08-23-2023, 06:58 PM
Second Taylor availability:
* I always like the cut of Taylor's jib and think he has a good way about him in navigating these kind of interviews. It is awkward to want to focus on football when everybody else is only focused on the conference realignment drama, but he is enough of an adult and professional to appreciate why that's sucking all the oxygen out of the room and to answer magnanimously at a time of great tumult for Stanford. I have to imagine he's feeling adrift in all this uncertainty like the rest of us but if I were to try to discern signs of that I'd be guessing and projecting. This press availability was just a professional answering the questions and gracefully getting off the stage (practice field turf).
* Taylor's first thought on the conference realignment drama (keep in mind this was on Tuesday, several days after Judgment Day for the Pac-12 but also at this point almost a week ago from when I'm writing this) was like most people I've seen on the message boards and in real life: sadness and disappointment. He grew up a Pac-10 fan and played in the Pac-10 and it seems undeniable this is the end of that era. These aren't his words but rather mine, but I don't even know how you say Pac-X without USC and the majority of the most major programs in the region. Seems like a cruel, pathetic joke.
* His second thought was Stanford has a major brand and will be alright. He came back to this several times in the interview and I personally don't think he has much of a choice but to think this way and don't think he knows anything in particular about where or how Stanford is going to land. Certainly Tuesday afternoon Taylor doesn't know any more than what we all know now. It doesn't bring me pleasure to say this, but I put zero stock into Taylor's optimism in this press availability. He's a good soldier speaking in the fog of war about the stakes of a battle that holds him and his troops in the balance. He's going to say we're going to be fine, but that doesn't mean we're going to be fine. As he said himself, he said he's looking forward to finding out Stanford's landing spot just like the reporters questioning him and that he's not involved at all in the discussions. When he says he can't imagine anything else than Power Five football, I take it more as it being unthinkable Stanford would fall so far than there not being a scenario in which it could happen.
* He acknowledged that people in the big recruiting class want to know what's going on and he tells them to be patient. As he said later in the interview, people come to Stanford to play Power Five football and not playing Power Five football would be a big deal. There's no way that he doesn't know that how these weeks' transpire will fundamentally affect his recruiting and retention. They wouldn't be the football players we want and need them to be if they could just shrug off going from major to minor. All fingers and toes crossed we can find a way to stay major.
* Taylor made a comment about the recruits trusting Stanford's brand and why they picked Stanford. I think he meant it in terms of optimism that everything will turn out in terms of conference status, but in that comment I also think about the extent to which recruits pick Stanford for Stanford. As I've said a few times, I do think Stanford would retain more players than a program like Cal/Oregon State/Washington State would because I think Stanford's brand is a bigger reason/playing in a power conference is a relatively lesser reason than matriculation decisions are for a lot of recruits elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, I think relegation to a lower level profoundly impacts us, but we do have more of a buffer than the other Pac-4 remnants.
* Revealing chuckle from Taylor when he talked about having that day's practice as he was saying how you have to keep moving forward. It was the demeanor of somebody who knows this situation is crazy and a brobdingnagian distraction but understands you can only control what you can control and fundamentally there really is no choice but to keep putting one foot in front of the other and acting like things are normal even though they aren't. What was he going to do, not show up for practice? I think he knows putting everything into the daily routines of getting ready for the season is on one level an absurdity when something existential is hanging over the program, but it's his job and what he can control right now.
* Positive face on where the team is right now. The first things he mentioned were that the players understand the tempo better and understand the schemes better. If it weren't already clear that tempo would be a sea change this season (it was), add another data point. It will be a fundamental difference to how we play. He also said with some emphasis that we definitely aren't ready to play, so anybody worried about expectations getting out of whack worry not. He knows we are a work in progress. Indeed, the answer in general sounded like his usual process/no such thing as a finished product self. We should also take it at face value that there's a lot of work to do the next three weeks. All that said, the tone about the team is generally positive and the comment on not being ready to play sounded kind of like an obligatory caveat/homage to the woof gods.
* I always like the cut of Taylor's jib and think he has a good way about him in navigating these kind of interviews. It is awkward to want to focus on football when everybody else is only focused on the conference realignment drama, but he is enough of an adult and professional to appreciate why that's sucking all the oxygen out of the room and to answer magnanimously at a time of great tumult for Stanford. I have to imagine he's feeling adrift in all this uncertainty like the rest of us but if I were to try to discern signs of that I'd be guessing and projecting. This press availability was just a professional answering the questions and gracefully getting off the stage (practice field turf).
* Taylor's first thought on the conference realignment drama (keep in mind this was on Tuesday, several days after Judgment Day for the Pac-12 but also at this point almost a week ago from when I'm writing this) was like most people I've seen on the message boards and in real life: sadness and disappointment. He grew up a Pac-10 fan and played in the Pac-10 and it seems undeniable this is the end of that era. These aren't his words but rather mine, but I don't even know how you say Pac-X without USC and the majority of the most major programs in the region. Seems like a cruel, pathetic joke.
* His second thought was Stanford has a major brand and will be alright. He came back to this several times in the interview and I personally don't think he has much of a choice but to think this way and don't think he knows anything in particular about where or how Stanford is going to land. Certainly Tuesday afternoon Taylor doesn't know any more than what we all know now. It doesn't bring me pleasure to say this, but I put zero stock into Taylor's optimism in this press availability. He's a good soldier speaking in the fog of war about the stakes of a battle that holds him and his troops in the balance. He's going to say we're going to be fine, but that doesn't mean we're going to be fine. As he said himself, he said he's looking forward to finding out Stanford's landing spot just like the reporters questioning him and that he's not involved at all in the discussions. When he says he can't imagine anything else than Power Five football, I take it more as it being unthinkable Stanford would fall so far than there not being a scenario in which it could happen.
* He acknowledged that people in the big recruiting class want to know what's going on and he tells them to be patient. As he said later in the interview, people come to Stanford to play Power Five football and not playing Power Five football would be a big deal. There's no way that he doesn't know that how these weeks' transpire will fundamentally affect his recruiting and retention. They wouldn't be the football players we want and need them to be if they could just shrug off going from major to minor. All fingers and toes crossed we can find a way to stay major.
* Taylor made a comment about the recruits trusting Stanford's brand and why they picked Stanford. I think he meant it in terms of optimism that everything will turn out in terms of conference status, but in that comment I also think about the extent to which recruits pick Stanford for Stanford. As I've said a few times, I do think Stanford would retain more players than a program like Cal/Oregon State/Washington State would because I think Stanford's brand is a bigger reason/playing in a power conference is a relatively lesser reason than matriculation decisions are for a lot of recruits elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, I think relegation to a lower level profoundly impacts us, but we do have more of a buffer than the other Pac-4 remnants.
* Revealing chuckle from Taylor when he talked about having that day's practice as he was saying how you have to keep moving forward. It was the demeanor of somebody who knows this situation is crazy and a brobdingnagian distraction but understands you can only control what you can control and fundamentally there really is no choice but to keep putting one foot in front of the other and acting like things are normal even though they aren't. What was he going to do, not show up for practice? I think he knows putting everything into the daily routines of getting ready for the season is on one level an absurdity when something existential is hanging over the program, but it's his job and what he can control right now.
* Positive face on where the team is right now. The first things he mentioned were that the players understand the tempo better and understand the schemes better. If it weren't already clear that tempo would be a sea change this season (it was), add another data point. It will be a fundamental difference to how we play. He also said with some emphasis that we definitely aren't ready to play, so anybody worried about expectations getting out of whack worry not. He knows we are a work in progress. Indeed, the answer in general sounded like his usual process/no such thing as a finished product self. We should also take it at face value that there's a lot of work to do the next three weeks. All that said, the tone about the team is generally positive and the comment on not being ready to play sounded kind of like an obligatory caveat/homage to the woof gods.