[msqueri]

1. That was an anti-climactic and weird way to end the season. At least now we can look forward. This game was a complete no-contest and pointless except in the awkward sense of Notre Dame feeling forced to take it seriously due to College Football Playoff style points considerations (at least we frustrated them and made them work in the second half). For our season it changed nothing. We are a lower level team but battled enough this season to have a non-laughable argument we are starting the healing process. Sagarin #74 makes official that this team was on par with the 2019 Sagarin #73 team as the best full season Stanford team during our long seven year bowl drought. Our scoreboard outcomes heading into conference championship and bowl/playoff season were befitting #82, #97, #50, #142, #161, #99, #29, #116, #104, #96, #13, and #96. Big Game was a real outlier and the Sagarin ranking may slightly overstate our quality, but compared to Taylor teams that struggled to crack top 100, this felt like a modest but noticeable improvement. 

2. Here is where we credit and thank Frank Reich. This team exceeded expectations. Not by a lot. Not by anything that means a lick in recruiting. Not by anything that changes our fundamental status as one of the lowliest power programs trying to scratch and claw to a better lot in life. Not by anything that moves the needle on assessments of whether the Andrew Luck GM era is going to get this thing done. But we are better than we’ve been and we had no reason to assume that as a given when Reich was hired. Reich was a stabilizing force. He inherited a bad team and had to make the most of it with somebody else’s coaching staff and whatever tatters of culture remained after Shaw and Taylor. He left us better than he found us. I think that’s all anybody could have asked and I’m grateful for the contribution. If this is his last coaching I hope he’s proud of it. 

3. So anti-climactic to end our season against one of the best teams in America when we are, umm, not that. And that’s all the more the case when we just announced a new head coach who is literally starting the day after this pointless game. I am pretty sure all I or anybody else here cares about is who will be on Pritchard’s staff and which key players return. Alas, I’m a completionist, so one more time into the breach: this was a no-contest for which statistical analysis is pretty pointless. They stomped us and had their way. We only scored three non-garbage time points, only 0.375 per non-garbage drive, making the #12 points per drive defense look almost twice as stingy as the #1 legendary Ohio State defense. We gave up 6.0 points per non-garbage drive (only avoiding a touchdown once), making the #8 points per drive offense look more than two points per drive better than the #1 offense. In other words, Notre Dame just did whatever they wanted and experienced no resistance on either side of the ball (actually, all three phases considering the fake punt touchdown). 

4. This is one of the games in which stats are least edifying. Statistically, we were middle of the road compared to Notre Dame opponents in just about everything. But that’s the quirky result of an abject no contest decided by halftime and a subsequent half of football that muddied the statistical waters when the game was out of reach but Notre Dame wanted style points but they wanted to not risk star players but they did want to risk their hobbled star player for Voldemort glory but….just a nonsense game and especially nonsense second half. As it ended up, statistically the offense’s performance looked pretty good as we actually had the second most yards per play Notre Dame has given up in the last two months and thoroughly median on the season. As we know, however, these were empty calories consumed almost entirely in garbage time. A whopping 232 of our 312 yards came in garbage time. This told us nothing about our competitiveness, though it did produce career highlights for guys like Charlie Mirer and Marcus Brown. Just as we were the sixth most proficient yards per play offense against Notre Dame, we were also the sixth most stingy yards per play defense. But just as with the offense, the Domers had their way with us when it mattered and the statistically decent overall number really meant nothing for our competitiveness. While all of the component stats were middling, it would be misleading to draw encouragement from that as it was clearly a no contest and then garbage time, not real competition.

[msqueri]

1. That was an anti-climactic and weird way to end the season. At least now we can look forward. This game was a complete no-contest and pointless except in the awkward sense of Notre Dame feeling forced to take it seriously due to College Football Playoff style points considerations (at least we frustrated them and made them work in the second half). For our season it changed nothing. We are a lower level team but battled enough this season to have a non-laughable argument we are starting the healing process. Sagarin #74 makes official that this team was on par with the 2019 Sagarin #73 team as the best full season Stanford team during our long seven year bowl drought. Our scoreboard outcomes heading into conference championship and bowl/playoff season were befitting #82, #97, #50, #142, #161, #99, #29, #116, #104, #96, #13, and #96. Big Game was a real outlier and the Sagarin ranking may slightly overstate our quality, but compared to Taylor teams that struggled to crack top 100, this felt like a modest but noticeable improvement. 

2. Here is where we credit and thank Frank Reich. This team exceeded expectations. Not by a lot. Not by anything that means a lick in recruiting. Not by anything that changes our fundamental status as one of the lowliest power programs trying to scratch and claw to a better lot in life. Not by anything that moves the needle on assessments of whether the Andrew Luck GM era is going to get this thing done. But we are better than we’ve been and we had no reason to assume that as a given when Reich was hired. Reich was a stabilizing force. He inherited a bad team and had to make the most of it with somebody else’s coaching staff and whatever tatters of culture remained after Shaw and Taylor. He left us better than he found us. I think that’s all anybody could have asked and I’m grateful for the contribution. If this is his last coaching I hope he’s proud of it. 

3. So anti-climactic to end our season against one of the best teams in America when we are, umm, not that. And that’s all the more the case when we just announced a new head coach who is literally starting the day after this pointless game. I am pretty sure all I or anybody else here cares about is who will be on Pritchard’s staff and which key players return. Alas, I’m a completionist, so one more time into the breach: this was a no-contest for which statistical analysis is pretty pointless. They stomped us and had their way. We only scored three non-garbage time points, only 0.375 per non-garbage drive, making the #12 points per drive defense look almost twice as stingy as the #1 legendary Ohio State defense. We gave up 6.0 points per non-garbage drive (only avoiding a touchdown once), making the #8 points per drive offense look more than two points per drive better than the #1 offense. In other words, Notre Dame just did whatever they wanted and experienced no resistance on either side of the ball (actually, all three phases considering the fake punt touchdown). 

4. This is one of the games in which stats are least edifying. Statistically, we were middle of the road compared to Notre Dame opponents in just about everything. But that’s the quirky result of an abject no contest decided by halftime and a subsequent half of football that muddied the statistical waters when the game was out of reach but Notre Dame wanted style points but they wanted to not risk star players but they did want to risk their hobbled star player for Voldemort glory but….just a nonsense game and especially nonsense second half. As it ended up, statistically the offense’s performance looked pretty good as we actually had the second most yards per play Notre Dame has given up in the last two months and thoroughly median on the season. As we know, however, these were empty calories consumed almost entirely in garbage time. A whopping 232 of our 312 yards came in garbage time. This told us nothing about our competitiveness, though it did produce career highlights for guys like Charlie Mirer and Marcus Brown. Just as we were the sixth most proficient yards per play offense against Notre Dame, we were also the sixth most stingy yards per play defense. But just as with the offense, the Domers had their way with us when it mattered and the statistically decent overall number really meant nothing for our competitiveness. While all of the component stats were middling, it would be misleading to draw encouragement from that as it was clearly a no contest and then garbage time, not real competition.