[CardinalSagehen]

There is always the potential for a minor injury during the three more games that most of us would like to see him play - if he plays earlier, he can still come back later and stay under three games.  

By starting to play him earlier, assuming he's healthy, the coaches still maintain the option of playing him for the rest of the season or not. This can depend on how it's going and whether it makes a meaningful difference in our ability to win games right now.

It's unlikely that Brown will be with Stanford for all 5 years, but if he is, there's always the chance of major injury during the early part of one of those other seasons. He could take his redshirt then.

The stretch of Wake Forest (game 8) and NC State (game 9) is an easy part of the schedule. I like the idea of playing him vs. a very soft Wake Forest defense to get his feet wet. It's one step up from Cal Poly. The only reasons not to do this would be if he's not yet healthy enough or if he's strongly against it.

Agree with almost all your points. I do however believe that the decision to redshirt him should be based almost totally on whether it "probably" get us to six wins. There is no reason to deny him the possibility of playing his a year five (at Stanford or elsewhere) unless it has a very  tangible benefit to Stanford this year. By his year five Stanford may have a better option :-) or it will be clear (to him at least) that playing elsewhere for a year would be to his overall advantage. The very last thing we want to do (if Brown is our QB1 at that point) is force that decision to be made in year four (because it is his "last chance").

While Andrew Luck did stay, his NFL#1 draft choice future was not in doubt. That isn't typical. Had Luck played the previous year that fifth year would not have been available. It wasn't worth it, to Luck or to Stanford. If there is a probable sixth win in it IMO burning Brown's shirt might make sense. Otherwise, it doesn't (for him or Stanford).

That's an interesting point. I think the big unknowable factor is what Brown thinks of all of this - our coaches shouldn't try to overrule that. And it's likely that we play him and determine that he doesn't make enough of a difference with this year's supporting cast to warrant burning his shirt. In that case, the whole discussion is moot.

However, if we still suck so badly in 2-3 years that a good QB can't showcase his skills here, then does it really matter (to Stanford) whether we redshirted him this year anyway? We're not in a powerhouse program's situation where everything can be carefully planned 2-3 years in advance - we need to start winning right now or the trend will continue with no end in sight. URGENCY.

I don't see six wins as a magic cutoff point. In my view, the team and the coach are in a struggle to earn maximum wins this year to show a trend and build confidence.  Four wins is not exciting, but it's better than three, and five would be acceptable as a sign of progress. There's still a risk of two or three wins - can TT come back from that?

If Brown is great, the main hope of retaining him would be that he wants his degree from Stanford. (This was the case for Luck as well.) And in that case, he's probably leaving after he gets his degree anyway, but at least we played him as much as we could. If he doesn't cherish the Stanford experience and degree, then he might choose to leave at any point for more money or a better program. Those things will always be out there.

It's worth noting that Luck played only three seasons at Stanford after redshirting his first year. He still had a fifth year available to him when he left for the draft. It's hard to argue with the results because Luck was other-worldly by the time he started playing as a redshirt freshman, but we essentially wasted one year of his eligibility because he likely would have stayed for his final season in 2011 either way (for the degree).

For all of these reasons, I favor playing the QB that gives us the best chance to win now, assuming any QB gives us a materially better chance.

[CardinalSagehen]

There is always the potential for a minor injury during the three more games that most of us would like to see him play - if he plays earlier, he can still come back later and stay under three games.  

By starting to play him earlier, assuming he's healthy, the coaches still maintain the option of playing him for the rest of the season or not. This can depend on how it's going and whether it makes a meaningful difference in our ability to win games right now.

It's unlikely that Brown will be with Stanford for all 5 years, but if he is, there's always the chance of major injury during the early part of one of those other seasons. He could take his redshirt then.

The stretch of Wake Forest (game 8) and NC State (game 9) is an easy part of the schedule. I like the idea of playing him vs. a very soft Wake Forest defense to get his feet wet. It's one step up from Cal Poly. The only reasons not to do this would be if he's not yet healthy enough or if he's strongly against it.

Agree with almost all your points. I do however believe that the decision to redshirt him should be based almost totally on whether it "probably" get us to six wins. There is no reason to deny him the possibility of playing his a year five (at Stanford or elsewhere) unless it has a very  tangible benefit to Stanford this year. By his year five Stanford may have a better option :-) or it will be clear (to him at least) that playing elsewhere for a year would be to his overall advantage. The very last thing we want to do (if Brown is our QB1 at that point) is force that decision to be made in year four (because it is his "last chance").

While Andrew Luck did stay, his NFL#1 draft choice future was not in doubt. That isn't typical. Had Luck played the previous year that fifth year would not have been available. It wasn't worth it, to Luck or to Stanford. If there is a probable sixth win in it IMO burning Brown's shirt might make sense. Otherwise, it doesn't (for him or Stanford).

That's an interesting point. I think the big unknowable factor is what Brown thinks of all of this - our coaches shouldn't try to overrule that. And it's likely that we play him and determine that he doesn't make enough of a difference with this year's supporting cast to warrant burning his shirt. In that case, the whole discussion is moot.

However, if we still suck so badly in 2-3 years that a good QB can't showcase his skills here, then does it really matter (to Stanford) whether we redshirted him this year anyway? We're not in a powerhouse program's situation where everything can be carefully planned 2-3 years in advance - we need to start winning right now or the trend will continue with no end in sight. URGENCY.

I don't see six wins as a magic cutoff point. In my view, the team and the coach are in a struggle to earn maximum wins this year to show a trend and build confidence.  Four wins is not exciting, but it's better than three, and five would be acceptable as a sign of progress. There's still a risk of two or three wins - can TT come back from that?

If Brown is great, the main hope of retaining him would be that he wants his degree from Stanford. (This was the case for Luck as well.) And in that case, he's probably leaving after he gets his degree anyway, but at least we played him as much as we could. If he doesn't cherish the Stanford experience and degree, then he might choose to leave at any point for more money or a better program. Those things will always be out there.

It's worth noting that Luck played only three seasons at Stanford after redshirting his first year. He still had a fifth year available to him when he left for the draft. It's hard to argue with the results because Luck was other-worldly by the time he started playing as a redshirt freshman, but we essentially wasted one year of his eligibility because he likely would have stayed for his final season in 2011 either way (for the degree).

For all of these reasons, I favor playing the QB that gives us the best chance to win now, assuming any QB gives us a materially better chance.