08-20-2022, 08:47 AM
Reactions to the interview (dividing into two posts given board word count limits):
* Yep, crystal clear at this point that the overriding focus is on staying healthy. An open practice a few observations I've seen didn't think was particularly physical is the "pinnacle" of our training camp. We're doing a "mock game" week to get the players in the rhythm of that.....the week right before we do a real game week before the Colgate game. Three days on and one day off to the point that Shaw volunteered we're taking more days off than the NCAA requires. An obsession with minimizing the number of soft tissue injuries and using sport science to track practice reps. This camp is all about minimizing injuries.
* The question, of course, is how close we are to the optimal balance of preserving health and preparing for the intensity of a season where there will be contact and there will be injuries. It's impossible to know where that balance lies and when you've reached it. All of us, including Shaw, are guessing what's optimal. But I do fear that a defense that lamented horrible tackling last year isn't doing much fully live practicing and, more generally, that we treat our players too much like NFL professionals rather than the much less finished products they are who need live football to get better and to see who's suited for real action rather than just a standout in shorts.
* Shaw is the winningest coach in Stanford history and I'm not so what do I know but a mock game week right before a game week against a team that our scout team could roll out of bed and beat strikes me as somewhat silly. It really does seem like we're trying to minimize camp and get to the season healthy rather than use the NCAA-allowed practices to full effect. But that's a choice and it may be the right one. I've commented many times in the past that fans overrate practices at the risk of missing the reality, which is that game days reveal who the real players are and that changes much less season-to-season than many assume. Shaw is probably calculating that the vast majority of players we'll rely on (notable exception of DL) have been there and done that and keeping them healthy matters much more than getting them practice time.
* Bummer that amidst all this focus on staying healthy Metcalf and Ayomanor went down yesterday. Really good to hear Shaw say they don't seem as bad as originally feared but we'll see. If we go into the season without Aybar, Pogorelc, Metcalf, and Ayomanor I'd gladly take that. That would be tremendous luck to not be missing any starters. Metcalf being out, and hopefully it's not serious, is somewhat nerve-wracking because it leaves us vulnerable to an injury to Nugent, but in the grand scheme this would be extremely fortuitous injury luck.
* As we all know, the classic mystery and inscrutability of any practice is never being able to know whether something in practice constitutes success or failure since you're going up against yourself. My main reaction to that is to just not read very much into it. Nonetheless, it kind of raises alarm bells in my mind to hear about the defense holding its own in run defense against the offense. That shouldn't even be a close call given what each side has to offer. Another reason not to take this too seriously, though, is that the competition appears to have been a short yardage situational kind of thing. That takes out the element of surprise, allows personnel packages tailored to that situation, and, if I understand some railbird observations correctly, may have involved some Beau Nelson and/or Ashton Daniels wildcat, which is NOT 2022 Stanford football (or so we can hope).
* Shaw's list of the obvious things to improve on from last season is unobjectionable and certainly things we need to get better. I would note that they're all goals (improving run offense and run defense, being more consistent at OL, giving up fewer big plays on defense) and having the right goals is not the same thing as knowing how to address them/effectively addressing them. But as I've said previously, I'm past cynicism and am heading into the season at least relieved we know what the problems are. Just wait and see time to see what the result looks like when it matters.
* Yep, crystal clear at this point that the overriding focus is on staying healthy. An open practice a few observations I've seen didn't think was particularly physical is the "pinnacle" of our training camp. We're doing a "mock game" week to get the players in the rhythm of that.....the week right before we do a real game week before the Colgate game. Three days on and one day off to the point that Shaw volunteered we're taking more days off than the NCAA requires. An obsession with minimizing the number of soft tissue injuries and using sport science to track practice reps. This camp is all about minimizing injuries.
* The question, of course, is how close we are to the optimal balance of preserving health and preparing for the intensity of a season where there will be contact and there will be injuries. It's impossible to know where that balance lies and when you've reached it. All of us, including Shaw, are guessing what's optimal. But I do fear that a defense that lamented horrible tackling last year isn't doing much fully live practicing and, more generally, that we treat our players too much like NFL professionals rather than the much less finished products they are who need live football to get better and to see who's suited for real action rather than just a standout in shorts.
* Shaw is the winningest coach in Stanford history and I'm not so what do I know but a mock game week right before a game week against a team that our scout team could roll out of bed and beat strikes me as somewhat silly. It really does seem like we're trying to minimize camp and get to the season healthy rather than use the NCAA-allowed practices to full effect. But that's a choice and it may be the right one. I've commented many times in the past that fans overrate practices at the risk of missing the reality, which is that game days reveal who the real players are and that changes much less season-to-season than many assume. Shaw is probably calculating that the vast majority of players we'll rely on (notable exception of DL) have been there and done that and keeping them healthy matters much more than getting them practice time.
* Bummer that amidst all this focus on staying healthy Metcalf and Ayomanor went down yesterday. Really good to hear Shaw say they don't seem as bad as originally feared but we'll see. If we go into the season without Aybar, Pogorelc, Metcalf, and Ayomanor I'd gladly take that. That would be tremendous luck to not be missing any starters. Metcalf being out, and hopefully it's not serious, is somewhat nerve-wracking because it leaves us vulnerable to an injury to Nugent, but in the grand scheme this would be extremely fortuitous injury luck.
* As we all know, the classic mystery and inscrutability of any practice is never being able to know whether something in practice constitutes success or failure since you're going up against yourself. My main reaction to that is to just not read very much into it. Nonetheless, it kind of raises alarm bells in my mind to hear about the defense holding its own in run defense against the offense. That shouldn't even be a close call given what each side has to offer. Another reason not to take this too seriously, though, is that the competition appears to have been a short yardage situational kind of thing. That takes out the element of surprise, allows personnel packages tailored to that situation, and, if I understand some railbird observations correctly, may have involved some Beau Nelson and/or Ashton Daniels wildcat, which is NOT 2022 Stanford football (or so we can hope).
* Shaw's list of the obvious things to improve on from last season is unobjectionable and certainly things we need to get better. I would note that they're all goals (improving run offense and run defense, being more consistent at OL, giving up fewer big plays on defense) and having the right goals is not the same thing as knowing how to address them/effectively addressing them. But as I've said previously, I'm past cynicism and am heading into the season at least relieved we know what the problems are. Just wait and see time to see what the result looks like when it matters.