[OutsiderFan]

Costello was always a better prospect then Chryst. Costello should have been the starter in 2017 from the Rice game on, and I am not saying that in hindsight This was my opinion at the time. Costello is more decisive, is a quicker athlete, is a more accurate passer, plays with passion that inspires his teammates, and when he played, he proved he was better than Chryst. He's only going to get better. And for the record, I also believe Davis Mills is better than Costello. Stanford should be in pretty good shape at QB the next few seasons at least.

That's revisionist history...

Not for me. Here's was my take on Chryst...

A guy who's opinion I trust saw Chryst play in person in high school a few times and said that yes, physically he had everything, but he was actually chronically overrated as a recruit.  And it isn't the end all stat, but Chryst didn't even complete 60% of his passes in any year as a starter at Paly, in not the toughest league. That's kind of a red flag to me. I was willing to accept he might get better with college coaching, etc., but was quite skeptical.

Then I saw a Spring practice in March 2016. The QBs participating were Burns and Chryst. They looked the same to me, almost like mirror images of one another. I was rooting for Chryst to be named the starter because he was such a higher rated prospect than Burns, and he didn't have to learn how to play QB like Burns did coming from a single wing offense in high school. In this Spring practice Burns took off running too soon (though when he did he ran much better than Chryst) and didn't have good feel for the position. Not that Chryst clearly did, but he just "seemed" he would be better.  

When Burns was named the starter in 2016 I was hopeful.  I figured he's a much better runner than Chryst, but I felt Chryst was the better passer, so if Burns faltered Chryst might prove himself in games. You saw the results. Burns had one half of good play against KSU and that miraculous 2-minute drill to beat UCLA, and that was that. He was brutal the rest of his Stanford career. In came Chryst after the Colorado debacle, to play some really bad defenses. If Burns was a 2 on a scale of 1-10, Chryst was maybe a 3 or 4.  That's simply not good enough. So based on thinking they were pretty even in that Spring practice, and seeing how bad Burns and Chryst were in games, I strongly believed a change was needed.

Meanwhile, Costello was redshirting during that 2016 season. How could he not be better than both Burns and Chryst? I had compared their high school reels to each other, and it was pretty clear to me Costello was the better prospect and Chryst was rated incorrectly. When you threw in what Chryst did in games, and coming off an ACL surgery, I wanted Costello to start against Rice and be the starter in 2017 - fully aware that Davis Mills might actually be even better than Costello in 2018 and beyond - because he to me was clearly the better prospect.

So, no, it's not revisionist history for me. Ever since comparing Costello and Chryst after that 2016 season, based on what I had gathered, my belief was Costello was the better prospect, regardless of what the scouting service ratings said about them as recruits.

[OutsiderFan]

Costello was always a better prospect then Chryst. Costello should have been the starter in 2017 from the Rice game on, and I am not saying that in hindsight This was my opinion at the time. Costello is more decisive, is a quicker athlete, is a more accurate passer, plays with passion that inspires his teammates, and when he played, he proved he was better than Chryst. He's only going to get better. And for the record, I also believe Davis Mills is better than Costello. Stanford should be in pretty good shape at QB the next few seasons at least.

That's revisionist history...

Not for me. Here's was my take on Chryst...

A guy who's opinion I trust saw Chryst play in person in high school a few times and said that yes, physically he had everything, but he was actually chronically overrated as a recruit.  And it isn't the end all stat, but Chryst didn't even complete 60% of his passes in any year as a starter at Paly, in not the toughest league. That's kind of a red flag to me. I was willing to accept he might get better with college coaching, etc., but was quite skeptical.

Then I saw a Spring practice in March 2016. The QBs participating were Burns and Chryst. They looked the same to me, almost like mirror images of one another. I was rooting for Chryst to be named the starter because he was such a higher rated prospect than Burns, and he didn't have to learn how to play QB like Burns did coming from a single wing offense in high school. In this Spring practice Burns took off running too soon (though when he did he ran much better than Chryst) and didn't have good feel for the position. Not that Chryst clearly did, but he just "seemed" he would be better.  

When Burns was named the starter in 2016 I was hopeful.  I figured he's a much better runner than Chryst, but I felt Chryst was the better passer, so if Burns faltered Chryst might prove himself in games. You saw the results. Burns had one half of good play against KSU and that miraculous 2-minute drill to beat UCLA, and that was that. He was brutal the rest of his Stanford career. In came Chryst after the Colorado debacle, to play some really bad defenses. If Burns was a 2 on a scale of 1-10, Chryst was maybe a 3 or 4.  That's simply not good enough. So based on thinking they were pretty even in that Spring practice, and seeing how bad Burns and Chryst were in games, I strongly believed a change was needed.

Meanwhile, Costello was redshirting during that 2016 season. How could he not be better than both Burns and Chryst? I had compared their high school reels to each other, and it was pretty clear to me Costello was the better prospect and Chryst was rated incorrectly. When you threw in what Chryst did in games, and coming off an ACL surgery, I wanted Costello to start against Rice and be the starter in 2017 - fully aware that Davis Mills might actually be even better than Costello in 2018 and beyond - because he to me was clearly the better prospect.

So, no, it's not revisionist history for me. Ever since comparing Costello and Chryst after that 2016 season, based on what I had gathered, my belief was Costello was the better prospect, regardless of what the scouting service ratings said about them as recruits.