[Goose]

I'm as down on Chryst and want to see Costello as much as anyone, but it must be acknowledged that though it sure doesn't seem to be impacting Bryce Love,

I can't agree here. Love isn't getting the consistent, chain moving runs that Stanford needs. Home run or punt won't work if you only get the home run 20% of the time. Our defense will collapse.  We get in third and 3, run Love, and he gets stuffed. Worse, we get in 3rd and long and can't run Love. It is pretty clear that all this shuffling is a (desperate) attempt to find a combination that works. After fall camp, the coaches apparently thought they had one, or at least were keeping the issue quiet. Now it is pretty clear that all options are on the table, as nothing has yet really worked.
It may be that Stanford doesn't have a defensive line that can challenge our OL adequately to evaluate players against "real" competition, so the coaches can't tell what will actually work(?). Last year, it appeared that Thomas just shredded the OL in practice so much that it was hard to tell if anything worked. As it turned out, while Thomas was good, the OL was also bad. This year, it looked better, but maybe because the DL wasn't as good. I can't tell if it is missed assignments or just getting physically beat, but is sure seems it is just getting physically beat (speed/power) a lot of the time. Supposedly U$C was stunting a lot in the second half, and that gave us problems, but even before that, we didn't look good. Comments welcomed!

[Goose]

I'm as down on Chryst and want to see Costello as much as anyone, but it must be acknowledged that though it sure doesn't seem to be impacting Bryce Love,

I can't agree here. Love isn't getting the consistent, chain moving runs that Stanford needs. Home run or punt won't work if you only get the home run 20% of the time. Our defense will collapse.  We get in third and 3, run Love, and he gets stuffed. Worse, we get in 3rd and long and can't run Love. It is pretty clear that all this shuffling is a (desperate) attempt to find a combination that works. After fall camp, the coaches apparently thought they had one, or at least were keeping the issue quiet. Now it is pretty clear that all options are on the table, as nothing has yet really worked.
It may be that Stanford doesn't have a defensive line that can challenge our OL adequately to evaluate players against "real" competition, so the coaches can't tell what will actually work(?). Last year, it appeared that Thomas just shredded the OL in practice so much that it was hard to tell if anything worked. As it turned out, while Thomas was good, the OL was also bad. This year, it looked better, but maybe because the DL wasn't as good. I can't tell if it is missed assignments or just getting physically beat, but is sure seems it is just getting physically beat (speed/power) a lot of the time. Supposedly U$C was stunting a lot in the second half, and that gave us problems, but even before that, we didn't look good. Comments welcomed!