Read that here.

Read that here. Adam Gorney gave out his grades for all the Pac-12 teams.

Read that here.

Read that here.

Gonna be an interesting game, win or lose.

Who starts?

Well, obviously Jones. And, now, it is also obvious that Lepolo plays. Lepolo had the most minutes of anyone against ASU. But interesting that Nivar played so much and Tara gave her a big shout out. Looks like we are in good shape when Jones leaves.

And, of course, Brink.

But then, who? Down arrows for Belibi and Prechtel. I see the last game as a down arrow for Iriafen as well. Will it be Kiki or Lauren? Dunno.

Pretty sure that Tara is a big Jump fan. And when she's hot, she's awesome. I just worry, as with Prechtel, if they have an off night they can easily shoot us out of the game with misses.

Alrighty, I'm finally getting the men's basketball recruiting notes up for December! The November thread is here.


@SamuelMcF posted this at the end of the November thread, but just to lead things off in here, Stanford offered a scholarship to 2025 point guard JJ Mandaquit out of Real Salt Lake Academy in Herriman, UT. He also balls for Utah Prospects, who tweeted out his offer on Friday.

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Published earlier this month was my breakdown of the 2023 signings of Kanaan Carlyle & Andrej Stojakovic. Check that out if you haven't already done so.


Just touching quickly on the 2024 class, one of the first big things to look for is what 5-star center Yves Missi out of Prolific Prep does. He's visited and Stanford is definitely in the mix. However, latest I heard, Stanford wasn't sure where things sit with him in terms of their chances. So, work still needs to be done to reel him in. He's also hoping to have a decision soon. If they could land him, especially if he were to reclassify, that would be massive. But as of now, hard to read Stanford's odds.

4-star shooting guards Gicarri Harris, Sir Mohammad, and Kon Knueppel are guys who visited in the fall, so they're key targets at the moment. I'll see if I can learn more about where things sit with them.

And then Harvard-Westlake point guard Trent Perry I feel they have really good odds with. He's visited, he seems to like the academics, and then they have also been on him for a while, one of the first if not the first high major offer he landed.

There's others they're on as well, but those are the ones standing out at the moment from the 2024 class. Check out the full offers list here.


For 2025, Mandaquit is the 5th offer they've put out. To refresh yourself on who the other four are, check that out here.

Or at least his mantra from yesteryear?


I admit to not "getting" virtual real estate companies and the like; regardless, it sounds like one messed up company. . .

Read that here.

Read that here.

Read that here.

In another thread I had occasion to draw on my research on the evolution of skill position usage under Shaw. Since I updated that research this morning and like having a place on the board I can reference via the search function, I'm sharing the data for anybody who's interested:

2011: 30 percent of snaps to TEs (Fleener, Toilolo, Ertz, Dudchock, Gottfried), 28 percent of snaps to WRs (Whalen, Montgomery, C. Owusu, Terrell, Patterson, Roberts), 22 percent of snaps to RBs (Taylor, Stewart, Gaffney, Wilkerson, Seale), 20 percent of snaps to FBs (Hewitt, Meinken, Ward) - 342 snaps per game total

2012: data not available

2013: data not available

2014: 43 percent of snaps to WRs (Cajuste, Montgomery, Rector, F. Owusu, Pratt, Trojan, Stallworth, Crane, Jordan, G. Krishnamurthi), 25 percent of snaps to TEs snaps (Hooper, Cotton, Taboada, Hopkins), 20 percent of snaps to RBs (Wright, Young, McCaffrey, Sanders, Seale), 11 percent of snaps to FBs snaps (Ward, Skov, Marx, Plantaric) - 324 snaps per game total

2015: 38 percent of snaps to WRs (Rector, Cajuste, F. Owusu, Stallworth, Irwin, Brandt-Sims, Jordan, Crane), 27 percent of snaps to TEs (Hooper, Schultz, Taboada), 25 percent of snaps to RBs (McCaffrey, Wright, Love, Sanders, McFadden), 10 percent of snaps to FBs (Marx, Harrell) - 316 snaps per game total

2016: 46 percent of snaps to WRs (Irwin, Rector, Arcega-Whiteside, F. Owusu, Thomas, Stewart, Tyler, Brandt-Sims, Foster), 23 percent of snaps to RBs (McCaffrey, Love, Scarlett, McFadden), 21 percent of snaps to TEs (Schultz, Taboada, Snyder), 10 percent of snaps to FBs (Marx, Williams, Harrell) - 313 snaps per game total

2017: 38 percent of snaps to WRs (Arcega-Whiteside, Irwin, Wedington, Stewart, Tyler, Brandt-Sims, Schwartz, S. Krishnamurthi), 34 percent of snaps to TEs (Schultz, Smith, Harrington, Parkinson), 20 percent of snaps to RBs (Love, Scarlett, Speights, Maddox), 9 percent of snaps to FBs (Marx, Williams, Snyder) [Note: PFF classified Parkinson as a WR but I reclassified for our purposes] - 301 snaps per game total

2018: 39 percent of snaps to WRs (Arcega-Whiteside, Irwin, Wilson, St. Brown, Wedington, Fehoko, Stewart, Schwartz, S. Krishnamurthi, Buzzell), 37 percent of snaps to TEs (Smith, Parkinson, Harrington, Fisk, McCombs), 21 percent of snaps to RBs (Love, Speights, Scarlett, Maddox, Woods, McFarlane), 3 percent of snaps to FBs (Williams, Heimuli, Snyder) - 324 snaps per game total

2019: 47 percent of snaps to WRs (Wilson, Wedington, Fehoko, St. Brown, Tremayne, Higgins, Stewart, Schwartz, Brandt-Sims), 30 percent of snaps to TEs (Parkinson, Fisk, Harrington, McCombs, Archer, Le), 20 percent of snaps to RBs (Scarlett, Jones, Maddox, Peat), 2 percent of snaps to FBs (Heimuli, Symonds) [Note: PFF classified Heimuli and Symonds as RBs but I reclassified for our purposes] - 342 snaps per game total

2020: 48 percent of snaps to WRs (Fehoko, Tremayne, Wilson, Higgins, Wedington, Humphreys, Farrell, St. Brown), 25 percent of snaps to TEs (Harrington, Fisk, Yurosek, Archer, McCombs), 21 percent of snaps to RBs (Jones, Peat, Woods, Smith, Filkins), 6 percent of snaps to FBs (Heimuli, Symonds) - 354 snaps per game total

2021: 46 percent of snaps to WRs (Higgins, Humphreys, Starr, Farrell, Tremayne, Wilson, Bowman, Raines), 27 percent of snaps to TEs (Yurosek, Archer, Fisk, Ungar), 22 percent of snaps to RBs (Jones, Peat, Smith, Filkins), 5 percent of snaps to FBs (Heimuli, Symonds, Taylor) - 296 snaps per game total

2022: 56 percent of snaps to WRs (Higgins, Tremayne, Humphreys, Wilson, Reuben, Starr, Bowman, Raines, Thompson, Farrell), 23 percent of snaps to TEs (Yurosek, Roush, Archer, Hawkins, Ungar), 19 percent of snaps to RBs (Filkins, Leigber, Robinson, Smith, Barrow, Harris), 3 percent of snaps to FBs (Taylor, Symonds, Lowe) - 353 snaps per game total

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In addition to the Stanford data, I'd like a point of comparison with Troy Taylor's teams at Sacramento State. Here's that data (no names as I assume they won't be meaningful to folks here):

2019 (only seven games of data so not full sample but maybe meaningful): 54 percent of snaps to WRs, 25 percent of snaps to RBs, 22 percent of snaps to TEs, 0 percent of snaps to FBs - 377 snaps per game total

2020: No season

2021: 51 percent of snaps to WRs, 26 percent of snaps to RBs, 23 percent of snaps to TEs, 0 percent of snaps to FBs - 378 snaps per game total

2022: 51 percent of snaps to WRs, 26 percent of snaps to RBs, 23 percent of snaps to TEs, 0 percent of snaps to FBs - 403 snaps per game total

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I'll likely return to this periodically and won't share too many observations now. I'll just say a) Stanford's offense evolved over time to be more WR-centric, b) Taylor's offenses are WR and RB-centric in a way Stanford has practically never seen (notwithstanding 2015 RB usage), c) Taylor's offenses have been quite consistent in their usage and thus probably do say something about his philosophy, and d) while Stanford offenses picked up the pace a bit starting in 2019 they have nothing on Taylor's tempo, which is blistering by comparison. Surveying this, I think we need to give a lot of thought to how the WR and RB rooms can give Taylor what he needs.

1. This game perfectly encapsulated the Haase Era: team plays hard, is scrappy, has moments of really good play . . . and loses.

2. For the love of God, Ben, please STOP opining that Stanford men's hoops team (or football team, for that matter) "should" win any game. You are the ultimate cooler on that front. Plus, you have no institutional history/understanding of what has been going on in the program(s) for the last several years, and thus, very little credibility when you make those ill-founded statements. It may sound harsh, but really, this paid subscriber is tired of your impeccable Cooler Effect.

3. Can someone explain to me why Michael Jones played as much as he did in the 2H? What game was Haase watching?

4. This L will be incredibly tough to come back from, especially for those who played many minutes and are thus drained physically and emotionally. My inclination would be more minutes for players who did not get a ton of run tonight (specifically my boys Murrell and Agarwal).

5. I'm frustrated (can only imagine players' and staff's frustration level). But on the bright side, the emotional detachment perfected under the Shaw regime is making it much easier from a fan standpoint to shrug shoulders over the hoops "just good enough to lose" play.

Cal did beat Colorado 80-76 at Haas yesterday afternoon.
Newson got off.
Just sayin'

Nobody in Stanford's QB room will start for the Cardinal in '23 if the staff has anything to say about it. Led by Mike Eubanks and Tavita Pritchard, the Cardinal is now at least 0-2 on its attempts to lure a transfer QB from the portal. Both Drew Pyne (ASU) and Luke Altmyer (Illinois) went in a preferred direction after getting the "hard sell" from Eubanks and Pritchard.

Please DM me if have tix. Thanks

Alrighty, the football recruiting notes thread for December is here! I'm taking a bit of a different approach with this thread since Stanford has not yet named a new head coach with David Shaw stepping down. We're sort of in a weird recruiting limbo right now, though coaches are still going in to see commits, Lance Anderson is offering scholarships, etc. Make sure to check out the November recruiting notes thread in case you missed any of that recent action. @SamuelMcF posted a bunch of info in that fourth page on visits that happened earlier this week. Also an offer that was put out.


At this point, the big focus is on getting a new head coach and then having that head coach keep the 2023 commits in the fold and then also keep other guys from transferring and hopefully pulling some guys back in from the portal while also adding a few as well. That's really the goal and that process can't start until a new head coach has been named.

On that, Stanford has lost one commit during this transition period in 2023 4-star tight end Walker Lyons, though he remains open to recommitting pending who the new head coach is. I'll be honest, I'd be surprised if Lyons re-committed. He already seemed to have one foot out the door anyways. I think he was honestly looking for a reason to leave and Shaw stepping down made that decision easy for him. 2023 4-star defensive end Hunter Clegg is hard to read right now. He took an official visit to UCLA last weekend, but then also tweeted enthusiasm when a teammate of his got a Stanford offer (Davis Andrews, mentioned in the November thread). I could see Clegg going either way, but I think given he said he's staying committed for now tells me I think he's much more likely to stick than it is that Lyons re-commits. It helps that he has a closer relationship with Lance Anderson being a defensive guy. But, it's possible Clegg goes elsewhere. We're just gonna have to wait and see how that all unfolds once a new coach is hired.

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Stanford also added a 2023 commit in wide receiver Jackson Harris, who now has 3-stars after committing. Funny how that often happens. The fact that he committed despite not knowing who the head coach will be obviously is a strong sign that he's just all in on the school, which is great. And the same goes for 3-star defensive back Jamir Benjamin, the first commit for Stanford in the 2024 class. He's all in on the school as well and is excited to help recruit others to The Farm. So, there has been some positive recruiting developments during this time as well. Benjamin committing the week of the BYU game but strongly affirming after Shaw stepped down that he's still all in.

Finally, signing day is December 15th. I'm sure that's why Muir is telling the team he wants a hire done by the end of the week. He really doesn't want to have signing day come without a head coach in place. That would just be really weird. So, that's where things sit at the moment in a nut shell. In case you need a refresher on who is coming on board in the 2023 class, click here. Stanford has 14 commits at the moment and the 36th ranked class in Rivals. And then if you need a refresher on who has transferred out, all the information is being kept up to date in the transfer portal thread that was set up by @boomboom2000. Check that out here.

Read that here.

Read that here.

Just wanted to say Happy New Year to all and your families. Be safe out there, it's amateur night on the roads tonight so be careful, remember we all want you younguns to reach retirement age 😜.

Looking forward to 2023, I'm thinking it'll be a better year for Stanford football and basketball.

Happy New Year🍾🥂🥂🍾🍾🎉🎉

1) surprised stanford didn't roll the dice and commit to double team kj simpson.

2) lineup on the floor down 70-71 was MOC... two jones... keefe and angel. wow.

I went to the men’s basketball game vs Colorado which, evidently, qualifies me for an athletic department survey. Among the questions is - what other sports interest you? Of course, men’s basketball is an option.

Does anyone pay attention in the AD?

their schedule results better than ours thus far:

Oscar's brother now one of their top players

Before the men's basketball game against Colorado, I interviewed grad transfer target Alec Bank. Below are key quotes. The rest will be saved for the article.


On how things are coming with Stanford: "Things have been going great with Stanford so far since the offer. I’m in constant communication with Coach Adams the offensive line coach, Coach Eubanks with recruiting personnel. Just trying to work this application. It’s a very tedious one, figuring out which program you want to get into. I’m actually almost done with it. I was just on the phone with Coach Eubanks before. We’re working together trying to get in and get it read. Also setting up an official visit. Roughly set for January 20th to the 22nd to try and go out there. And also making sure that I get the application in so that they can try and work with the school to see if they can get a read on the acceptance or not before I’d come out there. Just to make it easier on us and on them. Things have been going great overall."

On his experience at Harvard: "It was all the way across the country. It was different from what I knew. The environment. As a freshman, you don’t get to pick your roommates. So, my roommates, I had three roommates. One was a soccer player from DC, one was a track kid from California, and a roommate from Nepal. So going in you get that diversity that you look at and you’re like ‘Wow, I’m really at Harvard.’ And, it just allows you to see a different side of the world that you haven’t seen. And you also get that view with football.

"Just coming in as a freshman, at the bottom of the pole, you gotta work your way up, you make friends with your teammates, you live with these guys, you train with these guys, you’re with each other around 15 hours a day through almost four years straight and you make your best friends, lifelong friends, and create unbelievable memories. And then also being able to hear their stories. That’s really been unbelievable. See how they ended up at Harvard, what their lives are like back home, being able to meet their families, them to meet mine, and really just having, get to experience a pivotal part of our lives together. It’s really unbelievable and obviously there’s gonna be stuff with any school you go to that isn’t perfect, that you’re gonna find faults with, but in terms of the people, and the teammates that I’ve had, I wouldn’t trade that for the world."

On how Stanford sees him: "They see someone that can come in and compete to play. They like how athletic I am, I’m a very technical player. And size, obviously, I’m not the height that they are used to at left tackle, but I definitely think I make up for it with my quickness and technique. They see me as someone who can come in and compete whether it be at tackle or potentially swinging me in at guard. Really just looking to play wherever I can get on the field."

On Klayton Adams: "He [Coach Adams] reached out the day they offered me and we had an unbelievable conversation. Just about Stanford. Just kinda what he sees, what they’re looking at in the offensive line room, expectations, and eventually ended up offering me and through the conversation. And has been kinda texting me occasionally. Every other day, here and now. Just kinda checking in, seeing how I’m doing, if I have any questions, and it’s been awesome to see the effort that he’s putting in and the intent behind it."

On a decision timeline: At the latest, Alec would like to have a decision made by beginning of March/end of February. Just because he wants something set so he can enjoy his final spring at Harvard and enjoy school. He’s heard senior spring is one of the best experiences at Harvard and he doesn’t want that part of his Harvard experience to be weighed down by an impending decision.

Note: Alec is targeting the MS&E grad program.

Ok, I figured this is news worthy of its own thread:

Freshman wing Jaylen Thompson is being held out to preserve a redshirt season. I talked to a team spokesman about it after the game and that’s what they confirmed. He is not injured. It’s purely about preserving the option for him to redshirt this season. Reason being they have a lot of depth at his position.

Now, I should add that I was told this is a week-to-week deal. If the team really feels like they could use him due to other guys going down, they’ll burn his redshirt and play him. But they are hoping it won’t come to that.

I know others have already said this and have come to this conclusion, but still nice to have confirmation from the team.

Hey guys, I just caught up with Gaethan Bernadel about his decision to transfer to Stanford. Below are key quotes. The rest will be saved for the article.

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On joining the Pac-12: "Yeah, I’m super excited. Schools like Oregon, Washington, and Utah. Of course I’m going to have to transition. It’s different conferences, but I feel like I’ll transition pretty smoothly. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy or anything. I know the competition is different. All I’m saying is man, I’m just excited to get out here and go against teams like that."

On his relationship with Stanford: "I have no idea why they didn’t offer me out of high school. But we built a great relationship, so it was easy to speak to him [Lance Anderson] again."

On what Stanford likes about him: "They were saying that I’m gonna be a great fit to the scheme they are bringing in. We didn’t really get into the X’s and O’s about everything yet. They are excited I am coming to Stanford!"

On his improvement from freshman to sophomore year: "My freshman year I was more focused on finding ways to get on the field and once I get on the field how to make plays. My sophomore year I really honed in on everyone else’s job. Knowing what the safety had, the cornerback, and the defensive line allowed me to play fast without ever having to think."

On the academics at Stanford: "The academic side is very important to me because I think about my life after football on a daily basis. After I retire from the NFL, my ultimate goal is to become a GM for a professional sports club. Being able to be on the business side of sports is something that I want to do after football."