[81alum]

It is difficult for me to imagine us having a Stanford-level successful season without major contributions from our freshmen.  On the other hand, even the best freshmen take time to adjust to college ball.  We saw it with Nneka and Chiney, etc., who improved markedly over their frosh years.

So I generally support the idea that end-loading our schedule could be to our advantage.  But it all will come to naught unless we generally stay healthy, and VG has a good point that we could get beaten up in all those physical games.

This league is hard to predict.  Losing to Utah last year, and watching Arizona improve by leaps and bounds, seeing Oregon and Oregon State reload--the competition comes from every direction.  I'm happy playing the Washington schools twice since it seems (?) that they are not yet as difficult as the mountain schools or the Arizona schools.  I'm not unhappy about playing the LA schools once since USC seems to always play maul-ball and since UCLA with Onyenwere and Dean are an elite threat--and we have them at home.

The schedule could be a lot worse, in my opinion.  But ultimately, we now have the talent to beat everyone on the schedule, at home or away, and so the schedule matters less than the speed and success of player development.

[81alum]

It is difficult for me to imagine us having a Stanford-level successful season without major contributions from our freshmen.  On the other hand, even the best freshmen take time to adjust to college ball.  We saw it with Nneka and Chiney, etc., who improved markedly over their frosh years.

So I generally support the idea that end-loading our schedule could be to our advantage.  But it all will come to naught unless we generally stay healthy, and VG has a good point that we could get beaten up in all those physical games.

This league is hard to predict.  Losing to Utah last year, and watching Arizona improve by leaps and bounds, seeing Oregon and Oregon State reload--the competition comes from every direction.  I'm happy playing the Washington schools twice since it seems (?) that they are not yet as difficult as the mountain schools or the Arizona schools.  I'm not unhappy about playing the LA schools once since USC seems to always play maul-ball and since UCLA with Onyenwere and Dean are an elite threat--and we have them at home.

The schedule could be a lot worse, in my opinion.  But ultimately, we now have the talent to beat everyone on the schedule, at home or away, and so the schedule matters less than the speed and success of player development.