[Goose]

1.  Harris got fired after just his second season after turning in performances befitting #187, #58, #172, #155, #156, #90, #107, #179, #144, #6, #121, and #22. If Taylor doesn't dramatically turn this around soon he should suffer the same fate. Show us something, coach.

As always, interesting and informative commentary. I admit I look forward to reading it each week. Some comments below.

True, but the situation is vastly different in two important ways. First, Harris arguably got fired so quickly because he was not liked. His players didn't like him and he clearly was a poor "fit" at Stanford. Second, his teams had a horrible record that was arguably worse than the talent of the players should have produced.

AFAIK TT isn't disliked and there is no player "revolt" going on. That may change but hasn't yet. Similarly, nobody would argue that this team has a lot of raw talent. The OL isn't good and there is no particular reason to believe it should be. Of course, the coach is responsible for the recruiting. Two years may not be long enough to evaluate TTs ability to recruit. So far, returns are not positive. Not sure it is definitive enough to get him fired after year 2.

4. <snip>We had the lowest yards and yards per carry of anybody they've played, including, yes, Houston Christian. This was awful run blocking and run game. The offense loses a ton in the running dimension going from Daniels to Brown, so Brown needs to compensate for that with his passing, which didn't happen yesterday.

Yep. Our poor pass blocking makes it real hard on a QB even if he can run a bit. Brown isn't a runner so he needs to be efficient enough in the passing game to compensate. Some of our alleged progress in the run game was with Daniels being the leading rusher much of the time. We are giving that up and so far that hasn't been a positive.

6. The big question in folks' minds (asked but understandably not answered in the post-game press conference) is whether Brown is the new QB1. I am not positive that would help the team based on what we saw yesterday, but given Daniels' play this season I wouldn't miss seeing it.

Agree. We need to see if a different approach will work better.

Ultimately I put the QB management in this game squarely in judgment call territory. As with so much else, Taylor needs to be judged by results. So far so disastrous, but let's see what QB play looks like against the weak part of the schedule.

Also agree. It wasn't a given we would have two wins at this point in the season. The abysmal performance in the recent losing streak obscures that point. We do suck, make no mistake. However we may be better than we recently have appeared to be. Football is real non-linear. If a team is just better that you are in all aspects of the game you aren't going to succeed at anything. There is no "partial credit". Results against teams that are not uniformly "better" than Stanford will show whether TT is going in the right direction.

9. <snip>
Five sub-par OL explains pretty quickly the struggles we continue to see. I continue to really struggle to see the theory of the case for how this OL ever becomes good. I hope after this year we abandon hope in the current model and dedicate ourselves to building OL via the transfer portal.

Strongly agree that having five sub-par linemen explains a whole lot about our offensive woes. Disagree strongly that we should "dedicate ourselves to building OL via the transfer portal". That strategy is doomed to fail for several reasons, one of which has been beat to death. Stanford doesn't accept enough transfer students to make this a viable option and that isn't going to change, at least in the near term and probably ever.

A second reason is that the vast majority of all football teams are looking to upgrade their offensive line. Brief visits to other team's sports boards disclose frequent laments about OL play. Kal is the most proximate example. Stanford will be competing with all those other schools. Not going to be easy to attract the requisite talent that is also admissible. That doesn't mean we ignore the possibility of getting an OL transfer. Stanford needs to both recruit OL and try to get transfers in so far as we can. Doing it all through the portal is impossible. Doing it all via high school recruiting is "possible". However, the portal works both ways and promising OL can leave as well as arrive. Forgoing the portal is stupid, but ignoring recruiting of the OL is worse.

[Goose]

1.  Harris got fired after just his second season after turning in performances befitting #187, #58, #172, #155, #156, #90, #107, #179, #144, #6, #121, and #22. If Taylor doesn't dramatically turn this around soon he should suffer the same fate. Show us something, coach.

As always, interesting and informative commentary. I admit I look forward to reading it each week. Some comments below.

True, but the situation is vastly different in two important ways. First, Harris arguably got fired so quickly because he was not liked. His players didn't like him and he clearly was a poor "fit" at Stanford. Second, his teams had a horrible record that was arguably worse than the talent of the players should have produced.

AFAIK TT isn't disliked and there is no player "revolt" going on. That may change but hasn't yet. Similarly, nobody would argue that this team has a lot of raw talent. The OL isn't good and there is no particular reason to believe it should be. Of course, the coach is responsible for the recruiting. Two years may not be long enough to evaluate TTs ability to recruit. So far, returns are not positive. Not sure it is definitive enough to get him fired after year 2.

4. <snip>We had the lowest yards and yards per carry of anybody they've played, including, yes, Houston Christian. This was awful run blocking and run game. The offense loses a ton in the running dimension going from Daniels to Brown, so Brown needs to compensate for that with his passing, which didn't happen yesterday.

Yep. Our poor pass blocking makes it real hard on a QB even if he can run a bit. Brown isn't a runner so he needs to be efficient enough in the passing game to compensate. Some of our alleged progress in the run game was with Daniels being the leading rusher much of the time. We are giving that up and so far that hasn't been a positive.

6. The big question in folks' minds (asked but understandably not answered in the post-game press conference) is whether Brown is the new QB1. I am not positive that would help the team based on what we saw yesterday, but given Daniels' play this season I wouldn't miss seeing it.

Agree. We need to see if a different approach will work better.

Ultimately I put the QB management in this game squarely in judgment call territory. As with so much else, Taylor needs to be judged by results. So far so disastrous, but let's see what QB play looks like against the weak part of the schedule.

Also agree. It wasn't a given we would have two wins at this point in the season. The abysmal performance in the recent losing streak obscures that point. We do suck, make no mistake. However we may be better than we recently have appeared to be. Football is real non-linear. If a team is just better that you are in all aspects of the game you aren't going to succeed at anything. There is no "partial credit". Results against teams that are not uniformly "better" than Stanford will show whether TT is going in the right direction.

9. <snip>
Five sub-par OL explains pretty quickly the struggles we continue to see. I continue to really struggle to see the theory of the case for how this OL ever becomes good. I hope after this year we abandon hope in the current model and dedicate ourselves to building OL via the transfer portal.

Strongly agree that having five sub-par linemen explains a whole lot about our offensive woes. Disagree strongly that we should "dedicate ourselves to building OL via the transfer portal". That strategy is doomed to fail for several reasons, one of which has been beat to death. Stanford doesn't accept enough transfer students to make this a viable option and that isn't going to change, at least in the near term and probably ever.

A second reason is that the vast majority of all football teams are looking to upgrade their offensive line. Brief visits to other team's sports boards disclose frequent laments about OL play. Kal is the most proximate example. Stanford will be competing with all those other schools. Not going to be easy to attract the requisite talent that is also admissible. That doesn't mean we ignore the possibility of getting an OL transfer. Stanford needs to both recruit OL and try to get transfers in so far as we can. Doing it all through the portal is impossible. Doing it all via high school recruiting is "possible". However, the portal works both ways and promising OL can leave as well as arrive. Forgoing the portal is stupid, but ignoring recruiting of the OL is worse.