Member for

13 years 3 months
Points
105.00

Recent Comments

Date Title Body
Durkin, on the other hand,

Will kick ass everywhere. 

It's a bit weird

I've followed Harbaugh from Stanford/49ers. He's a weird guy from a coaching staff perspective, in that people will sometimes randomly be booted out of the inner circle for no apparent reason. For example, Shaw was the #1 offensive assistant...until, suddenly, he wasn't. 

Drevno's the weirdest guy from this perspective. He got demoted in the SD --> Stanford transition. Goes to the 49ers. Randomly makes a lateral move from SF OL coach to USC OL coach. Now getting promoted? Very odd. 

He had a so-so reputation as a recruiter for Stanford, as well. 

Don't think you'd need to worry

The reason Cal/NW was on so late was its limited interest to folks back east. Michigan automatically would have much more interest, whomever they played. 

NW looked bad

They're overranked at 22. 

Still, even though Cal's starting a true freshmen QB, Tedford left Dykes a ton of skill position talent and they won't see a ton of hurry-up spread offense in conference. 

More disturbing to me -- if I were a Wildcat fan -- was their inability to punch through on offense. They could've finished Cal off and didn't. Not a good team. 

re: Stanford

Well, the two newer guys have turned out to be pretty good. Yankey is a 1st/2nd round type and Fleming is a more than solid starter. While bama's talent in that line was probably better, Stanford's were pretty darn good themselves.

I don't think it's dumb

Necessarily, at least. If you figure how limited the data points they have to work with -- a limited number of games, an even more limited number of competitive games, an even more limited number of competitve games against fellow BCS/FBS-level prospects -- you just have a greed for more data. And if a guy just keeps on doing well and solidifying a positive impression, that might make him a better bet than a guy who declines to camp, for whatever reason.

The risk is recency bias, of course.

Ugh

Low-table EPL? Hard to see how he'll develop there. Hoping no longballs for days, but ughhh. 

 

Would've strongly preferred a Germany or Italy move. 

Committed to LSU

Miles likes his chest.

It's my understanding that

Swain definitely has a Stanford offer, though the class may fill at his position before he gets a chance to commit. I believe he also has an Oregon offer, though I don't know them very well.

If Carlisle is getting a lot of carries for you

You're going to be godawful on offense. 

it's weird he hasn't gotten more offers

Talented QB, from what I've heard. Maybe he's everyone's second choice or something. 

Strongly favors

Stanford and Cal, apparently. Cal fans think they'll get him, but they're a generally delusional bunch. Still, likes the northern California schools, and all things being equal would prefer a spread team.

EDIT: should note that it's unclear who will get the 2015 QB offer from Stanford (or even whether an elite QB will be interested in Stanford if Keller Chryst commits) between Town, Rosen, and the other 2015 QBs camping at Stanford. 

It's definitely not

I don't know what's happening here, but the Scout Stanford site is not as good as the Rivals one (which has not reported anything comparable.)

I wouldn't worry about Stanford for Westphal. He hasn't been on the radar previously, and the school has been quite aggressive offering DBs -- 18 or 19 by my count.

Not to mention

The number of times Tommy Rees had to bail them out. Golson was injured in, what, two or three games last year? (besides the times he was pulled for bad performance)

Right now?

Yes. Dawkins stinnnnks.

Stanford had a great run for more than a decade between Mike Montgomery and Trent Johnson; with admissions getting easier at the end of Johnson's tenure, combined with the general success of the program, you'd imagine it would be clear skies ahead but no.

Anyway, this is probably tangential for your purposes. Point is, with Dawkins at the helm, a crater season is entirely possible. I don't see the team finishing higher than 6th in the Pac-12. Is that better than a .500 Big East team? Probably, I guess. *weeps in beer*.

You know nothing

Jon Snow.

You all can really do Stanford fans a favor

By beating the tar out of the team and hastening the end of the Johnny Dawkins era.

I'm sure that's agreeable to you lot.

Congrats

Stanford had made him a somewhat high priority, but looks like we'll have to search elsewhere.

USC offered Keller Chryst

From Palo Alto. 

an easy excuse there

Stanford vs. ND is always on Thanksgiving weekend when in California. 

Going to Stanford if he gets in

Is consensus in Palo Alto.

Yeah

I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up there. It's hard to predict with blue chippers. It's just that there seems to be a lot of conflicting evidence at the moment, so I'm not sure why the certainty on his part.

He mentions Stanford every chance he gets

And has named the school his favorite more than a few occasions. The impression in Palo Alto is that they're in the catbird seat, so I'm not sure where Shanker got the opinion from. 

We'll try our best to keep him out of Columbus. 

It's a really good hire

The guy did: 

1) Win Utah State's first outright conference title since 1946 

2) Win Utah State's second bowl ever. 

 

Obviously "who knows" should be the default reaction to most hires, but Andersen's a good coach. 

They've jumped the gun on a few of their picks

For example, Stanford QB Kevin Hogan has had four starts as a redshirt freshman QB. 

Stanford's

Broken up their OL responsibilities since the Harbaugh era.

Reading your views on the game

And Stanford fan's back-to-back, well, my gosh, it's like we were all watching two different games.

I confidently explained to a friend that we might beat Notre Dame because there's no way we'd have such an ill-conceived offensive game plan as Borges, no disrespect to y'all. And then...THAT happened.

It gets better, right? It all gets better? Please tell me it gets better.

If Ohio State loses this

It's an incredibly embarrassing loss. Tedford teams have had a long history of gagging and getting destroyed in road tests, particularly when traveling east. Maynard is generally an iffy quarterback, decision-making-wise. The offensive line sucks. 

To be honest, it's embarrassing that it's even close. As a Stanford fan I thought (and hoped) this would be a fun little blowout to start my day. 

It's probably not accurate

To consider Stanford a part of a "state." For Stanford's purposes, "in-state recruiting" is basically "academic kids." Sometimes they're in California (which, great!) and sometimes they're around. So Stanford sometimes fights USC, Cal, UCLA, but they're really fishing in different pools. 

Stanford vs. Notre Dame is probably the most common recruiting battle. 

They had a couple good years

With Lupoi, but 2012 cratered post-Lupoi and 2013 has almost nothing. If Tedford doesn't turn it around this year the entire program enters lame-duck status. 

Please

No Torres. Especially not out wide.

Would like (within what I think Klinsmann would take, i.e. some odd central midfield choices): Howard; Johnson, Cameron, Bocanegra, Cherundolo; Edu, Jones, Williams; Shea, Gomez, Dempsey

think it was Brophy's second game in five days or something

Which is insane scheduling. Anyway, that might explain any speed issues. 

Not really a money issue

I think Mora's in the upper tier of well-paid coaches in the conference, and that while they're paying Neuheisel and balancing the budget. The issue is mostly a competence one.

It's pretty simple

They hire terrible coaches. UCLA had the better of the rivalry in the 90s and, with a few different bounces of the ball, would've competed for a MNC in '98, I believe. Ever since then they've hired poorly. Their AD is a joke and the support from the school in minimal--they practice on an eighty-yard field which seemed to cause an ACL injury every year. (They just resurfaced it. Don't think they got new uprights, and it's still only one eighty-yard field.)

Recruiting has generally been more than fine. It's the leadership at the top. As a Stanford fan, I hope the leadership continues to suck, for obvious and not-quite-as-obvious reasons (Stanford v. UCLA is a common recruiting battle...I'd say Stanford v. Notre Dame is the only one more common.)

Well

He's had a terrible year so far. Some of this is his fault (not a lot of maturity in some ways), but a lot is FC Dallas' fault--he's surrounded by terrible teammates and a whiny martinet of a coach. 

The reason...

USC's defensive line was called the "Wild Bunch" and the Stanford defensive line felt it was better and so they deserved one too. There was a biker gang called the Thunderchickens and one of the defensive linemen ran like a chicken, in the estimtion of his teammates, so there you go.

Don't necessarily think that's clear at all

A lot of older Stanford fans hold out for Plunkett or Elway. 

That's probably fair

If I was reading something in there that wasn't, my apologies. 

My hunch is that your given five star is the hardest worker of anyone in high school, but of course that isn't enough for college, just as your college work ethic won't be enough for the pros. So naturally there's a filtering process as those who are only up to a high school work ethic will get filtered out. 

Is there evidence

That five stars are demonstrably more entitled than 2 and 3 star kids? Wondering seriously. An analogy--I remember there was an FA Cup game in England where some commentator contrasted the "hard working players of the underdogs" versus the flashy players of the favorites. One of the favorites informed the commentator, after the game, that he'd played in the same academy with a lot of the players who turned out to be underdogs, and the reason they were underdogs on that game was because they hadn't worked in the first place. 

I wouldn't be shocked if a big part of the reason that the five stars are ranked as such is because most five stars have five star work ethic to go along with their other superlatives. 

Said on Twitter

That he had a likely destination but was vague about it. 

Kelly was OC

When Blount rushed for 1,000 yards in 2008. Chip will use big backs and I assume Meyer will too. 

Of course you understand

He doesn't have a lot of game experience. Hence ND fans can project all of their hopes on him before it's revealed what kind of player he is. Then he'll get trashed and ND fans will move on to the next guy. 

It's like what happened with Andrew Hendrix. Had a good half against Stanford, but was aided by a couple crazy Floyd plays plus some bogus penalty calls. Suddenly he's the savior, except for Florida State and spring practice. 

Got in a fight with someone

Brian Kelly sent him to timeout. 

USC's been selling that recently

Chris Hawkins claimed similarly when he committed to USC over Stanford a couple of days ago. Kiffin (apparently) spent a large portion of USC's junior day extolling their academics, etc. 

Probably because they lost Murphy and Peat on signing day...

Such a third-rate competition

That it's good enough for Lionel Messi? Most non-European countries take the tournament seriously. We certainly did. It's a shame we lost, and a huge deal that, when we took the tournament seriously, we couldn't manage more than one win against Cuba, El Salvador and Canada when on home soil. 

I don't think I've ever seen

A stranger, more inexplicable collapse. That's just...weird. And terribly soulcrushing. Someone put up some sad animals. 

First instance

Of improper equine benefits. They'll give him Traveler. Pac-12 schools will be happy to see him go. 

USC has

like no one at running back. Probably not an easier place for a freshman to break into the rotation, among elite schools. 

Plus that

They only have four scholarship CBs on the roster. It could get very ugly. 

To Notre Dame

http://m.twincities.com/twincities/db_22781/contentdetail.htm?contentgu…