[troyc]

Breaking down a gut-punching loss on the newest show. What went right? (plenty, actually) What went wrong? (everything in the last 1:47) What's next? (who knows?) Plus, postgame thoughts from David Shaw, Brycen Tremayne, and Jonathan McGill.

Download, listen, subscribe, rate & review. Appreciate you checking out the show!

Troy C

The TreeCast with Troy Clardy: Buzzard Luck (October 9, 2022)

[troyc]

Breaking down a gut-punching loss on the newest show. What went right? (plenty, actually) What went wrong? (everything in the last 1:47) What's next? (who knows?) Plus, postgame thoughts from David Shaw, Brycen Tremayne, and Jonathan McGill.

Download, listen, subscribe, rate & review. Appreciate you checking out the show!

Troy C

The TreeCast with Troy Clardy: Buzzard Luck (October 9, 2022)

[BostonCard]

There were plenty of things that went wrong before the last two minutes. For example, if we hadn’t off-sided on the OSU missed field goal, we would probably be looking at overtime at worst after the touchdown at the last minute. If we hadn’t given up a 99 yard touchdown drive in the first half, the game would have been out of reach.  Had we made OSU take a minute longer in their penultimate drive, we would have been kneeling down in our last series.  Lots of coulda/woulda/shoulda.

BC

[BostonCard]

There were plenty of things that went wrong before the last two minutes. For example, if we hadn’t off-sided on the OSU missed field goal, we would probably be looking at overtime at worst after the touchdown at the last minute. If we hadn’t given up a 99 yard touchdown drive in the first half, the game would have been out of reach.  Had we made OSU take a minute longer in their penultimate drive, we would have been kneeling down in our last series.  Lots of coulda/woulda/shoulda.

BC

[winflop]

Troy it was way more than the last two minutes. It was major changes away from what was working that allowed OSU to even have that opportunity:

- the Ashton Daniels no-motion wildcat on 3rd & goal has to be among Shaw's dumbest play calls of all time, and that's really saying something. McKee was showing that he was on not only from the pocket but on the move to BOTH sides. He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER

- going away from the aggressive defense that contributed GREATLY to a 14-point second half lead. We've seen that story work before, but that was with VERY different personnel. OSU hadn't shown any ability to solve it, and Anderson decides to turtle defense through pretty much the entire fourth quarter

Much of your analysis of what went right was spot on, but you seem to have a major blind spot for the poor coaching decisions that have plagued this program over the last few years. Is it all on the coaches? Of course not, but if I have a choice between blaming highly-paid professionals and 17-22 year old young men, I will always bias strongly toward the former

[winflop]

Troy it was way more than the last two minutes. It was major changes away from what was working that allowed OSU to even have that opportunity:

- the Ashton Daniels no-motion wildcat on 3rd & goal has to be among Shaw's dumbest play calls of all time, and that's really saying something. McKee was showing that he was on not only from the pocket but on the move to BOTH sides. He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER

- going away from the aggressive defense that contributed GREATLY to a 14-point second half lead. We've seen that story work before, but that was with VERY different personnel. OSU hadn't shown any ability to solve it, and Anderson decides to turtle defense through pretty much the entire fourth quarter

Much of your analysis of what went right was spot on, but you seem to have a major blind spot for the poor coaching decisions that have plagued this program over the last few years. Is it all on the coaches? Of course not, but if I have a choice between blaming highly-paid professionals and 17-22 year old young men, I will always bias strongly toward the former

[gailtate]

Troy it was way more than the last two minutes. It was major changes away from what was working that allowed OSU to even have that opportunity:

- the Ashton Daniels no-motion wildcat on 3rd & goal has to be among Shaw's dumbest play calls of all time, and that's really saying something. McKee was showing that he was on not only from the pocket but on the move to BOTH sides. He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER

- going away from the aggressive defense that contributed GREATLY to a 14-point second half lead. We've seen that story work before, but that was with VERY different personnel. OSU hadn't shown any ability to solve it, and Anderson decides to turtle defense through pretty much the entire fourth quarter

Much of your analysis of what went right was spot on, but you seem to have a major blind spot for the poor coaching decisions that have plagued this program over the last few years. Is it all on the coaches? Of course not, but if I have a choice between blaming highly-paid professionals and 17-22 year old young men, I will always bias strongly toward the former

"He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER'"

Uh, I seem to remember a certain Fiesta Bowl after 2011 season...

[gailtate]

Troy it was way more than the last two minutes. It was major changes away from what was working that allowed OSU to even have that opportunity:

- the Ashton Daniels no-motion wildcat on 3rd & goal has to be among Shaw's dumbest play calls of all time, and that's really saying something. McKee was showing that he was on not only from the pocket but on the move to BOTH sides. He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER

- going away from the aggressive defense that contributed GREATLY to a 14-point second half lead. We've seen that story work before, but that was with VERY different personnel. OSU hadn't shown any ability to solve it, and Anderson decides to turtle defense through pretty much the entire fourth quarter

Much of your analysis of what went right was spot on, but you seem to have a major blind spot for the poor coaching decisions that have plagued this program over the last few years. Is it all on the coaches? Of course not, but if I have a choice between blaming highly-paid professionals and 17-22 year old young men, I will always bias strongly toward the former

"He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER'"

Uh, I seem to remember a certain Fiesta Bowl after 2011 season...

[BostonCard]

- the Ashton Daniels no-motion wildcat on 3rd & goal has to be among Shaw's dumbest play calls of all time, and that's really saying something. McKee was showing that he was on not only from the pocket but on the move to BOTH sides. He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER

When was there a third and goal that we didn’t score on?  Are you talking about the third and four from the OSU 34 on our penultimate drive?  We didn’t even need to score on that to win, we just needed to get a first down, and we would have won the game, kneeling the rest of the way.

But that did occur in the last two minutes.

BC

[BostonCard]

- the Ashton Daniels no-motion wildcat on 3rd & goal has to be among Shaw's dumbest play calls of all time, and that's really saying something. McKee was showing that he was on not only from the pocket but on the move to BOTH sides. He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER

When was there a third and goal that we didn’t score on?  Are you talking about the third and four from the OSU 34 on our penultimate drive?  We didn’t even need to score on that to win, we just needed to get a first down, and we would have won the game, kneeling the rest of the way.

But that did occur in the last two minutes.

BC

[winflop]

- the Ashton Daniels no-motion wildcat on 3rd & goal has to be among Shaw's dumbest play calls of all time, and that's really saying something. McKee was showing that he was on not only from the pocket but on the move to BOTH sides. He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER

When was there a third and goal that we didn’t score on?  Are you talking about the third and four from the OSU 34 on our penultimate drive?  We didn’t even need to score on that to win, we just needed to get a first down, and we would have won the game, kneeling the rest of the way.

But that did occur in the last two minutes.

BC

My bad I got a bit confused. Still one of the dumbest play calls in program history, which really is saying something

To be perfectly honest, IDGAF any more. I returned all of my tickets to the University and told Muir that I won't attend another football game until there's a new head coach. Might not even watch on TV, or if I do it will be on while I'm doing something else.

[winflop]

- the Ashton Daniels no-motion wildcat on 3rd & goal has to be among Shaw's dumbest play calls of all time, and that's really saying something. McKee was showing that he was on not only from the pocket but on the move to BOTH sides. He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER

When was there a third and goal that we didn’t score on?  Are you talking about the third and four from the OSU 34 on our penultimate drive?  We didn’t even need to score on that to win, we just needed to get a first down, and we would have won the game, kneeling the rest of the way.

But that did occur in the last two minutes.

BC

My bad I got a bit confused. Still one of the dumbest play calls in program history, which really is saying something

To be perfectly honest, IDGAF any more. I returned all of my tickets to the University and told Muir that I won't attend another football game until there's a new head coach. Might not even watch on TV, or if I do it will be on while I'm doing something else.

[BostonCard]

I don’t know. I went to the game with my son and had a good time.  Would have been better to have won, of course, and definitely miss the atmosphere that came with larger crowds that were really into it, but, OTOH, there was plenty of free parking on Lausen, there were almost no lines for restrooms or concessions, and it was a nice, crisp, fall evening of football.

Not trying to push anyone who doesn’t enjoy it to go.  But I don’t know that I truly buy that YDGAF; you are posting about your supposed lack of caring on a Stanford message board and took the time to lobby Muir to fire Shaw, just like I never believed that LW was rearranging his sock drawer.

BC

[BostonCard]

I don’t know. I went to the game with my son and had a good time.  Would have been better to have won, of course, and definitely miss the atmosphere that came with larger crowds that were really into it, but, OTOH, there was plenty of free parking on Lausen, there were almost no lines for restrooms or concessions, and it was a nice, crisp, fall evening of football.

Not trying to push anyone who doesn’t enjoy it to go.  But I don’t know that I truly buy that YDGAF; you are posting about your supposed lack of caring on a Stanford message board and took the time to lobby Muir to fire Shaw, just like I never believed that LW was rearranging his sock drawer.

BC

[doubledub]

Clarity is a nice guy, too nice. When will the press stop pulling the punches on Shaw? Even SI online has him on the hot seat, the hottest in the country and Troy doesn't even criticize him? C' mon...

[doubledub]

Clarity is a nice guy, too nice. When will the press stop pulling the punches on Shaw? Even SI online has him on the hot seat, the hottest in the country and Troy doesn't even criticize him? C' mon...

[chrisk]

Clarity is a nice guy, too nice. When will the press stop pulling the punches on Shaw? Even SI online has him on the hot seat, the hottest in the country and Troy doesn't even criticize him? C' mon...

Did you check the credentials of the writer who posted the David Shaw hot seat article to SI?

[chrisk]

Clarity is a nice guy, too nice. When will the press stop pulling the punches on Shaw? Even SI online has him on the hot seat, the hottest in the country and Troy doesn't even criticize him? C' mon...

Did you check the credentials of the writer who posted the David Shaw hot seat article to SI?

[BostonCard]

Clarity is a nice guy, too nice. When will the press stop pulling the punches on Shaw? Even SI online has him on the hot seat, the hottest in the country and Troy doesn't even criticize him? C' mon...

Im sure he will give you your money back if you complain loudly enough.

BC

[BostonCard]

Clarity is a nice guy, too nice. When will the press stop pulling the punches on Shaw? Even SI online has him on the hot seat, the hottest in the country and Troy doesn't even criticize him? C' mon...

Im sure he will give you your money back if you complain loudly enough.

BC

[Brickcity]

Clarity is a nice guy, too nice. When will the press stop pulling the punches on Shaw? Even SI online has him on the hot seat, the hottest in the country and Troy doesn't even criticize him? C' mon...

Im sure he will give you your money back if you complain loudly enough.

BC

I think someone mentioned that Clardy is employed by Stanford - or perhaps a contractor. That would explain everything.

[Brickcity]

Clarity is a nice guy, too nice. When will the press stop pulling the punches on Shaw? Even SI online has him on the hot seat, the hottest in the country and Troy doesn't even criticize him? C' mon...

Im sure he will give you your money back if you complain loudly enough.

BC

I think someone mentioned that Clardy is employed by Stanford - or perhaps a contractor. That would explain everything.

[Cabezagrande]

Happy Birthday Troy!

[Cabezagrande]

Happy Birthday Troy!

[JohnR34231]

Clarity is a nice guy, too nice. When will the press stop pulling the punches on Shaw? Even SI online has him on the hot seat, the hottest in the country and Troy doesn't even criticize him? C' mon...

Im sure he will give you your money back if you complain loudly enough.

BC

Troy is the kind of commentator who is always going to try to find positives and accentuate them. Anyone whom that bothers shouldn't listen to him.

[JohnR34231]

Clarity is a nice guy, too nice. When will the press stop pulling the punches on Shaw? Even SI online has him on the hot seat, the hottest in the country and Troy doesn't even criticize him? C' mon...

Im sure he will give you your money back if you complain loudly enough.

BC

Troy is the kind of commentator who is always going to try to find positives and accentuate them. Anyone whom that bothers shouldn't listen to him.

[troyc]

Gee...tough crowd! (except for cabezagrande. Thank you)

There were plenty of things that went wrong before the last two minutes. For example, if we hadn’t off-sided on the OSU missed field goal, we would probably be looking at overtime at worst after the touchdown at the last minute. If we hadn’t given up a 99 yard touchdown drive in the first half, the game would have been out of reach.  Had we made OSU take a minute longer in their penultimate drive, we would have been kneeling down in our last series.  Lots of coulda/woulda/shoulda.

BC

Yep, all true. I specifically went over the offsides & the 99-yard drive on the show (and brought up a pretty damning stat along the way). Also mentioned how Stanford had a chance to go up 24-7 but went 3 & out twice instead. Also discussed how I thought Stanford spent much of the 4Q running at a faster tempo than the situation probably dictated. That first 58:13 wasn't a totally clean game for Stanford by any stretch, as I conveyed on the show. It was also almost good enough to win...until it wasn't.

Next show posting on Thursday. Hope you all give it a listen....appreciate those of you who do!

Troy C

[troyc]

Gee...tough crowd! (except for cabezagrande. Thank you)

There were plenty of things that went wrong before the last two minutes. For example, if we hadn’t off-sided on the OSU missed field goal, we would probably be looking at overtime at worst after the touchdown at the last minute. If we hadn’t given up a 99 yard touchdown drive in the first half, the game would have been out of reach.  Had we made OSU take a minute longer in their penultimate drive, we would have been kneeling down in our last series.  Lots of coulda/woulda/shoulda.

BC

Yep, all true. I specifically went over the offsides & the 99-yard drive on the show (and brought up a pretty damning stat along the way). Also mentioned how Stanford had a chance to go up 24-7 but went 3 & out twice instead. Also discussed how I thought Stanford spent much of the 4Q running at a faster tempo than the situation probably dictated. That first 58:13 wasn't a totally clean game for Stanford by any stretch, as I conveyed on the show. It was also almost good enough to win...until it wasn't.

Next show posting on Thursday. Hope you all give it a listen....appreciate those of you who do!

Troy C

[JJJ]

Happy birthday Troy! Don’t let the noise bother you. :)

[JJJ]

Happy birthday Troy! Don’t let the noise bother you. :)

[Beeg_Dawg]

Troy it was way more than the last two minutes. It was major changes away from what was working that allowed OSU to even have that opportunity:

- the Ashton Daniels no-motion wildcat on 3rd & goal has to be among Shaw's dumbest play calls of all time, and that's really saying something. McKee was showing that he was on not only from the pocket but on the move to BOTH sides. He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER

- going away from the aggressive defense that contributed GREATLY to a 14-point second half lead. We've seen that story work before, but that was with VERY different personnel. OSU hadn't shown any ability to solve it, and Anderson decides to turtle defense through pretty much the entire fourth quarter

Much of your analysis of what went right was spot on, but you seem to have a major blind spot for the poor coaching decisions that have plagued this program over the last few years. Is it all on the coaches? Of course not, but if I have a choice between blaming highly-paid professionals and 17-22 year old young men, I will always bias strongly toward the former

"He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER'"

Uh, I seem to remember a certain Fiesta Bowl after 2011 season...

Beat me to it.  I do have a vague memory of Shaw (as OC) calling a pass play on our last position against Arizona in 2009.  Toby Gearhart was having a career day, but was no where to be found on that play.

Remember that game well.  We gave up 14 points in the last quarter.  Also left the game convinced Richard Sherman would never amount to anything a D back.

[Beeg_Dawg]

Troy it was way more than the last two minutes. It was major changes away from what was working that allowed OSU to even have that opportunity:

- the Ashton Daniels no-motion wildcat on 3rd & goal has to be among Shaw's dumbest play calls of all time, and that's really saying something. McKee was showing that he was on not only from the pocket but on the move to BOTH sides. He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER

- going away from the aggressive defense that contributed GREATLY to a 14-point second half lead. We've seen that story work before, but that was with VERY different personnel. OSU hadn't shown any ability to solve it, and Anderson decides to turtle defense through pretty much the entire fourth quarter

Much of your analysis of what went right was spot on, but you seem to have a major blind spot for the poor coaching decisions that have plagued this program over the last few years. Is it all on the coaches? Of course not, but if I have a choice between blaming highly-paid professionals and 17-22 year old young men, I will always bias strongly toward the former

"He's your best player on the field on either side of the ball, and you pull him off the field on arguably the biggest play of the game? A TD there and the game is OVER'"

Uh, I seem to remember a certain Fiesta Bowl after 2011 season...

Beat me to it.  I do have a vague memory of Shaw (as OC) calling a pass play on our last position against Arizona in 2009.  Toby Gearhart was having a career day, but was no where to be found on that play.

Remember that game well.  We gave up 14 points in the last quarter.  Also left the game convinced Richard Sherman would never amount to anything a D back.

[BostonCard]

Wasn’t there a game against Cal, where Gerhart was having a career day, but we tried to win it on the arm of redshirt freshman Andrew Luck, who threw an interception in the end zone?

That being said, I thought the knock on Shaw as offensive mastermind was that he was a coordinator in name only under Harbaugh, and not really responsible for play calling.

BC

[BostonCard]

Wasn’t there a game against Cal, where Gerhart was having a career day, but we tried to win it on the arm of redshirt freshman Andrew Luck, who threw an interception in the end zone?

That being said, I thought the knock on Shaw as offensive mastermind was that he was a coordinator in name only under Harbaugh, and not really responsible for play calling.

BC

[winflop]

But I don’t know that I truly buy that YDGAF; you are posting about your supposed lack of caring on a Stanford message board and took the time to lobby Muir to fire Shaw, just like I never believed that LW was rearranging his sock drawer.


BC

To be clear, I still care a lot about the program but IDGAF about the rest of this season or any future season where Shaw is our HC. I hope they win all of their remaining games but I doubt they'll win more than one and won't be surprised at all if they go 1-11.

I will rarely be commenting on any in-game or post-game thread, if at all. I probably also won't be listening to Troy's podcast either. This team isn't worth my time.

[winflop]

But I don’t know that I truly buy that YDGAF; you are posting about your supposed lack of caring on a Stanford message board and took the time to lobby Muir to fire Shaw, just like I never believed that LW was rearranging his sock drawer.


BC

To be clear, I still care a lot about the program but IDGAF about the rest of this season or any future season where Shaw is our HC. I hope they win all of their remaining games but I doubt they'll win more than one and won't be surprised at all if they go 1-11.

I will rarely be commenting on any in-game or post-game thread, if at all. I probably also won't be listening to Troy's podcast either. This team isn't worth my time.

[CardinalSagehen]

Next show posting on Thursday. Hope you all give it a listen....appreciate those of you who do!

Troy C

It is hard to relive the losses, but I am still listening! You do a great job.

You ask the questions that need to be asked, without sounding like a jerk.  Coach Shaw does not exactly respond well to blunt questions. We saw this a few years ago with the retired writer from the Chronicle whose name escapes me - it was evident that Shaw thought that guy was mean-spirited and avoided giving him any meaningful responses. 

You have been interviewing Shaw twice a week for many seasons. It's obviously not constructive to frame the questions negatively and make him clam up.  For example, on Saturday night, you asked something like, "Can you talk about the last offensive drive?  Things that went well and maybe didn't go your way." Shaw answered by defending his call on 3rd-and-4. That was the question within the question, and he got it. Some readers of this message board may not appreciate Shaw's answers, but it's not your job to answer the questions.

Finally, I will say that if your podcast were entirely negative about Stanford Football, I would not listen.  For me, there has to be some optimism interspersed with realism.

I respect your approach.

[CardinalSagehen]

Next show posting on Thursday. Hope you all give it a listen....appreciate those of you who do!

Troy C

It is hard to relive the losses, but I am still listening! You do a great job.

You ask the questions that need to be asked, without sounding like a jerk.  Coach Shaw does not exactly respond well to blunt questions. We saw this a few years ago with the retired writer from the Chronicle whose name escapes me - it was evident that Shaw thought that guy was mean-spirited and avoided giving him any meaningful responses. 

You have been interviewing Shaw twice a week for many seasons. It's obviously not constructive to frame the questions negatively and make him clam up.  For example, on Saturday night, you asked something like, "Can you talk about the last offensive drive?  Things that went well and maybe didn't go your way." Shaw answered by defending his call on 3rd-and-4. That was the question within the question, and he got it. Some readers of this message board may not appreciate Shaw's answers, but it's not your job to answer the questions.

Finally, I will say that if your podcast were entirely negative about Stanford Football, I would not listen.  For me, there has to be some optimism interspersed with realism.

I respect your approach.

[troyc]

I think someone mentioned that Clardy is employed by Stanford - or perhaps a contractor. That would explain everything.

No, actually, it would not explain everything. Since I'm a nice guy, I'll straighten this out for you.

Stanford Athletics pays me to call play-by-play for its livestream broadcasts. Stanford Athletics does not pay me to do a podcast. Moreover, it has no editorial control, influence, or oversight of the show's content—including the host's opinions.

Now that I have explained everything, I'm considering this matter closed. New show has just been submitted and posts in the morning. Go Stanford.

Troy C

[troyc]

I think someone mentioned that Clardy is employed by Stanford - or perhaps a contractor. That would explain everything.

No, actually, it would not explain everything. Since I'm a nice guy, I'll straighten this out for you.

Stanford Athletics pays me to call play-by-play for its livestream broadcasts. Stanford Athletics does not pay me to do a podcast. Moreover, it has no editorial control, influence, or oversight of the show's content—including the host's opinions.

Now that I have explained everything, I'm considering this matter closed. New show has just been submitted and posts in the morning. Go Stanford.

Troy C