[CTcard]

I was already familiar with FPI's Strength of Victory, ...

What really got my eyebrows raised was that we're on this list. Yes, lowly Stanford, with our horrible 4-3 record and inability to score touchdowns, is ranked #24 by this method against the 8th hardest schedule in the country ...

I'm not saying this is gospel, but we knew that this schedule was brutal and while we're probably underperformed our talent level and definitely had some hard-to-watch games, there's some reason to be cautiously optimistic about where we are. Especially given how young this team is, 2017 could be a very fun season.

Couple of comments.

It's pretty clear that Stanford has at least one of the hardest schedules so far. Sagarin ranks our schedule as the #1 hardest, though that's just one rating. That's worth remembering in evaluating where we are so far. In itself, a close loss to Colorado isn't atrocious - though how it happened was awfully painful. I still am unsure just how the WSU debacle happened.

Broadly, I do think there is reason for optimism for 2017. We have a lot coming back. On the Arizona depth chart I see only 4 final year starters on offense and defense (Rector, Caspers, Owusu, Lloyd) and another 5 on the depth chart anywhere (Harrell, Watkins, Kaumatule, Davis, Hoffpaiur).
That's still rather light losses even if the possible juniors-to-the-NFL go; I really think there are only two of those.
We had a good recruiting class in 2016 which will start making an impact.
And of course we ought to be healthier. Holder, for example, isn't even on the depth chart anymore and lots of guys are clearly not 100%.
And of course there is that whole odd year boost thing (2011, 2013, and 2015 all very good).

Of course somewhere we need to find a QB. There will be some highly recruited options - whether or not that means anything.

[CTcard]

I was already familiar with FPI's Strength of Victory, ...

What really got my eyebrows raised was that we're on this list. Yes, lowly Stanford, with our horrible 4-3 record and inability to score touchdowns, is ranked #24 by this method against the 8th hardest schedule in the country ...

I'm not saying this is gospel, but we knew that this schedule was brutal and while we're probably underperformed our talent level and definitely had some hard-to-watch games, there's some reason to be cautiously optimistic about where we are. Especially given how young this team is, 2017 could be a very fun season.

Couple of comments.

It's pretty clear that Stanford has at least one of the hardest schedules so far. Sagarin ranks our schedule as the #1 hardest, though that's just one rating. That's worth remembering in evaluating where we are so far. In itself, a close loss to Colorado isn't atrocious - though how it happened was awfully painful. I still am unsure just how the WSU debacle happened.

Broadly, I do think there is reason for optimism for 2017. We have a lot coming back. On the Arizona depth chart I see only 4 final year starters on offense and defense (Rector, Caspers, Owusu, Lloyd) and another 5 on the depth chart anywhere (Harrell, Watkins, Kaumatule, Davis, Hoffpaiur).
That's still rather light losses even if the possible juniors-to-the-NFL go; I really think there are only two of those.
We had a good recruiting class in 2016 which will start making an impact.
And of course we ought to be healthier. Holder, for example, isn't even on the depth chart anymore and lots of guys are clearly not 100%.
And of course there is that whole odd year boost thing (2011, 2013, and 2015 all very good).

Of course somewhere we need to find a QB. There will be some highly recruited options - whether or not that means anything.