[Goose]

"The Washington Commanders announced today that Tavita Pritchard has been named the team's quarterbacks coach."

https://www.commanders.com/news/commande...ff-changes

Good for Tavita. Unfortunate it has to be with a team that has so many "issues", but it is better than no job. He should have done this earlier IMO. I am not sure this is "good" for Stanford, but it will remove a sore point for some people on this board. Hopefully our QBs will play well and make the question moot.

I'm happy for him. This is a great opportunity to pair with Bieniemy in a job where there's a lot of upside for improved QB play to be seen as the secret ingredient and get Pritchard a big-time boost to his reputation. It also helps set him up for potential true coordinating opportunities down the line in college or the NFL. In 2023, Pritchard's QB room will either have really low expectations or somebody like Derek Carr could make Pritchard look really good without having to do much.

As for what it means for Stanford, it means a few things:

1. We now have zero continuity from the Shaw staff. On balance I judge that to be a positive in turning the page, establishing a new culture, setting a new tone for the recruiting operation, etc. but one can imagine transition costs/growing pains/learning curve with operating at Stanford.

2. We now have zero offensive coaches other than Taylor who have ever coached even a single season at the major college football level. FCS and grad assistant experience as far as the eye can see, and not even very much at that. For better or worse, Taylor is making a big bet on himself. It's him and a bunch of millennials (one of whom is only a year away from being Gen Z!). In essence this raises the ante on our bet that Taylor learned from his Utah experience and can be a more effective Pac-12 coordinator knowing now what he does after the Utah and Sacramento State experiences. Somewhat nerve-wracking bet.

3. We now don't have a QB coach. Taylor is spreading himself extraordinarily thin as head coach/offensive coordinator/QB coach. This bet may make sense given a) Taylor's core expertise, b) Osborne (receivers coach), his background as a WR/QB guy, and the practical reality that QBs and WRs often work as two sides of the same coin in practice situations, and c) the need to solidify our attention to the trenches in light of getting left at the altar by our ertwhile OL coach (who had been set to be the adult in the room along with Taylor on the offensive staff). I think fans need to acknowledge the bizarre situation of not having a single assistant charged with OC or QB duties (not even Lincoln Riley bites off as much on paper as Taylor is set to) and it does come with risk. Again, Taylor is really betting on himself and so much of our offense's success or failure will come down to that.

4. We lose one of the better recruiters of the Shaw era but replace him with a staff full of fresher faces who may be hungrier. Pritchard, like so many of the Shaw recruiters, made his recruiting reputation in the 2017 class and before, and I think there's a decent chance we'll get more drive out of the new guys. By the way, this is not meant as a knock on Pritchard as an observation of the profiles of the new guys and optimism that Taylor will emphasize recruiting across the staff much more than Shaw did, as indicated by Taylor emphasizing recruiting as a key attribute of pretty much every assistant when he discussed his staff in a recent press conference.

5. We lose one of the two most Stanford institution coaches of all time (Dave Tipton the other). Fans have a complicated relationship with Pritchard but I view him fondly. He threw two of the most iconic and important passes in Stanford history. He mentored Andrew Luck. He was a crucial bridge between the dark ages and the glory days. He coached three different position groups on several of the best teams in Stanford history (not even to mention helping out on defense on some of our best defenses before he was a full coach). As a "coordinator" we often seemed to do better in beginning of game and situational places, one of many pieces of evidence that Shaw was what held Shawfense back more than Pritchard. In any case, Pritchard gave more to Stanford over decades than almost anyone and I wish him the best, and would not be surprised if he comes back to coach at Stanford sometime down the line.

A unicorn event. I agree with every single thing in this post :-)! TT is indeed in the deep end of the pool. We can't say that is a good thing or a bad thing right now, but it is certainly a formidable task.

[Goose]

"The Washington Commanders announced today that Tavita Pritchard has been named the team's quarterbacks coach."

https://www.commanders.com/news/commande...ff-changes

Good for Tavita. Unfortunate it has to be with a team that has so many "issues", but it is better than no job. He should have done this earlier IMO. I am not sure this is "good" for Stanford, but it will remove a sore point for some people on this board. Hopefully our QBs will play well and make the question moot.

I'm happy for him. This is a great opportunity to pair with Bieniemy in a job where there's a lot of upside for improved QB play to be seen as the secret ingredient and get Pritchard a big-time boost to his reputation. It also helps set him up for potential true coordinating opportunities down the line in college or the NFL. In 2023, Pritchard's QB room will either have really low expectations or somebody like Derek Carr could make Pritchard look really good without having to do much.

As for what it means for Stanford, it means a few things:

1. We now have zero continuity from the Shaw staff. On balance I judge that to be a positive in turning the page, establishing a new culture, setting a new tone for the recruiting operation, etc. but one can imagine transition costs/growing pains/learning curve with operating at Stanford.

2. We now have zero offensive coaches other than Taylor who have ever coached even a single season at the major college football level. FCS and grad assistant experience as far as the eye can see, and not even very much at that. For better or worse, Taylor is making a big bet on himself. It's him and a bunch of millennials (one of whom is only a year away from being Gen Z!). In essence this raises the ante on our bet that Taylor learned from his Utah experience and can be a more effective Pac-12 coordinator knowing now what he does after the Utah and Sacramento State experiences. Somewhat nerve-wracking bet.

3. We now don't have a QB coach. Taylor is spreading himself extraordinarily thin as head coach/offensive coordinator/QB coach. This bet may make sense given a) Taylor's core expertise, b) Osborne (receivers coach), his background as a WR/QB guy, and the practical reality that QBs and WRs often work as two sides of the same coin in practice situations, and c) the need to solidify our attention to the trenches in light of getting left at the altar by our ertwhile OL coach (who had been set to be the adult in the room along with Taylor on the offensive staff). I think fans need to acknowledge the bizarre situation of not having a single assistant charged with OC or QB duties (not even Lincoln Riley bites off as much on paper as Taylor is set to) and it does come with risk. Again, Taylor is really betting on himself and so much of our offense's success or failure will come down to that.

4. We lose one of the better recruiters of the Shaw era but replace him with a staff full of fresher faces who may be hungrier. Pritchard, like so many of the Shaw recruiters, made his recruiting reputation in the 2017 class and before, and I think there's a decent chance we'll get more drive out of the new guys. By the way, this is not meant as a knock on Pritchard as an observation of the profiles of the new guys and optimism that Taylor will emphasize recruiting across the staff much more than Shaw did, as indicated by Taylor emphasizing recruiting as a key attribute of pretty much every assistant when he discussed his staff in a recent press conference.

5. We lose one of the two most Stanford institution coaches of all time (Dave Tipton the other). Fans have a complicated relationship with Pritchard but I view him fondly. He threw two of the most iconic and important passes in Stanford history. He mentored Andrew Luck. He was a crucial bridge between the dark ages and the glory days. He coached three different position groups on several of the best teams in Stanford history (not even to mention helping out on defense on some of our best defenses before he was a full coach). As a "coordinator" we often seemed to do better in beginning of game and situational places, one of many pieces of evidence that Shaw was what held Shawfense back more than Pritchard. In any case, Pritchard gave more to Stanford over decades than almost anyone and I wish him the best, and would not be surprised if he comes back to coach at Stanford sometime down the line.

A unicorn event. I agree with every single thing in this post :-)! TT is indeed in the deep end of the pool. We can't say that is a good thing or a bad thing right now, but it is certainly a formidable task.