09-11-2022, 09:42 PM
I will tip my had to Shaw and co for implementing the RPO and running it reasonably well last night. It clearly threw the Trojans off and we had some great drives. The issue for the O (again) was taking care of the damn football and punching it into the end zone when we are within the 5 yard line. EJ's fumbles and McKee's Int's cost us, otherwise we are in a shootout.
The D on the other hand, was downright ugly. Lance and co, better be working on some new schemes over the bye week as that defense was as bad as I've seen at Stanford in a long, long time. Special teams, although better yesterday than they were vs the fighting toothpaste, still has room to improve. The onside kick was horribly executed and what was Filkens thinking as he fair caught that last punt inside the five?
Transfer portal, NIL and Alston: I don't see Stanford adjusting much to any of these issues, with maybe the exception being some Alston payment level. The cost is too high to fund/promote the last two areas across all 36 sports. We won't recruit mercenaries like SC and throw out admission standards for talented transfers (as if $C had standards). The stat came out on Friday that something like 44% of last years eligible QBs had entered the portal! I think the only thing that can help us is Congress getting involved in this arms race, and that won't happen before the mid-terms...if at all.
The only path that I see is that Shaw and co need to really double down on the recruiting up front. I don't think he's hungry enough to actually do that, but we need some marquee players to pick Stanford in order to turn this thing around. Toby, Luck, CMac, Love.....it's been way too long. Great to see Andrew being honored and here's hoping he can join the staff, even as a Grad Assistant, to hep rebuild. We need him!
The D on the other hand, was downright ugly. Lance and co, better be working on some new schemes over the bye week as that defense was as bad as I've seen at Stanford in a long, long time. Special teams, although better yesterday than they were vs the fighting toothpaste, still has room to improve. The onside kick was horribly executed and what was Filkens thinking as he fair caught that last punt inside the five?
Transfer portal, NIL and Alston: I don't see Stanford adjusting much to any of these issues, with maybe the exception being some Alston payment level. The cost is too high to fund/promote the last two areas across all 36 sports. We won't recruit mercenaries like SC and throw out admission standards for talented transfers (as if $C had standards). The stat came out on Friday that something like 44% of last years eligible QBs had entered the portal! I think the only thing that can help us is Congress getting involved in this arms race, and that won't happen before the mid-terms...if at all.
The only path that I see is that Shaw and co need to really double down on the recruiting up front. I don't think he's hungry enough to actually do that, but we need some marquee players to pick Stanford in order to turn this thing around. Toby, Luck, CMac, Love.....it's been way too long. Great to see Andrew being honored and here's hoping he can join the staff, even as a Grad Assistant, to hep rebuild. We need him!