[cardcrimson]

I feel like people are jumping off a cliff here. It’s been 4 years of poor execution on the field. It’s clear and obvious the talent on the field is there. The coaching and talent progression has been poor. 

There’s no reason to believe we can’t continue to compete at the D1 level with improvement in the coaching staff.

"It’s clear and obvious the talent on the field is there."

with all due respect, it is clear and obvious the talent on the field is seriously lacking as compared with (1) many of our opponents, and (2) our successful teams from the recent past.

the most noticeable issues i see are (1) the overall lack of team speed & quickness as compared with, for example, u$c, oregon & ucla (and we will see it again against utah), (2) poor offensive line coaching, and (3) the worst defensive line play, and perhaps talent, in recent memory.  the dl is just getting pushed around.  so perhaps a strength issue as well.

Put me in the "clear and obvious we have talent" camp. I'm not saying it's USC level talent or Stanford glory years level talent, but it's very competitive Pac-12 talent. Free your mind from comparing to Shaw Rose Bowl teams and think about Stanford's 1960-2007 level teams. Do you not think our talent is noticeably lacking compared with that? To my mind, we are a bit more talented on defense than the historical Stanford norm, a mixed bag on offense, and clearly deeper almost everywhere except QB and RB than what Stanford had pre-Harbaugh (recall that almost half of our rosters for all of eternity were Group of Five level or worse recruits).

I'm not so sure on the talent. Throughout many of those years we had some great players: Plunkett, Vataha, Lofton, Elway, Nelson, Margerum, Vardell. And some good ones: Benjamin, Schoenert, Dils, Edwards, Husak, Stenstrom, Muster, Milbyrn, Hill, McCaffery, Walters, Johnson. And those are just O skill position players. 

One thing all those guys had was the ability to generate excitement. Do we have anyone on the roster who is at those levels? Do we have anyone who generates excitement at all? Who is even mildly interesting to watch at this moment?

[cardcrimson]

I feel like people are jumping off a cliff here. It’s been 4 years of poor execution on the field. It’s clear and obvious the talent on the field is there. The coaching and talent progression has been poor. 

There’s no reason to believe we can’t continue to compete at the D1 level with improvement in the coaching staff.

"It’s clear and obvious the talent on the field is there."

with all due respect, it is clear and obvious the talent on the field is seriously lacking as compared with (1) many of our opponents, and (2) our successful teams from the recent past.

the most noticeable issues i see are (1) the overall lack of team speed & quickness as compared with, for example, u$c, oregon & ucla (and we will see it again against utah), (2) poor offensive line coaching, and (3) the worst defensive line play, and perhaps talent, in recent memory.  the dl is just getting pushed around.  so perhaps a strength issue as well.

Put me in the "clear and obvious we have talent" camp. I'm not saying it's USC level talent or Stanford glory years level talent, but it's very competitive Pac-12 talent. Free your mind from comparing to Shaw Rose Bowl teams and think about Stanford's 1960-2007 level teams. Do you not think our talent is noticeably lacking compared with that? To my mind, we are a bit more talented on defense than the historical Stanford norm, a mixed bag on offense, and clearly deeper almost everywhere except QB and RB than what Stanford had pre-Harbaugh (recall that almost half of our rosters for all of eternity were Group of Five level or worse recruits).

I'm not so sure on the talent. Throughout many of those years we had some great players: Plunkett, Vataha, Lofton, Elway, Nelson, Margerum, Vardell. And some good ones: Benjamin, Schoenert, Dils, Edwards, Husak, Stenstrom, Muster, Milbyrn, Hill, McCaffery, Walters, Johnson. And those are just O skill position players. 

One thing all those guys had was the ability to generate excitement. Do we have anyone on the roster who is at those levels? Do we have anyone who generates excitement at all? Who is even mildly interesting to watch at this moment?