[winflop]

I gave myself 24 hours to "calm down" before articulating more rational thoughts.

Friday night was a disaster. With McKee using a crutch on the sideline, I have no doubt that the players & coaches all knew he wouldn't play long before we did. The offensive coaches did a terrible job of getting the team mentally ready to play without him. Part of me felt like the players may have mailed it in on both sides of the ball.

I have more serious questions about Shaw's and especially Pritchard's judgment about QBs after Friday night than I ever did before. How in the world could you not see a delta between McKee and West? I'm sorry but their performances on the field this year are so night & day that I can't accept that they were competitive in practice. Even if practices were soft, West's deer in the headlights under pressure had to have emerged. This is just another nail in Pritchard's coffin for me.

Let Sanders throw the ball and play Patu if McKee isn't available. I never want to see Jack West under center again. He made a great 40-year decision,. I wish him nothing but success in his future, but he's not a D1 QB.

I have been told by someone in the program that practices this year are softer than they have ever been. The pendulum on player safety may have swung too far toward injury prevention that players are not physically well-prepared enough when gametime rolls around. Combine that with the challenges in S&C/training since Turley left, and I think these two issues and their combined effect lie at the core of our massive physical deficit in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

The coaches who put that snarl & nastiness in the program are long gone, all replaced by softer coaches - Harbaugh->Shaw, Mason->Anderson, Hart->Reynolds, Kotulski->Hansen(->Sanders), Bloomgren->Carberry(->Heffernan).

Shaw's not going anywhere, unless he wants to - at least as long as the spineless store-minder is our AD. I have no expectations that Shaw can bring back the first half of the last decade, but Stanford should be able to have winning records and occasionally 10+ wins. I don't see a way that happens unless there are major changes in the coaching staff and Shaw brings in a new OC and lets him run the offense. Sadly I don't see it happening.

Win Big Game is all I have left in the hope department. Notre Dame is going to eat our lunch, even if McKee is back. If McKee isn't back next Saturday, Oregon State will do the same.

[winflop]

I gave myself 24 hours to "calm down" before articulating more rational thoughts.

Friday night was a disaster. With McKee using a crutch on the sideline, I have no doubt that the players & coaches all knew he wouldn't play long before we did. The offensive coaches did a terrible job of getting the team mentally ready to play without him. Part of me felt like the players may have mailed it in on both sides of the ball.

I have more serious questions about Shaw's and especially Pritchard's judgment about QBs after Friday night than I ever did before. How in the world could you not see a delta between McKee and West? I'm sorry but their performances on the field this year are so night & day that I can't accept that they were competitive in practice. Even if practices were soft, West's deer in the headlights under pressure had to have emerged. This is just another nail in Pritchard's coffin for me.

Let Sanders throw the ball and play Patu if McKee isn't available. I never want to see Jack West under center again. He made a great 40-year decision,. I wish him nothing but success in his future, but he's not a D1 QB.

I have been told by someone in the program that practices this year are softer than they have ever been. The pendulum on player safety may have swung too far toward injury prevention that players are not physically well-prepared enough when gametime rolls around. Combine that with the challenges in S&C/training since Turley left, and I think these two issues and their combined effect lie at the core of our massive physical deficit in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

The coaches who put that snarl & nastiness in the program are long gone, all replaced by softer coaches - Harbaugh->Shaw, Mason->Anderson, Hart->Reynolds, Kotulski->Hansen(->Sanders), Bloomgren->Carberry(->Heffernan).

Shaw's not going anywhere, unless he wants to - at least as long as the spineless store-minder is our AD. I have no expectations that Shaw can bring back the first half of the last decade, but Stanford should be able to have winning records and occasionally 10+ wins. I don't see a way that happens unless there are major changes in the coaching staff and Shaw brings in a new OC and lets him run the offense. Sadly I don't see it happening.

Win Big Game is all I have left in the hope department. Notre Dame is going to eat our lunch, even if McKee is back. If McKee isn't back next Saturday, Oregon State will do the same.