[Bruce Wang]

We often lament that guys leave after 3 years (or sometimes 4 years), instead of staying for 5 like in the olden days.  Well, one solution is to recruit players who want to attend a mission before college.  Even if Clegg and Lyons end up leaving Stanford after 3 years, they'll still be 23 years old by the time they do so, and they will have played as "grown men," not 18 year-old freshmen.  Stanford needs more talent on the field immediately, so I'll be disappointed if it turns out that the two top recruits in the class both are really in the class of '25, but there is a bright side.

One problem with players returning from a mission is that they have not played for two years and generally have been unable to work out enough to remain anywhere close to "football shape". While they can hit it hard when they return, rapidly building up strength to play on the OL or DL can be a problem. It just takes some time no matter how much "want to" is present.

One pattern I noticed is that if a young Mormon student athlete choses Stanford, the elders send him to some malnourished third world country.  The BYU commits and other VIPs just somehow randomly end up in the first world.  Take Mitt Romney as an example, whose father was Chairman of American Motors and Governor of Michigan.  Mittens served his mission in Bordeaux, France.

[Bruce Wang]

We often lament that guys leave after 3 years (or sometimes 4 years), instead of staying for 5 like in the olden days.  Well, one solution is to recruit players who want to attend a mission before college.  Even if Clegg and Lyons end up leaving Stanford after 3 years, they'll still be 23 years old by the time they do so, and they will have played as "grown men," not 18 year-old freshmen.  Stanford needs more talent on the field immediately, so I'll be disappointed if it turns out that the two top recruits in the class both are really in the class of '25, but there is a bright side.

One problem with players returning from a mission is that they have not played for two years and generally have been unable to work out enough to remain anywhere close to "football shape". While they can hit it hard when they return, rapidly building up strength to play on the OL or DL can be a problem. It just takes some time no matter how much "want to" is present.

One pattern I noticed is that if a young Mormon student athlete choses Stanford, the elders send him to some malnourished third world country.  The BYU commits and other VIPs just somehow randomly end up in the first world.  Take Mitt Romney as an example, whose father was Chairman of American Motors and Governor of Michigan.  Mittens served his mission in Bordeaux, France.