[Goose]

McKee gives them a chance in games this year.  Having a top flight QB generally will.  But it doesn’t make up for a lack of being physical and a lack of team speed.  They can and should recruit hard to solve the former. Speed is always harder for Stanford.


So if it’s me, I go back to the old blueprint. Recruit and aim towards power football. And stick to it. It’s not sexy.  But it’s the only way, IMO they can consistently win.

I think that Shaw did in fact try to retain the blueprint as long as he could. Remember the yelling on the Cardboard about slamming CMac and Love into "stacked" boxes? One problem is we have not been able to recruit the personnel to play that style of football. High Schools are playing more spread offenses and as a result the ground and pound guys aren't there, both on the line and in the backfield. We also haven't had a Toby Gerhart, Stephan Taylor, or even a Ty Gaffney running the ball. Shaw kept trying, but it just wasn't working. He evolved not because he wanted to but because he had to.

It has been said our recruiting on the OL has not been as high quality as it was in years past. I don't think that is true. We have recruited several highly ranked players on the OL that either didn't work out at all or never lived up to expectations. Many of the Harbaugh era linemen were not particularly highly ranked recruits as I recall it. They just played with an edge. Right now, our OL appears to be very passive. This is a culture thing, but it is pretty clear to me that with the offensive lines we have had since 2015 playing smash-mouth football wasn't going to work. It may be we have not recruited enough OL players to allow us to sort out who can actually play. Whatever we are doing, it isn't working.

It is probably true with the OL play we are getting right now, no matter what philosophy the offense has, we are in trouble. With 190 lb running backs we aren't moving many piles, either. We are reverting to the Stanford of old, where a good QB and a few good receivers give us a puncher's chance to win. I am equally sure that Shaw knows this, and really doesn't much like it. He is on his third OL coach in recent years. I think that says something. I agree that Stanford needs an effective OL that can both pass block and run block. I think that in today's game we need to throw the ball more than we did in the "golden" past. However, Harbaugh's greatest successes (and also Shaw's) happened when we could dictate the tempo. You can do that several ways, including throwing the ball, but we need to do it.

[Goose]

McKee gives them a chance in games this year.  Having a top flight QB generally will.  But it doesn’t make up for a lack of being physical and a lack of team speed.  They can and should recruit hard to solve the former. Speed is always harder for Stanford.


So if it’s me, I go back to the old blueprint. Recruit and aim towards power football. And stick to it. It’s not sexy.  But it’s the only way, IMO they can consistently win.

I think that Shaw did in fact try to retain the blueprint as long as he could. Remember the yelling on the Cardboard about slamming CMac and Love into "stacked" boxes? One problem is we have not been able to recruit the personnel to play that style of football. High Schools are playing more spread offenses and as a result the ground and pound guys aren't there, both on the line and in the backfield. We also haven't had a Toby Gerhart, Stephan Taylor, or even a Ty Gaffney running the ball. Shaw kept trying, but it just wasn't working. He evolved not because he wanted to but because he had to.

It has been said our recruiting on the OL has not been as high quality as it was in years past. I don't think that is true. We have recruited several highly ranked players on the OL that either didn't work out at all or never lived up to expectations. Many of the Harbaugh era linemen were not particularly highly ranked recruits as I recall it. They just played with an edge. Right now, our OL appears to be very passive. This is a culture thing, but it is pretty clear to me that with the offensive lines we have had since 2015 playing smash-mouth football wasn't going to work. It may be we have not recruited enough OL players to allow us to sort out who can actually play. Whatever we are doing, it isn't working.

It is probably true with the OL play we are getting right now, no matter what philosophy the offense has, we are in trouble. With 190 lb running backs we aren't moving many piles, either. We are reverting to the Stanford of old, where a good QB and a few good receivers give us a puncher's chance to win. I am equally sure that Shaw knows this, and really doesn't much like it. He is on his third OL coach in recent years. I think that says something. I agree that Stanford needs an effective OL that can both pass block and run block. I think that in today's game we need to throw the ball more than we did in the "golden" past. However, Harbaugh's greatest successes (and also Shaw's) happened when we could dictate the tempo. You can do that several ways, including throwing the ball, but we need to do it.