It never gets old

[BostonCard]

With our sixth win of the year, we qualify for our 10th straight bowl game.  Hard to believe that it was only 12 years ago, when Walt Harris "led" us to a 1-11 year and people openly wondered if we would ever be competitive in football again. 

Now, a 6-4 season (so far) qualifies as a disappointment.

BC

[Mick]

With our sixth win of the year, we qualify for our 10th straight bowl game.  Hard to believe that it was only 12 years ago, when Walt Harris "led" us to a 1-11 year and people openly wondered if we would ever be competitive in football again. 

Now, a 6-4 season (so far) qualifies as a disappointment.

BC

Honestly think we'll end up 9-4.

[barrister7]

With our sixth win of the year, we qualify for our 10th straight bowl game.  Hard to believe that it was only 12 years ago, when Walt Harris "led" us to a 1-11 year and people openly wondered if we would ever be competitive in football again. 

Now, a 6-4 season (so far) qualifies as a disappointment.

BC

Honestly think we'll end up 9-4.

There was a great article about Richard Sherman in the Athletic this morning  It dealt with his role as a mentor to the young db's of the 49er's this year.  When asked about his ability to sustain through the many  losses they have had this year, Richard said he draws his inspiration from the 1-11 season in his last year at Stanford.  He said if you can make through that much adversity, you can put up with anything.  I guess he also includes us fans who will forever bear the scars of that campaign.

[French Rage]

This will be our 30th bowl game.

It took 70 years to get to the first 10 bowls.
It then took us 41 years to get to the next 10.
It then took us 10 years to get to the last 10.

(Yes I know this is skewed by there being a LOT more bowls nowadays.)

[BostonCard]

With our sixth win of the year, we qualify for our 10th straight bowl game.  Hard to believe that it was only 12 years ago, when Walt Harris "led" us to a 1-11 year and people openly wondered if we would ever be competitive in football again. 

Now, a 6-4 season (so far) qualifies as a disappointment.

BC

Honestly think we'll end up 9-4.

There was a great article about Richard Sherman in the Athletic this morning  It dealt with his role as a mentor to the young db's of the 49er's this year.  When asked about his ability to sustain through the many  losses they have had this year, Richard said he draws his inspiration from the 1-11 season in his last year at Stanford.  He said if you can make through that much adversity, you can put up with anything.  I guess he also includes us fans who will forever bear the scars of that campaign.

Were the 49ers to sport a 6-4 record they'd have the inside track at a wildcard berth.  The difference between 1-11 and 2-7 is much smaller than between 2-7 and 6-4.

To put this another way, even the relatively "down" stretch of 2016-2018, where we have gone 25-12 is one of the most successful three year stretches in Stanford football.  Yes, I remember that traumatic 1-11 season, but I also remember the 4-7 Bill Walsh team that featured Steve Stenstrom and went 4-7 (my freshman year) or the 3-7-1 team the next year.  And I remember Willingham's 1997 and 98 teams (5-6 and 3-8 teams).  Anyone who thinks that consistent above .500 football by Stanford is the natural order of things has a fairly short memory.

Becoming bowl eligible, while fairly ho hum these days, never gets old and should never be taken for granted. 

BC

[d4cohn]

This will be our 30th bowl game.

It took 70 years to get to the first 10 bowls.
It then took us 41 years to get to the next 10.
It then took us 10 years to get to the last 10.

(Yes I know this is skewed by there being a LOT more bowls nowadays.)

Eh. Depending on how our last two games go, our worst record heading into a bowl over the last ten years may still be 2014's 7-5 campaign (when we subsequently destroyed Maryland by a bunch in the Foster Farms Bowl). Since 2009, we have almost always qualified for bowls rather easily, with multiple games to spare. The skew toward there being a lot more bowls nowadays would be a stronger point if we were scraping into bowls over the last decade. Almost always, we simply haven't.

[Card Fan in OR]

I am not the biggest fan of Shaw interviews, but I stuck around the television for today's. When the interviewer excitedly ask how Shaw felt about becoming bowl-eligible, he replied: 

"That's great. That's great. That's a low bar for us, but....."


Now that is an attitude I appreciate hearing articulated.

I do like how he praises players that have good games, though.

[Austroturf]

This will be our 30th bowl game.

It took 70 years to get to the first 10 bowls.
It then took us 41 years to get to the next 10.
It then took us 10 years to get to the last 10.

(Yes I know this is skewed by there being a LOT more bowls nowadays.)

Yes, I am old enough to remember the days when only one team from the Pac 8 made a bowl game: the Rose Bowl.  Everybody else was home for the holidays.  My father was AD at a Power-Five university when I was young; and it was during this era that the first discussions arose about multiple teams from a conference being bowl eligible.  Back in those days, USC dominated the Pac-8, with UCLA sneaking into the picture now and then.  Originally, only a few additional teams got bowl bids outside the classics (Rose, Sugar, Orange, Peach).  This year, it is conceivable that 10 PAC-12 teams will be bowl eligible.  For this to happen, USC, Arizona and Colorado each need to win one more game.  Seven Pac-12 teams are already bowl eligible.

[akiddoc]

With our sixth win of the year, we qualify for our 10th straight bowl game.  Hard to believe that it was only 12 years ago, when Walt Harris "led" us to a 1-11 year and people openly wondered if we would ever be competitive in football again. 

Now, a 6-4 season (so far) qualifies as a disappointment.

BC

Honestly think we'll end up 9-4.

There was a great article about Richard Sherman in the Athletic this morning  It dealt with his role as a mentor to the young db's of the 49er's this year.  When asked about his ability to sustain through the many  losses they have had this year, Richard said he draws his inspiration from the 1-11 season in his last year at Stanford.  He said if you can make through that much adversity, you can put up with anything.  I guess he also includes us fans who will forever bear the scars of that campaign.

I'm pretty sure that was Sherman's first year. He finished as a cornerback under Harbaugh his 5th year at Stanford.

[winflop]

Richard said he draws his inspiration from the 1-11 season in his last year at Stanford.  He said if you can make through that much adversity, you can put up with anything.  I guess he also includes us fans who will forever bear the scars of that campaign.

The scars aren't just that season, they include the four previous ones as well, which is why I refer to those two coaches as Idiotface and He Who Must Not Be Named.

But then I remember the decade-plus since and I smile.

[Spiny_Norman]

You know what else never gets old? Beating Cal.

Beat Cal!!