Read that here.

1. Because I was on a flight from India last night, I watched the game today and am delayed in providing my thoughts. I rolled straight into watching this game after a 39 hour travel day.....for that? David Shaw doesn't deserve the fans who still remain. Still, I can't imagine not watching even bleary-eyed the morning after and am glad there are similarly afflicted souls who want to commiserate on these message boards. It would help though if we had something more interesting to analyze or if the team was fun to watch. Instead we get the re-run of joyless, un-competitive football we've seen so many times. Please make it stop.

2. While the game sucked and had damaging errors in most phases, it was clarifying in showing what is most keeping Stanford down these days: Shawfense. I know that won't feel like a groundbreaking observation for those who pay attention to Stanford football but past analyses showed pretty clearly that between 2016-2021 it was Stanford's defense that was an even weaker link than the offense. That is shockingly no longer the case (more on that below). Against UCLA, the defense had fatal flaws but was competitive, but the offense was pitiful, like it has been almost continuously since Dalman, Mills, and Fehoko departed. Something to bear in mind is that opponents get a vote in how we look, which makes the discrepancy between our units' performance more stark than folks might assume just from seeing futility on both sides of the ball. UCLA has a great offense. They came into the game with the #8 Offensive FEI, sandwiched between Alabama and Michigan. Against that backdrop, we should not be ashamed about giving up points and yards to them. If anything, we were reasonably competitive: we actually kept the Bruins a tick under both their points per drive and yards per play averages, and the one play touchdown "drive" should be blamed on McKee more than the defense. Yes, there were big failings on defense (more below) but this was reminiscent of Teevens-era frustrations where the defense battled but is in a hopeless situation having to play alongside an offense that can't do a damn thing.

3. As always, I'll go into some detail on things that went well and things that went poorly, but we cannot lose sight of the forest for the trees. We have to speak as plainly as possible about what we're seeing on offense: with a cast outside observers and program insiders alike thought would be poised for offensive success, we are one of the very worst offenses in the country. The stretch of games without even an average number of points scored has now reached 12. A full year of not once being average. Last night was a particularly appalling entry in the parade of horribles. We join Colorado as the only Pac-12 teams to gain less than 5 yards a play against UCLA. UCLA is the #76 FEI defense in the country and was playing without their defensive coordinator due to last minute illness and yet we didn't score a touchdown until our 11th drive. A defense that gives up 2.56 points per drive, 91st in the nation, didn't need a coordinator to hold us to only 1.08, which would be the #5 defense in the nation.

4. The predictable part of the ineptitude was that we couldn't establish the run. Starting a walk-on running back will do that to you. But honestly the passing game was a lot worse than the run game yesterday. At least the run game broke 4 yards a carry, the first time we've done that in six games and above both the median and the mean for opponent run games against UCLA. Ashton Daniels deserves the bulk of the credit for that, leading the team in rushing and first downs despite being only tied for third in touches. [This week's moving the chains (first down) leader board: Daniels (4), Barrow (4), Yurosek (2), Humphreys (2), Robinson (2), Reuben (2), Tremayne (plus drawing a pass interference)] The Daniels packages have come in for a lot of criticism but they were the best thing the offense had going yesterday. I can't say anything nice about the passing game, which has totally fallen apart without Mike Wilson. Bowling Green is the only team to struggle against UCLA like we did. Colorado has one of the worst passing offenses in the country and yet they mustered a whopping 2+ yards more and 30+ passer rating points more against UCLA than we did.

5. I've seen the very poor recent passing performances elicit some commentary about benching McKee. I think that's premature on the merits and unrealistic regardless but he's been bad. Yesterday was horrendous. He was #95 of 96 qualifying QBs in Total QBR this week. But it's the passing offense as a whole that stinks. Drops abounded. Rouse and Hinton (and then add injury to the insult) had a very rough night in protection. Shawfense never schemes guys open anyway. Higgins and Tremayne are contenders for the most overrated Stanford receivers of the Shaw era. Rodney Gilmore (sorry to any friends of his: for my money bar none the biggest idiot calling college football on a major network in America) can't bring himself to speak insightfully about Stanford football (if he's capable of that at all) but Todd McShay argued repeatedly that Stanford's offensive scheme and personnel circumstances (he emphasized both) put McKee in an almost impossible position. It sounded like an NFL scout complaining he doesn't get a fairer chance to evaluate McKee. In light of those factors, I don't want to suggest that problems are all at McKee's feet (my god are they slow). But yeah, he's been bad. On the season he's now 8th of 11 Pac-12 QBs in Total QBR, 10th of 11 in traditional passer rating, and 6th of 9 in PFF grades.

Read that here.

Why was Shanahan running McCaffrey during garbage time? The 49ers just mortgaged the future to get him yet plow him straight up the middle three times to run out most of the clock with the game in hand. Then there are the Rams. They throw a screen pass to Cooper Kupp with seconds left in the game down 17 and he gets injured. Boggles the mind.

Read those here. All Yahoo! Community Guidelines also apply to Rivals. Rivals wants us to have this posted somewhere on our message boards that is clear and visible. Hence this thread.

I think everyone on here is doing a great job of following these guidelines, but just so that everyone knows what they are, etc.

Thank you all for making this a great place for people to talk about Stanford athletics! If anyone has any questions don’t hesitate to shoot me a private message. Also, don’t hesitate to file a report if something posted on the board troubles you. I do read those and take those seriously.

Read that here.

Shaw has an interesting way of eliminating criticism. He so demoralizes his fan base that guys like fborg throw their hands up and stop participating (although he does like some of my posts). Come on Matt its 11:30 on the east coast. You have had plenty of time to tell me that my eyes deceive me and that Robinson and Barrow are better than Kimble and Gerhart?

The Notre Dame win was even more counter-productive than I fathomed at the time. We are just a horrific team, but that one game could doom us for at least one and maybe two more years. And take it to the bank: Shaw/ Muir will throw out every excuse in the book to try and maintain the status quo: Portal, NIL, injuries, bad luck.

BTW: As bad as we are on both sides of the ball, there are probably better athletes overall on our defense. I don’t think we have a single skill player who would start for UCLA. Nobody has any muscle twitch.

Read that here.

Alrighty, time for the men's basketball recruiting notes thread for October. The September thread is here.

First off, Stanford had two 2024 4-star guards on junior official visits this weekend: Sir Mohammed and Gicarri Harris. Both were at the open practice yesterday. I saw them shooting around after the practice. I also saw Nazr Mohammed there, which was cool. They all seemed to be having a good time. I think that was part of why they had the open practice as well. Gave the recruits something to do.

Stanford also has one more junior official visitor scheduled for this month in 2024 4-star shooting guard Kon Knueppel. He is scheduled to visit October 28th before visiting Notre Dame on November 4th. I'll double check later this month to make sure that's still happening.

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As far as other 2024 guys who are key focuses, Stanford is really making an effort with 5-star big man Yves Missi who is at Prolific Prep. They've been in to see him a bunch of times.


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4-star small forward Liam McNeeley I need to check on, but he was like the first kid they offered in the class. Need to see if he has any visit plans lined up/how things are coming.

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Point guard Trent Perry is a guy who they really like as well. No star rating, but they think he's got a chance to be really good. I'll get my article on him out soon. But the staff really does like him and feels he's one of the better guards on the West Coast. Good they offered him as early as they did. He visited back in August.

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For the rest of the 2024 offers, click here. Other names they're on as well, but the ones above are the ones who I wanted to draw attention to/feel they are gaining most traction with at this time.


2025 offers, click here. Only four guys offered so far in that class.


As far as 2023 recruits are concerned, it really feels like Andrej Stojakovic or bust. That might be a bit harsh because they do have 5-star poitn guard Kanaan Carlyle committed, but you get the idea. They really need him. He's down to UCLA, Oregon, Stanford, and Texas and he has taken all four of his official visits to those schools. UCLA has been the consensus front runner for a while because of their assistant coach from Serbia who is best friends with his dad, but it's possible he doesn't end up there after all. Stanford has the advantage of being close to Jesuit where he plays high school in the Sacramento area and also the fact that Isa Silva is a Jesuit kid as well. Not to mention the academics, which I could see his dad Peja actually valuing.

So, I'm wiling to say that if he doesn't end up at UCLA, I think Stanford has the best chance to land him for those reasons. And then they really would like to have him, so they'll be offering him minutes and an important role.

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One other 2023 name I'll check on is Bron Roberts. 3-star power forward out of Utah. His recruitment remains pretty quiet as Stanford and Southern Utah remain his only two listed offers. But if he were to come Stanford, likely a developmental piece. So, it really is down to Stojakovic in terms of adding more pop to the 2023 class. Gonna be interesting to see if Stanford can pull him him.

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Alrighty, here is the women's basketball recruiting notes thread for October. The September thread is here.

First off, Stanford did have official visitors this past weekend as @Bobbk mentioned in the September thread. All three 2023 commits were there: Nunu Agara, Courtney Ogden, and Chloe Clardy as well as 2024 5-star guard Mikalya Blakes (Rutgers Prep, Somerset, NJ) and 2023 5-star point guard Hannah Hidalgo (Paul VI, Haddonfield, NJ). I checked to see if there was anyone more to the list than that, but that's the list. So everyone that Bob mentioned was the complete list.

2023 5-star point guard JuJu Watkins (Sierra Canyon, Los Angeles, CA) and 2023 5-star forward Delaney Thomas (St. John's College, Washington D.C.) have not committed anywhere and are still on the board. And then one other 2024 target I'll mention is 4-star point guard Shaye Ijiwoye (Desert Vista High School in Arizona) as they were recently in to see her.

So, that's the skinny on women's hoops recruiting right now. There are more targets they are on. I did mention those in the September thread as did Bob in case you want to brush up on those. So head there if you need a refresher. This is a bit more of a brief breakdown, but I just wanted to get this posted so that new news for this month now has a place to go!


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Read that here.

Read that here.

Read that here.

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Read that here.

latest move by our AD/Ticket office to try getting butts in the now embarrasing VERY EMPTY seats. John Arrillaga rolling in his grave!

Press conference is here.

Injuries: Casey Filkins will be out for a significant portion of time if not the rest of the year; Ethan Bonner is doubtful, most likely out this week; David Bailey is probable going into today, but they'll see how things go at practice later on today; Aaron Armitage is a little bit further behind than Bailey, considered questionable but there's hope he could be back this week; Barrett Miller looked good at the end of the week, the hope is he'll be probable; Jacob Mangum-Farrar is questionable to probable, he played the end of the ASU game with a cast on his hand, so they'll see how that is going forward.

Little more on Filkins. I was told he'll need surgery. So that's the deal there. I don't know any more beyond that.

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At today’s Pac 12 meet. Hicks of Stanford the winner. How big of a win ? If you don’t count the top two runners Stanford still wins.

Read that here.

On my way up to Pac-12 media day. Stanford picked first in the preseason media poll. Not a surprise.

On my way up to Pac-12 men’s basketball media day. Stanford picked 5th in the media preseason poll. In case you are wondering, I was not the one who gave Stanford a first place vote. I threw them a bone by picking them to finish fourth, though.

Read that here. Someone else mentioned the kickoff time in an earlier thread, but for those that didn't see that, here you are.

Watching the Phillies Padres game. I haven’t seen a single African American in the stands. Seems odd/unfortunate to me.

I'll be there - anyone else going? Reply here or DM me!