[81alum]

I read that Oregon State's Jonathan Smith has agreed to speak with Stanford. I doubt he'd leave his alma mater, however.

I like him a lot and the job he's doing at OSU. Favors a run-heavy, ball-control offense, which I think best suits Stanford. Love their OL coach as well, probably the best in the league.

An honest question:  why do you (and others) think a ball-control offense suits us best?  Back in the Walsh years when we were "Quarterback U" it was felt that a passing-oriented offense suited us.  What is it about Stanford that makes it more suitable to ball control rather than to other offenses-- other than the fact that we did ball control well in the Gerhardt/Taylor/Gaffney years?  We did downfield passing pretty well in the Benjamin/Dils/Stenstrom/Elway years.

Now we could get into an interesting discussion about which style of offense is best in the college game in a general sense, but I sense that you believe there is something unique about Stanford that makes it easier here to do a ball control game more easily than other offenses, and I would like to understand the reasoning.

[81alum]

I read that Oregon State's Jonathan Smith has agreed to speak with Stanford. I doubt he'd leave his alma mater, however.

I like him a lot and the job he's doing at OSU. Favors a run-heavy, ball-control offense, which I think best suits Stanford. Love their OL coach as well, probably the best in the league.

An honest question:  why do you (and others) think a ball-control offense suits us best?  Back in the Walsh years when we were "Quarterback U" it was felt that a passing-oriented offense suited us.  What is it about Stanford that makes it more suitable to ball control rather than to other offenses-- other than the fact that we did ball control well in the Gerhardt/Taylor/Gaffney years?  We did downfield passing pretty well in the Benjamin/Dils/Stenstrom/Elway years.

Now we could get into an interesting discussion about which style of offense is best in the college game in a general sense, but I sense that you believe there is something unique about Stanford that makes it easier here to do a ball control game more easily than other offenses, and I would like to understand the reasoning.