It’s a silly article. It comes off that he has had this bone to pick, and with Stanford playing UC Davis, it finally gives him an opportunity to express this opinion and grind this axe. Even though, actually, the point doesn’t apply to this game.
The reason the criticism doesn’t apply is that it’s a local game. A lot of the tradition of sports is that you play teams that are nearby. Sometimes you have these mismatches. I don’t mind Oregon playing Portland State. Why fly all the way across the country. One week, sports writers are complaining that student athletes spend too much time traveling, which cuts into their studying.The next week sports writers are complaining that teams are unfairly playing against a better team that happens to be a just a couple hours away. It clearly would make sense for Stanford to play San Jose State, and UC Davis beat SJ State by a lot.
Additionally, with this game in particular, I don’t think there such a tremendous size mismatch. A few years ago a different Davis coach said they were trying to model their program based on Stanford‘s, and now, I see a lot of striking similarities. They clearly recruit size. They try to run a power running game. They have big tall receivers. They have big lineman. They have a star receiver who is going to play in the NFL. Some people called him the best receiver at any level. And they have a good quarterback who can zing him the ball. It seems perfectly reasonable that these NFL prospects should have the opportunity to play against a strong Power 5 opponent.
It feels like it was just an article he wrote years ago, waiting to save it for some kind of San Jose State flying out to Alabama game, and he didn’t bother to actually familiarize himself with this game or the current UC Davis team, and he had a deadline this week, so he just dug it up even though it doesn’t apply to this game because it’s a local game, with competitively-sized Davis players, and some futute nfl talent that some have called the best in the nation.
The reason the criticism doesn’t apply is that it’s a local game. A lot of the tradition of sports is that you play teams that are nearby. Sometimes you have these mismatches. I don’t mind Oregon playing Portland State. Why fly all the way across the country. One week, sports writers are complaining that student athletes spend too much time traveling, which cuts into their studying.The next week sports writers are complaining that teams are unfairly playing against a better team that happens to be a just a couple hours away. It clearly would make sense for Stanford to play San Jose State, and UC Davis beat SJ State by a lot.
Additionally, with this game in particular, I don’t think there such a tremendous size mismatch. A few years ago a different Davis coach said they were trying to model their program based on Stanford‘s, and now, I see a lot of striking similarities. They clearly recruit size. They try to run a power running game. They have big tall receivers. They have big lineman. They have a star receiver who is going to play in the NFL. Some people called him the best receiver at any level. And they have a good quarterback who can zing him the ball. It seems perfectly reasonable that these NFL prospects should have the opportunity to play against a strong Power 5 opponent.
It feels like it was just an article he wrote years ago, waiting to save it for some kind of San Jose State flying out to Alabama game, and he didn’t bother to actually familiarize himself with this game or the current UC Davis team, and he had a deadline this week, so he just dug it up even though it doesn’t apply to this game because it’s a local game, with competitively-sized Davis players, and some futute nfl talent that some have called the best in the nation.