Read that here. Fun fact: I know Cal Poly's head coach as his daughter used to play for Cal. She's now in the WNBA. Kianna Smith.

This question formed while I was reading Shaw's answers from the post-practice scrum: Is Stanford vs. USC on Sept. 10 Shaw's Waterloo?

Shaw's talking points this offseason have been consistent that Stanford is poised to reassert itself as a power — "a tiger in the weeds" — because the roster is healthier than at any time during the past three years, they finally had a "normal" offseason", the talented quarterback is stronger and better than last season, and the staff evaluated everything down to the studs of the program and improved in a process that was "mostly subtraction". Shaw has been loud and clear that they're ready to show everyone that they're wrong about him/the program.

I'll add the caveat that if Stanford is just as healthy as they are now when they kick off against the Trojans, it will be Shaw's all-in attempt to win a decisive Waterloo. If he can break through against a team with plenty of talent and riding the momentum of arguably the most hyped up regime change in recent college football history, then that will buy him the time he needs to negotiate a ceasefire. The general public will be forced to admit that Shaw is just as capable of leading Stanford to victory against the best of the Pac-12 as he was before the once proud empire crumbled. (He'll have to hurry with those ceasefire negotiations, though, because it's entirely possible we get beaten up in three of the following four games, but we'll cross that bridge later.)

Guess what? Assuming this forum is still monitored, it might surprise some readers that I want Stanford to rout the Trojans and send them running back to NILA. I would love that. I guarantee I'd watch the full game video multiple times the following week and the serotonin boost would be like a rocket launching me away from all the other headlines I'm confronted with every day. So, David, please beat the Trojans and have your press conference where you get to wear that big smile/smirk and crow until you can't crow no more.

If, however, we lose and also get stomped on when we go to Washington (9/24), Oregon (10/1) and Notre Dame (10/15), then I'm gonna want to know why the tiger in the weeds was actually a kitten.

Login to view embedded media

Thought these were pretty cool!

Michi...West Vir...sorry, Cal is also busting out throwbacks:

Login to view embedded media

Figured this would be worth firing up. @Cardinal74 has Cal 24-13. I got Cal 17-16. Honestly a toss up but when a toss up, tie goes to the home team.

If Stanford does win, I believe Josh Karty will play a big role.

Anyways, what say the rest of you?

Kickoff is 10am PT. Look out David B Flemming, LBaty is coming for ya!

For the last couple of years, I used to get bummed when Cam fouled out. I got even more bummed when Tara sat her only to finish the game on the bench with 4 fouls.

One of the great things about this year is I don't care if Cam fouls out. Just gives more time for Lauren or Kiki or Fran or Ashten. Which is fine by me.

Our depth is astounding.

No this is not a thread about the USC/UCLA Big 10 departure, but feel free to take it down that rabbit hole if you are so inclined!

Big Game is sold out. Only 120 or so tix on stub hub. This surprised me.

I am attending with my wife and am very curious to see how Cal adjusts to our starting a redshirt freshman safety at RB with no RB2.

Read that here.

Read that here.

Read that here.

Watch that here.

Login to view embedded media
Injuries, Shaw says Myles Hinton will be out and replaced by Barrett Miller, questionable guys are Jonathan McGill, David Bailey, and Ricky Miezan. McGill did not finish the game, but is moving around now a little bit. They'll see how he is at the end of the week. Same with Bailey. Ricky is actually moving pretty well and will practice today. They'll see how that goes. Aaron Armitage is in the same boat. They tried to get him going but he couldn't at Utah. They'll see if he can make it this week. Doubtful guys are Kendall Williamson, Jacob Mangum-Farrar, and Caleb Robinson.

Read that here.

I have urged this before and I’m doing so again: Please send an email to Howard Wolf, our Alumni Association President, and ask him to pass along your comments to the powers-that-be. He has regular meetings with these folks and he will convey the sentiment of his constituents. This really could help the cause. hwolf@stanford.edu

I'm not an alumnus, simply a long-time fan, so I won't be emailing the alumni coordinator. Any consensus on whom to email with my thoughts about David Shaw?

We’ve all heard about the defensive leaders meeting with Anderson, Shaw and co a few weeks back. McGill mentioned it on this week’s Treecast (like Matt with Sunday Morning thoughts, I’m a sucker for punishment so I still listen to it).

As described, the players got together, “requested a meeting” with the coaches, discussed strategy, schemes and plays they felt comfortable with, things they didn’t, and had a general melding of the minds.

My question is: why the hell is noteworthy?

I’ve never been on a football team so maybe those who have can chime in… but is this type of coach and player collaboration atypical? Why do you need a formal meeting? Aren’t they together all day, every day? What the hell are they doing with literally all of their time as a team if it’s not discussing strategy, what works and what doesn’t? Like, every minute of every practice, meeting, etc? This implies some type of communication barrier between coaches and players. I don’t get it.

Thanks

Read that here.

His knee was down...

Anyone want my tickets to Stanford MBB tonight? 8pm against Cal Poly. Seats are 2 rows behind Cal Poly coaches.

DM me

Read that here.

There's not much to celebrate these days with Stanford football, but my iPhone reminded me today that on November 17, 2012 we won my favorite college football game of all time in Eugene. I can still vividly see Trent Murphy forcing Mariota out of bounds on a critical overtime 3rd down. I was watching at a bar in New York with probably 50-100 young Stanford alums and after Williamson split the uprights in OT I danced on the table and poured a pitcher of beer on myself. It is possible that @rawbbbbbb was there but I don't remember specifically. Those were the days. It's bittersweet that Shaw has driven the program to such depths now but I am personally grateful I got to experience the glory years at an age when I could do the above and not seem completely insane.

Login to view embedded media

Read that here.

That you're David Shaw.

You've received upwards of $50 million from Stanford - i.e., you and your kids (and grandkids?) are set for life.

You're by any reasonable, objective measure one of the worst head football coaches in D1 sports, with program in the toilet.

You presumably have some pride and a legacy to try and protect (which legacy takes a beating with each passing game).

Why hang on? Why not negotiate a walk-away?

And this leads me to my final question: do you think he's hanging on for PWO status for his son? I know the story linked here a while back talked about the son wanting to blaze his own trail, but if pro ball is not really an option, do you really want to pass up Stanford to play at a lower division school? Maybe.

But if not, there seems to be a reasonable path forward here. Make the PWO admission part of the parting deal. It would be so worth it. Plus, if the kid really wanted to be outside the dad's football influence, the negotiated walk-away would take care of that, too.

Win-win, right?

Whelp, it took just over a week to take most of the wind out of my MBB sails. Thoughts from last night:

The Atmosphere
Joc Pederson was courtside, fresh off of his $20M extension. The 6th man section was almost full but that is typical for the first home game of the season so I expect it to thin out quite a bit. Not counting students, there were more SDSU fans than Stanford, which makes sense given they have more alums in a 100-mile radius. There was a brief period in the 2nd half (when Stanford cut it to 6), where the atmosphere was really rocking.

The Game
SDSU looked like the better team from the jump - faster, more athletic, better shot creators/makers, physical and pressuring Stanford on defense.

It was painful watching O'Connell and Silva get pressured by SDSU's PG (Trammell) who had 4 steals and drew an offensive foul on O'Connell. Silva at least got by him once to get an and-1, and looked more comfortable handling the pressure than O'Connell. Of course, both PGs badly missed open 3-point shots. Ingram actually brought the ball up a number of times and looked more comfortable facilitating the offense (he, of course, had a less pesky defender on him). The PGs continue to be the weak spot for this team as Stanford couldn't make SDSU pay for the full court pressure.

Haase finally added a wrinkle in the 2nd half for Keefe/Raynaud to set a screen for the ball handler, but watching Stanford bleed 6-7 seconds just to get into their offense of contested dribble handoffs was tough.

Keefe played his ass off and was the better C; against fast, physical teams, Raynaud looks a bit lost and just lacks Keefe's motor.

Spencer Jones was the best player, despite a low shooting percentage. I love how big and physical he is playing on defense and now offense. I hope he starts on Friday. Angel was ok but needs to make his 3s to be effective. He also got stripped easily a couple of times.

Michael Jones totally disappeared and missed a critical 1-1 FT when the team was clawing back into the game. As a leader of the MJ Hype Train, this greatly pains me.

I didn't think Ingram was bad for most of the night, but he had two boneheaded TOs and a frustration foul at the 5-minute mark that effectively ended the game (SDSU went from up 10 to up 15).

Turnovers weren't great but given SDSU's aggressive play, expected. Stanford did get a lot of clean 3 point looks and just couldn't knock them down, with a lot of bad misses. Murrell was one of the more effective offensive players but is a defensive liability and gave up some easy buckets, which limited his run.

I still believe that this team has the most talent of any Haase team but the hope that they would make "the leap" this season is quickly disappearing. So far they look similar to past teams with negligible improvement and no players have looked demonstrably better than last season, which is incredibly disappointing.

Where We Stand/What's Next

Stanford is now 0-3 ATS and was less competitive than they should have been against Wisconsin and SDSU. I agree with the analysis by @msqueri that tourney odds have halved, from roughly 50% to 25%.

The Thanksgiving tournament now looms large. There are no ranked teams and Stanford has an outside shot of going 3-0 with 3 quality OOC wins. They could also (more likely) go 1-2 without a signature win, which would effectively bury their NCAA hopes before December.

Here is the bracket. Ole Miss, FSU, Oklahoma and Memphis all project as bubble teams, so ideally Stanford can get 2 wins over credible OOC foes, which would set them up nicely heading into conference play.

Stanford also has a chance to pick up a major win when traveling to Texas but that seems pretty unlikely (Texas has a huge game against Gonzaga tonight FYI).

I think 4 OOC losses is the maximum that Stanford can endure and still have reasonable tourney hopes heading into conference play. So 2-1 in the Thanksgiving Tourney and a loss to UT, run the table on all other games.