[81alum]

While it may very well be true that Tara would not have been able to do a better job with this team than Kate has done, that begs the question. The real question, it seems to me, is whether there are other coaches that would have done a better job than EITHER Kate or Tara?

My opinion only....NO.  Not given the unique Stanford environment that is so unfriendly to transfers, that is catching up in NIL, that is switching to a new league that penalizes our team by making them spend much more time over the season on planes thatn 16/18th of the league....etc.  In fact, a coach from outside the Stanford environment would have been an even greater disaster, learning all the Stanford restrictions on the fly, etc....

If you seriously want to abandon the TVD legacy and start from scratch, then at least you need some lead time.  Also, ask yourself this...how many of next year's outstanding recruits would have come to Stanford if they did not think Kate Paye was continuing the TVD legacy of excellence?  If they thought that Kate had no connection to Tara?  I think that kind of wholesale change away from TVD and her coaching legacy is a recipe to reduce Stanford to the level (at best) of Gonzaga or Harvard.

I know you did not make the Holly Warlick analogy...but others have.  Kate Paye is not Holly Warlick.  Kate may wind up not being a successful coach....that remains to be seen, my optimism aside.  But Kate IS far, far brighter and accomplished than Holly Warlick ever was.  Sheer smarts may not be enough to make a good coach...but Kate is in fact light years ahead of a Holly Warlick in almost any measure of smarts.  So if Kate fails, it won't be for anything like the same reasons that Holly Warlick failed.

[81alum]

While it may very well be true that Tara would not have been able to do a better job with this team than Kate has done, that begs the question. The real question, it seems to me, is whether there are other coaches that would have done a better job than EITHER Kate or Tara?

My opinion only....NO.  Not given the unique Stanford environment that is so unfriendly to transfers, that is catching up in NIL, that is switching to a new league that penalizes our team by making them spend much more time over the season on planes thatn 16/18th of the league....etc.  In fact, a coach from outside the Stanford environment would have been an even greater disaster, learning all the Stanford restrictions on the fly, etc....

If you seriously want to abandon the TVD legacy and start from scratch, then at least you need some lead time.  Also, ask yourself this...how many of next year's outstanding recruits would have come to Stanford if they did not think Kate Paye was continuing the TVD legacy of excellence?  If they thought that Kate had no connection to Tara?  I think that kind of wholesale change away from TVD and her coaching legacy is a recipe to reduce Stanford to the level (at best) of Gonzaga or Harvard.

I know you did not make the Holly Warlick analogy...but others have.  Kate Paye is not Holly Warlick.  Kate may wind up not being a successful coach....that remains to be seen, my optimism aside.  But Kate IS far, far brighter and accomplished than Holly Warlick ever was.  Sheer smarts may not be enough to make a good coach...but Kate is in fact light years ahead of a Holly Warlick in almost any measure of smarts.  So if Kate fails, it won't be for anything like the same reasons that Holly Warlick failed.