #29 and Indiana at #31. Minnesota and Illinois are pretty far down the list at 54 and 58, respectively.

So I suppose those are the games to prioritize, at least by this metric. I think I'll go through and find the most similar offenses and defenses to see if that turns up anything different.

[Papa John]

Here's video, showing good and not-so-good plays by Desmond King versus Wisconsin, Maryland, Illinois, Iowa State and Pitt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epje3t--g3g

Of course, he's going to be a challenge for Stanford in Pasadena, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

[Papa John]

Here's video, showing good and not-so-good plays by Desmond King versus Wisconsin, Maryland, Illinois, Iowa State and Pitt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epje3t--g3g

Of course, he's going to be a challenge for Stanford in Pasadena, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

[stupac2]

This got me curious, so I decided to try to make a "similarity score" for Stanford. I took the FEI ratings and used a sum of the squares of the differences between Stanford's raw offensive, defensive, special teams, and FVE (roughly field position advantage) rankings to come up with a single number that represents how similar teams are to Stanford overall. The closest P5 team is the University of Dead Fake Girlfriends and farthest away is Boston College, which I think actually jibes pretty well with what I would've guessed.

Anyway, the closest team to Stanford that Iowa played, by this metric, is MSU, though they're all the way down at #22 closest. Nebraska is next at #28, followed closely by Pittsburgh at #29 and Indiana at #31. Minnesota and Illinois are pretty far down the list at 54 and 58, respectively.

So I suppose those are the games to prioritize, at least by this metric. I think I'll go through and find the most similar offenses and defenses to see if that turns up anything different.

That was faster than I expected. FEI grades offenses and defenses by first down rate, percentage of available yards, explosive drive rate, methodical drive rate, and value drive rate. On offense you want higher numbers, defense lower. So these are the offenses/defenses that are most similar to us in the way they gain/allow yards and blah blah. This is obviously rough so for entertainment value only.

On offense MSU is the closest at #17, then Indiana at #22. There's a giant gulf after that, until #56 Nebraska and #60 Wisconsin, so I guess the first two are the ones to focus on.

On defense we have MSU at #10, Pittsburgh at #12, Nebraska at #28, Minnesota at #36, Indiana at #38, Iowa State at #40, and Illinois at #46. Lots of similar defenses, not so many similar offenses. But everything is coming up with MSU being the closest parallel, which I suppose bodes well for Stanford.

[stupac2]

This got me curious, so I decided to try to make a "similarity score" for Stanford. I took the FEI ratings and used a sum of the squares of the differences between Stanford's raw offensive, defensive, special teams, and FVE (roughly field position advantage) rankings to come up with a single number that represents how similar teams are to Stanford overall. The closest P5 team is the University of Dead Fake Girlfriends and farthest away is Boston College, which I think actually jibes pretty well with what I would've guessed.

Anyway, the closest team to Stanford that Iowa played, by this metric, is MSU, though they're all the way down at #22 closest. Nebraska is next at #28, followed closely by Pittsburgh at #29 and Indiana at #31. Minnesota and Illinois are pretty far down the list at 54 and 58, respectively.

So I suppose those are the games to prioritize, at least by this metric. I think I'll go through and find the most similar offenses and defenses to see if that turns up anything different.

That was faster than I expected. FEI grades offenses and defenses by first down rate, percentage of available yards, explosive drive rate, methodical drive rate, and value drive rate. On offense you want higher numbers, defense lower. So these are the offenses/defenses that are most similar to us in the way they gain/allow yards and blah blah. This is obviously rough so for entertainment value only.

On offense MSU is the closest at #17, then Indiana at #22. There's a giant gulf after that, until #56 Nebraska and #60 Wisconsin, so I guess the first two are the ones to focus on.

On defense we have MSU at #10, Pittsburgh at #12, Nebraska at #28, Minnesota at #36, Indiana at #38, Iowa State at #40, and Illinois at #46. Lots of similar defenses, not so many similar offenses. But everything is coming up with MSU being the closest parallel, which I suppose bodes well for Stanford.

[PrinceLightfoot]

Great work, stupac2!

[PrinceLightfoot]

Great work, stupac2!

[stupac2]

Great work, stupac2!

If you like this, check out the thread I just made...

[stupac2]

Great work, stupac2!

If you like this, check out the thread I just made...