[msqueri]

Thanks for your well considered response.  My takeaway is that, on the whole, we agree much more than we disagree, and wanted to highlight two areas of vehement agreement.

1) its multi factorial.  There’s a tendency among fans (and I fall victim to it myself) of thinking that things would be better if we could just fix this one little thing. On this board, it is often ascribed to the offensive playcalling, which would actually be pretty far down on my list of priorities to fix.  When there is that big a gap between performance in 2015 (arguably our apex) and 2021 (hopefully our bottom, but I may be optimistic), it isn’t one thing that went to crap.

2) the defensive decline has been more colossal than our offensive struggles (which, are a contributor, see above).  Again, this board like to ascribe issues to offense, even though it is our defense which, per your analysis, has gone from elite (top 10) to gawd awful (90’s or worse).  I think it might be a bit fanciful to hope for a top-20 caliber defense again, but if we can at least get it back to respectability, that would go a long way to regaining a sustainable program.

3) the retention problem that I discussed earlier.

Thanks for your thoughts.

BC

Indeed, vehement agreement here on the broad points.

I don't rule out a top 20 defense. Stanford has been pretty good at defense in 1992, 1996, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016. Given our level of defensive recruiting, including, notably, the players in the pipeline who have yet to step on the field, I think top 20 is doable with good coaching. My problem is I don't see that coaching coming from Anderson. But I think if Stanford had a really good defensive coordinator/coaching staff our level of talent could certainly produce occasional top 20 defensive seasons.

But the coaching would have to be really good, which it currently isn't and is not easy to identify/attract/retain. In today's day and age (with the Pac-12's decline) we're talking about 1-2 Pac-12 defenses a year that gets to this level. Jimmy Lake had Washington on that level. Kyle Whittingham/Morgan Scalley have Utah at that level. Since Stanford's last defense at that level (2016), aside from Washington and Utah only a few other Pac-12 teams have reached it for single seasons (Washington State in 2017, Cal in 2018, Oregon in 2019). The rarity of it is daunting, but that Stanford's defensive talent going forward looks to be better than what Washington State and Cal had to work with shows that the right coaching can get you there.

I would have liked to have seen what we could have done if we moved on from Anderson and replaced him with a proven Group of Five or FCS coordinator (Kurt Mattix, Corey Hetherman, etc.) or tried to be quite bold and backed up the truck for a proven guy coming off head coach failure and/or disgrace due to personal conduct (Jimmy Lake, Derek Mason, DJ Durkin). I think you give one of those guys the talent we've recruited and Stanford's 2023 and 2024 defenses very well could be very good. With Lance Anderson, I have trouble seeing him getting those defenses past mediocre.

[msqueri]

Thanks for your well considered response.  My takeaway is that, on the whole, we agree much more than we disagree, and wanted to highlight two areas of vehement agreement.

1) its multi factorial.  There’s a tendency among fans (and I fall victim to it myself) of thinking that things would be better if we could just fix this one little thing. On this board, it is often ascribed to the offensive playcalling, which would actually be pretty far down on my list of priorities to fix.  When there is that big a gap between performance in 2015 (arguably our apex) and 2021 (hopefully our bottom, but I may be optimistic), it isn’t one thing that went to crap.

2) the defensive decline has been more colossal than our offensive struggles (which, are a contributor, see above).  Again, this board like to ascribe issues to offense, even though it is our defense which, per your analysis, has gone from elite (top 10) to gawd awful (90’s or worse).  I think it might be a bit fanciful to hope for a top-20 caliber defense again, but if we can at least get it back to respectability, that would go a long way to regaining a sustainable program.

3) the retention problem that I discussed earlier.

Thanks for your thoughts.

BC

Indeed, vehement agreement here on the broad points.

I don't rule out a top 20 defense. Stanford has been pretty good at defense in 1992, 1996, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016. Given our level of defensive recruiting, including, notably, the players in the pipeline who have yet to step on the field, I think top 20 is doable with good coaching. My problem is I don't see that coaching coming from Anderson. But I think if Stanford had a really good defensive coordinator/coaching staff our level of talent could certainly produce occasional top 20 defensive seasons.

But the coaching would have to be really good, which it currently isn't and is not easy to identify/attract/retain. In today's day and age (with the Pac-12's decline) we're talking about 1-2 Pac-12 defenses a year that gets to this level. Jimmy Lake had Washington on that level. Kyle Whittingham/Morgan Scalley have Utah at that level. Since Stanford's last defense at that level (2016), aside from Washington and Utah only a few other Pac-12 teams have reached it for single seasons (Washington State in 2017, Cal in 2018, Oregon in 2019). The rarity of it is daunting, but that Stanford's defensive talent going forward looks to be better than what Washington State and Cal had to work with shows that the right coaching can get you there.

I would have liked to have seen what we could have done if we moved on from Anderson and replaced him with a proven Group of Five or FCS coordinator (Kurt Mattix, Corey Hetherman, etc.) or tried to be quite bold and backed up the truck for a proven guy coming off head coach failure and/or disgrace due to personal conduct (Jimmy Lake, Derek Mason, DJ Durkin). I think you give one of those guys the talent we've recruited and Stanford's 2023 and 2024 defenses very well could be very good. With Lance Anderson, I have trouble seeing him getting those defenses past mediocre.