[msqueri]

* The extended discussion of conference realignment (by the way, I was prepared to be annoyed at so many questions about realignment to a guy who is just watching from the sidelines like the rest of us, but the discussion wasn't bad) was one of the places where a wearier, less patient Taylor seemed to come through. He'll probably get less breezy and magnanimous dealing with this every week he has to get asked. He said he believed in our leadership, but "trust they'll do their work" sounded potentially like there could be a hint of question about whether they will or how effectively. "Hopefully it works out" is certainly a whole lot less confident than his posture in previous weeks. Patience is probably running thinner all the time. Some gallows humor for me in seeing Taylor look away from the one reporter asking conference realignment-focused questions after answering each of those questions only to have follow-up after follow-up yanking his head back in the other direction. Talk about body language of wanting to change the subject. Honestly, though, those questions may have been worth it. Taylor answered responsively. He was effusive about the ACC and clearly like the rest of us is praying for that lifeboat. He's realistic about the end of West Coast geographic Power Five football just like he was previously realistic about the role of tv money in all of this.



* When Ben pivoted to Hawaii game prep, I found it so interesting how forthright Taylor was that he's been watching "oh, a lot" of Hawaii film and has been for six months. On the one hand, ball coaches are gonna ball coach. On the other hand, it had the visceral feeling to me of a coach who is putting a lot into this game. That makes sense - this is his first ever game as a FBS head coach. I think he's putting a lot of emotional and physical energy into this game. He's thinking about the advantages Hawaii has getting to play first and the advantages we have getting to review that game film. My suspicion is that the game and the stakes of it - trying to get off to a good start, avoiding embarrassment against a frankly horrible program, setting the tone for the confidence building he has rightly emphasized for his players - is now so quickly approaching that that explains the tenser tone of this interview. I'm not sure whether to feel like being extremely focused against such a less talented program makes it extremely likely we win or like it's dangerous to be relatively tightly wound when that's not your normal mode. By the way, when I comment on Taylor's normal mode I'm guessing. I've seen him for the last nine months but for all I know he tends to be looser in offseasons than in-season and is not particularly tense right now in the way I'm picking up.



* Love that Ben was able to get reflections on standout true freshmen. Sedrick Irvin was an interesting name to hear. I've made no secret of how appalled I was by his high school trajectory and the indications of what kind of prospect he was by the time he signed, so it would be one of those fun eating crow moments if he proves me wrong. I do think there could be factors at play here that help explain it beyond Irvin being a stud, though hopefully he is. Most obviously, it might be a reflection on a poor RB room. We haven't heard much about the RB room for months, the Princeton transfer Butler apparently missed the earlier part of camp, and pretty much all of the returners have checkered track records with availability and reliability. Irvin could be standing out relative to the room, but if the room is worse than other rooms that could be a sobering partial explanation. Additionally, Taylor mentioned that Irvin "picked up on it really well" and I think there's at least a possibility that our coaches really prioritize guys absorbing the playbook and responsibilities. If so, Irvin could be standing out now in a way that will be less salient when ability to physically perform against Pac-12 opponents really starts separating guys (though we don't exactly have a lot of other RBs who would present as much better bets, so I kind of do lean to the grading-on-a-curve explanation here). Right now I'm penciling Irvin in as RB3, but I feel generally uncertain about how Taylor views the RB room. The big news, as we've discussed, is Simi Pale's emergence. Taylor's laugh in saying Pale has been incredible seemed like a wow/really lucked into this kind of thing. And I loved hearing about Tre Williams playing well. I liked Williams a lot as a recruit but the path at OLB is extremely difficult. It's nice to hear about the coaches recognizing good play even among guys who would likely take some time to break through for much playing time. [If Williams is good enough to get time ahead of Tafiti or Cooper....wow] The main thing with an answer like this is to register the great arrows up on the select few proactively mentioned, but one might also wonder about who wasn't mentioned. It's surprising Bachmeier wouldn't be mentioned. Maybe because of the early enrollment Taylor views Bachmeier in a separate category. Or maybe outsiders are somewhat overrating Bachmeier's likelihood for initial impact. (It kind of has a bit of a feel to me of the Reuben situation last year where the novelty of an early enrollee got a lot of bonus points but as things settle maybe there's more of a multi-year path than some initially assumed.) Also omitted was arguably the highest-profile recruit, JShawn Frausto-Ramos. In general, the corners (JFR and Aaron Morris) have been guys I've been watching to see if they can break through into a rotation and it's moderately interesting to note they weren't mentioned.



* When asked if there's anything from his Sacramento State turnaround he can take into year one with Stanford, Taylor said it's "a different scenario for sure." This differs from some past comments when he's talked about similarities and said that it can be possible for elements of a turnaround to take hold quickly. It sounds like he's oscillating (in the sense circumspect comments were frequent in the spring) back toward expectations management and an understanding of how steep the hill he has to climb is. He talked about trying to build confidence in the scheme, themselves, and each other; feeling out what will work here from what he did in the past; and how fast the players can process it all. However, he said he's doing all of that cognizant of this being a "really young team that has not played a lot of football." His upshot was that the process doesn't change but "it's definitely a different situation." In other words, don't hold your breath for a turnaround like at Sacramento State. All of this resonates with me intellectually but I'm finding it a somewhat bitter pill after a month of optimism. It's as if he started off in the winter and spring admiring the problem, built up optimism over the summer and camp, and now that real games are looming is reverting to a more cautious mode. It reins in hopes of any sort of immediate turnaround. At least on Thursday Taylor was in a mood to think that the inexperience makes it not very comparable to his Sacramento State situation.

[msqueri]

* The extended discussion of conference realignment (by the way, I was prepared to be annoyed at so many questions about realignment to a guy who is just watching from the sidelines like the rest of us, but the discussion wasn't bad) was one of the places where a wearier, less patient Taylor seemed to come through. He'll probably get less breezy and magnanimous dealing with this every week he has to get asked. He said he believed in our leadership, but "trust they'll do their work" sounded potentially like there could be a hint of question about whether they will or how effectively. "Hopefully it works out" is certainly a whole lot less confident than his posture in previous weeks. Patience is probably running thinner all the time. Some gallows humor for me in seeing Taylor look away from the one reporter asking conference realignment-focused questions after answering each of those questions only to have follow-up after follow-up yanking his head back in the other direction. Talk about body language of wanting to change the subject. Honestly, though, those questions may have been worth it. Taylor answered responsively. He was effusive about the ACC and clearly like the rest of us is praying for that lifeboat. He's realistic about the end of West Coast geographic Power Five football just like he was previously realistic about the role of tv money in all of this.



* When Ben pivoted to Hawaii game prep, I found it so interesting how forthright Taylor was that he's been watching "oh, a lot" of Hawaii film and has been for six months. On the one hand, ball coaches are gonna ball coach. On the other hand, it had the visceral feeling to me of a coach who is putting a lot into this game. That makes sense - this is his first ever game as a FBS head coach. I think he's putting a lot of emotional and physical energy into this game. He's thinking about the advantages Hawaii has getting to play first and the advantages we have getting to review that game film. My suspicion is that the game and the stakes of it - trying to get off to a good start, avoiding embarrassment against a frankly horrible program, setting the tone for the confidence building he has rightly emphasized for his players - is now so quickly approaching that that explains the tenser tone of this interview. I'm not sure whether to feel like being extremely focused against such a less talented program makes it extremely likely we win or like it's dangerous to be relatively tightly wound when that's not your normal mode. By the way, when I comment on Taylor's normal mode I'm guessing. I've seen him for the last nine months but for all I know he tends to be looser in offseasons than in-season and is not particularly tense right now in the way I'm picking up.



* Love that Ben was able to get reflections on standout true freshmen. Sedrick Irvin was an interesting name to hear. I've made no secret of how appalled I was by his high school trajectory and the indications of what kind of prospect he was by the time he signed, so it would be one of those fun eating crow moments if he proves me wrong. I do think there could be factors at play here that help explain it beyond Irvin being a stud, though hopefully he is. Most obviously, it might be a reflection on a poor RB room. We haven't heard much about the RB room for months, the Princeton transfer Butler apparently missed the earlier part of camp, and pretty much all of the returners have checkered track records with availability and reliability. Irvin could be standing out relative to the room, but if the room is worse than other rooms that could be a sobering partial explanation. Additionally, Taylor mentioned that Irvin "picked up on it really well" and I think there's at least a possibility that our coaches really prioritize guys absorbing the playbook and responsibilities. If so, Irvin could be standing out now in a way that will be less salient when ability to physically perform against Pac-12 opponents really starts separating guys (though we don't exactly have a lot of other RBs who would present as much better bets, so I kind of do lean to the grading-on-a-curve explanation here). Right now I'm penciling Irvin in as RB3, but I feel generally uncertain about how Taylor views the RB room. The big news, as we've discussed, is Simi Pale's emergence. Taylor's laugh in saying Pale has been incredible seemed like a wow/really lucked into this kind of thing. And I loved hearing about Tre Williams playing well. I liked Williams a lot as a recruit but the path at OLB is extremely difficult. It's nice to hear about the coaches recognizing good play even among guys who would likely take some time to break through for much playing time. [If Williams is good enough to get time ahead of Tafiti or Cooper....wow] The main thing with an answer like this is to register the great arrows up on the select few proactively mentioned, but one might also wonder about who wasn't mentioned. It's surprising Bachmeier wouldn't be mentioned. Maybe because of the early enrollment Taylor views Bachmeier in a separate category. Or maybe outsiders are somewhat overrating Bachmeier's likelihood for initial impact. (It kind of has a bit of a feel to me of the Reuben situation last year where the novelty of an early enrollee got a lot of bonus points but as things settle maybe there's more of a multi-year path than some initially assumed.) Also omitted was arguably the highest-profile recruit, JShawn Frausto-Ramos. In general, the corners (JFR and Aaron Morris) have been guys I've been watching to see if they can break through into a rotation and it's moderately interesting to note they weren't mentioned.



* When asked if there's anything from his Sacramento State turnaround he can take into year one with Stanford, Taylor said it's "a different scenario for sure." This differs from some past comments when he's talked about similarities and said that it can be possible for elements of a turnaround to take hold quickly. It sounds like he's oscillating (in the sense circumspect comments were frequent in the spring) back toward expectations management and an understanding of how steep the hill he has to climb is. He talked about trying to build confidence in the scheme, themselves, and each other; feeling out what will work here from what he did in the past; and how fast the players can process it all. However, he said he's doing all of that cognizant of this being a "really young team that has not played a lot of football." His upshot was that the process doesn't change but "it's definitely a different situation." In other words, don't hold your breath for a turnaround like at Sacramento State. All of this resonates with me intellectually but I'm finding it a somewhat bitter pill after a month of optimism. It's as if he started off in the winter and spring admiring the problem, built up optimism over the summer and camp, and now that real games are looming is reverting to a more cautious mode. It reins in hopes of any sort of immediate turnaround. At least on Thursday Taylor was in a mood to think that the inexperience makes it not very comparable to his Sacramento State situation.