11-30-2025, 09:30 PM
5. Finally we can turn the page on a miserable QB year. Brown remained his incredibly consistent bad self until the bitter end, with his fifth performance better than the depths Gulbranson plumbed but none of them reaching Gulbranson’s heights, all below a 50 Total QBR. This was the second week in a row Brown had a career day by Total QBR, so if one is really trying to find a case for improvement and future prospects you can point to that, however “career day” for him was 79th of 133 QBs nationally in Total QBR this week. On his redshirt freshman season in total, if he had had enough action to qualify for the national leaderboard, he would have been the 114th best QB nationally this year. For frame of reference with other dark ages quarterbacks, 2025 Gulbranson is 127th, 2024 Daniels was 85th, 2023 Daniels was 84th, 2022 McKee was 79th, 2021 McKee was 47th, 2020 Mills was 21st, and 2019 Mills was 16th. It should be clear to all that Stanford needs to find a new QB1 via the transfer portal.
6. Last week I talked about the subplot of guys still making bids for our offensive and defensive MVPs. As it happened, yesterday wasn’t very interesting for that either. We somehow had our star running back break his hand in the last practice snap of the season (so much for Ford having the most rushing yards since 2019….2024 Daniels holds on to that distinction). Our star receiver was not a zero yesterday but he definitely wasn’t a hero. The chain mover turned out to be Williams and Brown’s more unsung Mater Dei teammate Marcus Brown. [Moving the chains (first down) leaderboard: Marcus Brown (3), Blackburn (2), Roush (2), Williams (also drew a pass interference), Farrell, Tabb, Hampton, High, Libman, Irvin, Mirer] On defense, nobody did anything to change the picture that Rose was our top dog. Instead of MVP jockeying, the subplot that emerged and gave those of us who stuck with the team to the end a nice treat was the heartwarming success of QBWhat?!? Charlie Mirer. Mirer never got into a game in four years and then got in for the last six plays of our season, against his dad’s alma mater, and…..balled! Talk about making the most of your shot, delivering not one but three of our top highlights of the game, giving us a jolt with his legs and his arms. It was something to lift the esprit de corps after a slog of a game (and in some ways season).
7. As usual Rose was the beating heart of the defense. Fitting for him to close the year again making more plays than anybody. But the one defensive player who did the most to change the scoreboard (or would have if the punt block unit held up its end of the bargain) may have been somebody who we redshirted this year. Kaminski, playing in only his fourth game to preserve the redshirt, had successive QB hurries that forced a punt (or so we thought). While the 84 yard touchdown pass on a fake punt meant that ended up being yet another Domer touchdown, Kaminski’s sequence should be acknowledged. Then in garbage time he was all over the field in run defense. I am pumped about him and think sooner rather than later he will emerge as one of our better defenders. Our edge guys have been a disappointment (Cooper had a few plays yesterday but has mostly been bad, like Aybar, and Tafiti has at least been mediocre but not much more). I am excited to get Kaminski in the mix. Another guy who looks like we have something for the future is Nicholson, who added to a heck of a season with another really nice game, this time with a pass breakup and a stop to force a punt. He’s one of the guys we can build around. [With all such guys there’s of course first things first of fending off poachers] Not relevant for future roster construction but deserving of a shout out is Hunter Barth, who played with his hair on fire on both defense and special teams in the last game of his career. Mattingly, Staples, and Patterson had a few contributions across meaningful action and garbage time, with Mattingly especially standing out. Garland had enough good plays in garbage time that it may be confidence-building for a redshirting guy, and Briehler was another guy in that category who showed up in the box score. Great to see Umeh out there. I think the defense has some pieces, I’m just on pins and needles waiting to see if we can keep a few of the veteran difference makers (Rose, Green, Wright, Galvan).
8. Being humiliated on an 80+ yard fake punt was a fitting end to this abortion of a special teams season. The specialists were fine - but not great - and the units were disgraceful this season. Let us never speak of whatever these special teams were again. I will say that in this one I didn’t mind the attempts to kick it off an up man and force an easy turnover; even though it didn’t work that well so think it’s well worth it in a game we were so thoroughly outgunned. High did his normal thing of taking back returns and getting tackled before where a fair catch would have put us (giving back nine yards on two returns). Dubre, Edwards, Barth, Neely, and Holt had coverage tackles. Flintoft was ok with net punts of 36 to the 39 (bad), 41 to the 15 (solid), 52 to the 23 (great), and 39 to the 36 (mediocre after allowing a good return). Kenney made both field goals, 39 and 44 yarders, which was a relief and good way to end the year after a shaky late season.
9. Game balls: Charlie Mirer, Gabe Kaminski, Emmet Kenney, Thomas Merkle
10. The Tavita Pritchard era begins. God help us all. Seriously, this could work but is a deflating way to go into an offseason after hearing about all the alignment of university commitment to compete at a high level in football. We will now have a very interesting two months ahead. Let’s see whether the retention, recruitment, poaching, coaching hire, and vibes cultivation Luck and Pritchard can muster makes us feel better or worse than we do now. We are coming off an improved but still bad season punctuated by a hiring that doubles down on a very Stanford and Stanford Man-focused theory of how we can differentiate ourselves in this era. It’s not sexy and it certainly doesn’t rely on generals who have shown they know how to turn a program around. But we will be very aligned and should be able to recruit. Let’s see what these guys can do. Go Card!
6. Last week I talked about the subplot of guys still making bids for our offensive and defensive MVPs. As it happened, yesterday wasn’t very interesting for that either. We somehow had our star running back break his hand in the last practice snap of the season (so much for Ford having the most rushing yards since 2019….2024 Daniels holds on to that distinction). Our star receiver was not a zero yesterday but he definitely wasn’t a hero. The chain mover turned out to be Williams and Brown’s more unsung Mater Dei teammate Marcus Brown. [Moving the chains (first down) leaderboard: Marcus Brown (3), Blackburn (2), Roush (2), Williams (also drew a pass interference), Farrell, Tabb, Hampton, High, Libman, Irvin, Mirer] On defense, nobody did anything to change the picture that Rose was our top dog. Instead of MVP jockeying, the subplot that emerged and gave those of us who stuck with the team to the end a nice treat was the heartwarming success of QBWhat?!? Charlie Mirer. Mirer never got into a game in four years and then got in for the last six plays of our season, against his dad’s alma mater, and…..balled! Talk about making the most of your shot, delivering not one but three of our top highlights of the game, giving us a jolt with his legs and his arms. It was something to lift the esprit de corps after a slog of a game (and in some ways season).
7. As usual Rose was the beating heart of the defense. Fitting for him to close the year again making more plays than anybody. But the one defensive player who did the most to change the scoreboard (or would have if the punt block unit held up its end of the bargain) may have been somebody who we redshirted this year. Kaminski, playing in only his fourth game to preserve the redshirt, had successive QB hurries that forced a punt (or so we thought). While the 84 yard touchdown pass on a fake punt meant that ended up being yet another Domer touchdown, Kaminski’s sequence should be acknowledged. Then in garbage time he was all over the field in run defense. I am pumped about him and think sooner rather than later he will emerge as one of our better defenders. Our edge guys have been a disappointment (Cooper had a few plays yesterday but has mostly been bad, like Aybar, and Tafiti has at least been mediocre but not much more). I am excited to get Kaminski in the mix. Another guy who looks like we have something for the future is Nicholson, who added to a heck of a season with another really nice game, this time with a pass breakup and a stop to force a punt. He’s one of the guys we can build around. [With all such guys there’s of course first things first of fending off poachers] Not relevant for future roster construction but deserving of a shout out is Hunter Barth, who played with his hair on fire on both defense and special teams in the last game of his career. Mattingly, Staples, and Patterson had a few contributions across meaningful action and garbage time, with Mattingly especially standing out. Garland had enough good plays in garbage time that it may be confidence-building for a redshirting guy, and Briehler was another guy in that category who showed up in the box score. Great to see Umeh out there. I think the defense has some pieces, I’m just on pins and needles waiting to see if we can keep a few of the veteran difference makers (Rose, Green, Wright, Galvan).
8. Being humiliated on an 80+ yard fake punt was a fitting end to this abortion of a special teams season. The specialists were fine - but not great - and the units were disgraceful this season. Let us never speak of whatever these special teams were again. I will say that in this one I didn’t mind the attempts to kick it off an up man and force an easy turnover; even though it didn’t work that well so think it’s well worth it in a game we were so thoroughly outgunned. High did his normal thing of taking back returns and getting tackled before where a fair catch would have put us (giving back nine yards on two returns). Dubre, Edwards, Barth, Neely, and Holt had coverage tackles. Flintoft was ok with net punts of 36 to the 39 (bad), 41 to the 15 (solid), 52 to the 23 (great), and 39 to the 36 (mediocre after allowing a good return). Kenney made both field goals, 39 and 44 yarders, which was a relief and good way to end the year after a shaky late season.
9. Game balls: Charlie Mirer, Gabe Kaminski, Emmet Kenney, Thomas Merkle
10. The Tavita Pritchard era begins. God help us all. Seriously, this could work but is a deflating way to go into an offseason after hearing about all the alignment of university commitment to compete at a high level in football. We will now have a very interesting two months ahead. Let’s see whether the retention, recruitment, poaching, coaching hire, and vibes cultivation Luck and Pritchard can muster makes us feel better or worse than we do now. We are coming off an improved but still bad season punctuated by a hiring that doubles down on a very Stanford and Stanford Man-focused theory of how we can differentiate ourselves in this era. It’s not sexy and it certainly doesn’t rely on generals who have shown they know how to turn a program around. But we will be very aligned and should be able to recruit. Let’s see what these guys can do. Go Card!