11-12-2023, 01:10 PM
8. The other story of our season continues to be the young receivers. Ayomanor is such a stud. He is now 14th in the nation in receiving and the only football freshman receiver in the top 100 in the nation in yards from scrimmage (there are a few with 60 something yards per game....he has 90+!). This is a historic season and he/we are being robbed of narrative and hype by our moronic roster. Roxy Bernstein again foot-stomped this issue last night, but nobody watches the Pac-12 Network. I hope to be pleasantly surprised in the end but it will be such a shame if Ayomanor doesn't sweep all Freshman All-American honors and he very well should beat out Fifita and Brailsford for Pac-12 Freshman of the Year. In any other year we'd be talking about Bachmeier as one of our best ever freshman receivers. Really awesome to have this duo emerging like this. And then Harris is starting to emerge as a third guy. Probably the single best thing about this season personnel-wise is that a new generation of receivers have emerged. [This week's moving the chains (first down) leaderboard: Daniels (4), Ayomanor (3, also drew an interference), Bachmeier (3), Roush (2), Smith, Farrell, Harris, Lamson] On the flip side, it is incredible how little we get from running backs. Stanford now only has two players in the top 50 in the Pac-12 in yards from scrimmage, Ayomanor and Bachmeier, who we are reliant to an extent to which in the last generation we only saw with McCaffrey-Love, McCaffrey-Rector, and Taylor-Ertz. It defies the imagination to have zero running backs in the top 50 in the conference in yards from scrimmage. In the last 15 years, the only times it's happened are 2023 Stanford, 2022 Stanford, 2016 Arizona, and 2012 Washington State. In other words, the last two Stanford teams have been among the four most irrelevant RB rooms in the last 176 Pac-12 teams. Incredible. Big opportunity for Taylor's first full class to step into a void at this position. Elsewhere on offense, McLaughlin and Rogers graded solidly against Oregon State, Mayberry and Maikkula graded competently, and Baklenko had his wake-up call after a solid first two games. Personally I would have strongly considered not dressing Baklenko in other to preserve his redshirt and now that he has played three games I hope he plays Big Game and then sits out the finale. The major downside is it sends a signal we are operating based on factors other than merit/winning and that we aren't playing one week at a time, but on the other hand if Baklenko plays the two remaining games he, like Pale, will have burned a redshirt just to play in five games. That would be a potentially grievous injury to the 2027 team. Maybe we shouldn't be thinking like that, especially in the new era of college football, but to me it is poor strategic planning to have promising but not yet particularly good true freshmen offensive linemen play five games. Play them four or play them more, but five is a brutal burnt redshirt.
9. On defense, the standout in both my box score analysis and PFF was Leigber, who made numerous run stops and also made a third down tackle before the sticks (although Oregon State then converted on fourth down). Tafiti continues to make multiple plays a game, establishing himself as our playmaker if Bailey isn't going to play (amazingly, despite how little he has played for weeks, Bailey still has the second most sacks per game of any Stanford defender in the last decade). I thought Moi had a nice game. Of all people, Jorgensen was actually in a significant number of plays, though he also had a bad personal foul that led to the highlight reel Fenwick hurdling over Williams and then breaking multiple tackles on the way to a humiliating touchdown. As I mentioned above, a lot more players got to play in garbage time on defense than offense. Caughey actually got starter-level snaps, though graded horribly. Ojarikre, whose redshirt has long been burnt due to special teams action, finally broke through on defense. Cooper more than doubled his previous season high in snaps, though didn't do much with it. Career high in snaps for Lester. Williams, Morris, and Rose have played more before but this was significant action by their standards. Debuts for Marceau-Olayinka and, after all these years, Dubre. I wouldn't say anybody showed anything per se. Most interesting is probably the signal that Ojarikre and Morris are on the way up and could be in line for bigger roles next year with upper class attrition.
10. Speaking of Morris, he was credited with yet another big special teams tackle, though I thought in real time it may have been Kasemervisz. In any case, those two seem to be the coverage units' standouts this season. Karty made his one try. One try. Ugh. Now just 18th in the nation in field goal attempts per game. Honestly on merit alone he doesn't even deserve to be a Groza finalist. Disappointing last season, partly due to a few uncharacteristic misses and mostly because Taylor doesn't let Karty eat (though this week Daniels' interceptions deserve more of the blame). By the way, I say last season because of the vibe I got from his recent interview regarding his NFL dream, including the obligatory disclaimer that he won't think about it until these last three games are over. Even putting it in the context of the last three games makes me think he is planning to depart. As the top prospect in America and a fourth year player it would be odd if he didn't. Flintoft had net punts of 48 to the 30, 24 to the 47 (ugh), 44 to the 33, and 34 to the 26. Not great. Farrell had a nine yard punt return, which is ok, and mostly fair caught in his various opportunities, which is fine by me given his lack of track record of success. A lackluster special teams day across the board. With a stinker like last night attention will understandably be elsewhere, but no units played well yesterday.
11. Game balls: Elic Ayomanor, Mitch Leigber, Joshua Karty, Viane Talamaivao
12. While this season has been more fun and less soul-crushing than the last few because at least now we can think about it as the foundations of a rebuild rather than a deep dark hole, we now find ourselves in a familiar place going into Big Game: playing for bragging rights and vibes rather than more tangible stakes. One stake I have in mind is getting Taylor his first home win at Stanford. It would be unfortunate to have to go into a long off-season unable to accomplish that most modest of steps. A related stake is giving the home crowd some reason to believe better days are ahead. We and national observers rightfully lament the pitiful crowds at Stanford Stadium, but for non diehards think about how bleak it is to root for a team that has won only two home games against major college football teams (Colgate doesn't count) at Stanford Stadium in the last four calendar years. If Taylor is going to succeed he is going to have to start giving fans reasons to think their treks to the stadium may be enjoyable. It is not essential that start happening next Saturday but it would be nice. The final stake I have in mind is the superficial but meaningful to many barrier of breaking past Shaw's win total from the last two years. A four win season in Taylor's first year would be something we could sell within the program and on the recruiting trail as being on the right track. Crazier things have happened than beating Notre Dame to close the season, but based on everything we have seen this Stanford team does not strike me as very capable of that, so to the extent we are still fighting for some stakes I think it's all about Big Game at this point. Beat Cal!
9. On defense, the standout in both my box score analysis and PFF was Leigber, who made numerous run stops and also made a third down tackle before the sticks (although Oregon State then converted on fourth down). Tafiti continues to make multiple plays a game, establishing himself as our playmaker if Bailey isn't going to play (amazingly, despite how little he has played for weeks, Bailey still has the second most sacks per game of any Stanford defender in the last decade). I thought Moi had a nice game. Of all people, Jorgensen was actually in a significant number of plays, though he also had a bad personal foul that led to the highlight reel Fenwick hurdling over Williams and then breaking multiple tackles on the way to a humiliating touchdown. As I mentioned above, a lot more players got to play in garbage time on defense than offense. Caughey actually got starter-level snaps, though graded horribly. Ojarikre, whose redshirt has long been burnt due to special teams action, finally broke through on defense. Cooper more than doubled his previous season high in snaps, though didn't do much with it. Career high in snaps for Lester. Williams, Morris, and Rose have played more before but this was significant action by their standards. Debuts for Marceau-Olayinka and, after all these years, Dubre. I wouldn't say anybody showed anything per se. Most interesting is probably the signal that Ojarikre and Morris are on the way up and could be in line for bigger roles next year with upper class attrition.
10. Speaking of Morris, he was credited with yet another big special teams tackle, though I thought in real time it may have been Kasemervisz. In any case, those two seem to be the coverage units' standouts this season. Karty made his one try. One try. Ugh. Now just 18th in the nation in field goal attempts per game. Honestly on merit alone he doesn't even deserve to be a Groza finalist. Disappointing last season, partly due to a few uncharacteristic misses and mostly because Taylor doesn't let Karty eat (though this week Daniels' interceptions deserve more of the blame). By the way, I say last season because of the vibe I got from his recent interview regarding his NFL dream, including the obligatory disclaimer that he won't think about it until these last three games are over. Even putting it in the context of the last three games makes me think he is planning to depart. As the top prospect in America and a fourth year player it would be odd if he didn't. Flintoft had net punts of 48 to the 30, 24 to the 47 (ugh), 44 to the 33, and 34 to the 26. Not great. Farrell had a nine yard punt return, which is ok, and mostly fair caught in his various opportunities, which is fine by me given his lack of track record of success. A lackluster special teams day across the board. With a stinker like last night attention will understandably be elsewhere, but no units played well yesterday.
11. Game balls: Elic Ayomanor, Mitch Leigber, Joshua Karty, Viane Talamaivao
12. While this season has been more fun and less soul-crushing than the last few because at least now we can think about it as the foundations of a rebuild rather than a deep dark hole, we now find ourselves in a familiar place going into Big Game: playing for bragging rights and vibes rather than more tangible stakes. One stake I have in mind is getting Taylor his first home win at Stanford. It would be unfortunate to have to go into a long off-season unable to accomplish that most modest of steps. A related stake is giving the home crowd some reason to believe better days are ahead. We and national observers rightfully lament the pitiful crowds at Stanford Stadium, but for non diehards think about how bleak it is to root for a team that has won only two home games against major college football teams (Colgate doesn't count) at Stanford Stadium in the last four calendar years. If Taylor is going to succeed he is going to have to start giving fans reasons to think their treks to the stadium may be enjoyable. It is not essential that start happening next Saturday but it would be nice. The final stake I have in mind is the superficial but meaningful to many barrier of breaking past Shaw's win total from the last two years. A four win season in Taylor's first year would be something we could sell within the program and on the recruiting trail as being on the right track. Crazier things have happened than beating Notre Dame to close the season, but based on everything we have seen this Stanford team does not strike me as very capable of that, so to the extent we are still fighting for some stakes I think it's all about Big Game at this point. Beat Cal!