It is a sad year for Stanford football. One of the things that makes it a sad year is the fact that it has occurred on the heels of a other sad years as a result of errors in recruiting and personnel management, hiring and managing (and not replacing) various coaches, maintenance of health and development of physical strength in players, playcalling (though that is, IMHO, not as big as the other issues), and player development (for the most part), and the presence of a general malaise (it seems) on the team. I don't know precisely what the solution is (I have some ideas), but I am particularly disappointed in Bernard Muir, who I think, it has to be acknowledged, has done a poor job as AD for a bevy of reasons. (I, personally, do not agree with the counterpoint that he has done a good job because we have continued to do well in many (most?) sports that are not football and basketball, the main revenue earners. I think several of those sports would do well even if I were AD.)
At any rate, I wanted to put all that out there because it does not change the fact that it is BIG GAME today. For the coaches and players and students and alumni and community fans, this still means something. My freshman year, we were 2-8 heading into Big Game. It was Denny Green's first year as head coach, and even though the results were not good (even our two wins were nailbiters), he had us headed in a good direction. You could feel it. Attendance that year at games was far better than it was this year. And there was a sense that, even though it was not a good year, a win over Cal would be a nice consolation and momentum toward next year.
Maybe that is something we can look for today. The joy it can bring our players and the few students and alums (and other fans) in the stands. Maybe a naive peek at some positives as we move forward. Mostly, a chance to humiliate Cal.
I think that the odds are against us winning this game. But I can hope. Because beating the Dirty Golden Bear in his house would be a nice balm to the sore of this season...
-m.
At any rate, I wanted to put all that out there because it does not change the fact that it is BIG GAME today. For the coaches and players and students and alumni and community fans, this still means something. My freshman year, we were 2-8 heading into Big Game. It was Denny Green's first year as head coach, and even though the results were not good (even our two wins were nailbiters), he had us headed in a good direction. You could feel it. Attendance that year at games was far better than it was this year. And there was a sense that, even though it was not a good year, a win over Cal would be a nice consolation and momentum toward next year.
Maybe that is something we can look for today. The joy it can bring our players and the few students and alums (and other fans) in the stands. Maybe a naive peek at some positives as we move forward. Mostly, a chance to humiliate Cal.
I think that the odds are against us winning this game. But I can hope. Because beating the Dirty Golden Bear in his house would be a nice balm to the sore of this season...
-m.