[qwerty49]

Just about everything's been said on this thread, but I'll add my two cents that expectations, like karma, are a b*tch.  After reading glowing reports about our highly rated teams in MSOC, WSOC, MWP and WVB, I was wildly hoping this would be the year we got some real separation from UCLA in the race for all-time NCAA team championships.  But we "only" got one of those four.

I suppose the football analogy is to get your hopes up after starting 4-0, then die the death of a thousand cuts as we pretty clearly regress to the mean after that.

And the context varies with how long you've been watching this stuff.  Heck, before Plunkett came we were pretty mediocre for a long time.  And there was a vast dry spell where we couldn't even make a bowl with Elway at QB.  Between Wiggin and Willingham there wasn't a lot to write home about.  And of course Buddy and Wlat, in juxtaposition to Harbs, were as painful as it gets.  If you just started watching Stanford in the last 10-12 years you might be tempted to diss an 8-4 season.  If you have a longer fan memory, maybe not.

Sure, there's a lot of coulda-woulda-shoulda this year.  We coulda won a couple of games we lost, and we coulda lost one game that we won.  We woulda done better if Bryce had been healthy.  Our OL shoulda been way better, but for whatever reason it wasn't.

Here's a thought -- how much angst do we have to absorb?  If we were in the Rose Bowl, with all those starters out for one reason or another, getting pounded by Ohio State, would everyone still feel better?

[qwerty49]

Just about everything's been said on this thread, but I'll add my two cents that expectations, like karma, are a b*tch.  After reading glowing reports about our highly rated teams in MSOC, WSOC, MWP and WVB, I was wildly hoping this would be the year we got some real separation from UCLA in the race for all-time NCAA team championships.  But we "only" got one of those four.

I suppose the football analogy is to get your hopes up after starting 4-0, then die the death of a thousand cuts as we pretty clearly regress to the mean after that.

And the context varies with how long you've been watching this stuff.  Heck, before Plunkett came we were pretty mediocre for a long time.  And there was a vast dry spell where we couldn't even make a bowl with Elway at QB.  Between Wiggin and Willingham there wasn't a lot to write home about.  And of course Buddy and Wlat, in juxtaposition to Harbs, were as painful as it gets.  If you just started watching Stanford in the last 10-12 years you might be tempted to diss an 8-4 season.  If you have a longer fan memory, maybe not.

Sure, there's a lot of coulda-woulda-shoulda this year.  We coulda won a couple of games we lost, and we coulda lost one game that we won.  We woulda done better if Bryce had been healthy.  Our OL shoulda been way better, but for whatever reason it wasn't.

Here's a thought -- how much angst do we have to absorb?  If we were in the Rose Bowl, with all those starters out for one reason or another, getting pounded by Ohio State, would everyone still feel better?