(01-04-2023, 05:23 PM)BostonCard Wrote:(01-04-2023, 04:23 PM)msqueri Wrote: I have a lot of trouble with the argument that "the departure of Bloomgren did not yield a significantly more effective offensive line." Why would it when we weren't recruiting OL? OL is a position dominated by fourth or fifth year (or at other schools older) guys, with some ability for younger guys to contribute but usually not dominate. That means that:
While it is generally true, it is worth noting that guys like David DeCastro, Jonathan Martin, Cameron Fleming, David Yankey, Andrew Peat, and Joshua Garnett (and others) were multi-year starters well before their fourth years in the program. If I had the time and the data sources available, I would be interested in what distribution of the starts between 2007 and 2017 were between true freshmen, redshirt freshmen/sophomores, redshirt sophomore/juniors, redshirt junior/seniors, and redshirt seniors, and then how that changed once we hit 2018 and beyond. Because of the larger number of transfers/early NFL entries, we know that there were many fewer starts that went to redshirt seniors, and I think the data would show there was a marked shift to earlier years, but how big of a shift has it been.
BC
I don't have the time or bandwidth to do a deep dive into every depth chart (it's a brobdingnagian PITA to find them), so this won't be a perfect analysis a la what BC really wants by any means, but a good starting point at least. Here are the starters for the majority of each year as best I could find.
All the following are ACADEMIC YEARS. For example, 3 = true jr or RS soph.
2011: Martin, Yankey, Schwartzstein, DeCastro, (4, 3, 4, 4, 2)
2012: Yankey, Wilkes, Schwartzstein, Danser, Fleming (3, 4, 5, 4, 3)
2013: Peat, Yankey, Wilkes, Danser, Fleming (2, 4, 5, 5, 4)
2014: Peat, Garnett, Shuler, Caspers, Murphy (3, 3, 3, 3, 3) - an ineffective offense wasted one of Stanford's best defenses ever.
2015: Murphy, Garnett, Shuler, Caspers, Tucker (4, 4, 4, 4, 2)
2016: Bright, Caspers, Burkett, Herbig, Hall (4, 5, 3, 1, 3)
2017: Little, Bright/Fanaika, Burkett, Herbig, Hall (1, 5/4, 4, 2, 4)
2018: Little, Fanaika, Burkett, Hamilton/Herbig, Hall (2, 5, 5, 3/3, 5)
2019: Rouse, Miller, Dalman, Hornibrook, Sarell (1,1,3,1,3). The injury nightmare.
2020: Rouse, Miller/Hornibrook, Dalman, Bragg, Sarell (2, 2/2, 4, 2, 4)
2021: Rouse, Miller/Hornibrook, Nugent, Bragg, Hinton (3, 3/3, 3, 3, 2)
2022: Rouse, Hornibrook, Nugent, Rogers, Hinton (4, 4, 4, 3, 3). Most of these guys missed a few starts. Lots of injuries this season.
A couple quick observations:
- The 2012 OL recruiting class of Peat, Murphy, Garnett, Shuler, and Caspers should go down as one of Stanford's greatest ever. 2 5*s, a borderline 5*, a 4*, and Caspers the diamond in the rough. AND EVEN THEN...recall the 2014 season where all five of them were juniors and 4 were first-year starters. After this class matriculated, the cracks began to show.
- Comparing 2022 to 2014 or 2011, it's clear that even though our guys were just as old this season, they weren't developed nearly as well. A blemish on Heffernan and our S&C.
EDIT: Just saw msqueri's way better post on this, whoops!