I know someone already posted on this topic in a previous thread but I felt that the subject matter was so intricate that it deserved its own dedicated thread. While I'm not sure when the ACC will reconvene to discuss scheduling logistics, I think there's a strong chance it will get announced sometime later this Fall. In the meantime, I thought it might be helpful to take a quick peek at a few scheduling layouts that could help mitigate some of our upcoming travel burdens in the new-look ACC. Below is a hypothetical scheduling model that I believe would best serve Stanford in both odd and even years:


RED = Conference Matchup

GREEN = OOC Matchup


EVEN

WEEK 1___-___@ ACC__(Neutral Site @ Cowboys Stadium)

WEEK 2___-___@ ACC

WEEK 3___-___OOC

WEEK 4___-___OOC

WEEK 5___-___@ OOC

WEEK 6___-___ACC

WEEK 7___-___@ ND

WEEK 8___-___** BYE **

WEEK 9___-___ACC

WEEK 10___-___@ ACC

WEEK 11___-___ACC

WEEK 12___-___@ CAL

WEEK 13___-___SMU


ODD

WEEK 1___-___@ ACC__(Neutral Site @ Cowboys Stadium)

WEEK 2___-___@ OOC

WEEK 3___-___OOC

WEEK 4___-___OOC

WEEK 5___-___@ SMU

WEEK 6___-___** BYE **

WEEK 7___-___ACC

WEEK 8___-___@ ACC

WEEK 9___-___ACC

WEEK 10___-__ACC

WEEK 11___-___@ ACC

WEEK 12___-___CAL

WEEK 13___-___ND


Comments:

* There are already rumors that Dallas will be used to host conference games to help alleviate East Coast travel for the Bay Area teams. I think the best way to do this would be to set up an annual Cotton Bowl Kickoff Classic double-header, featuring Cal & Stanford on separate days in Week 1. For example, Cal could open their season on a Saturday against North Carolina at Cowboys Stadium and Stanford could take on Clemson two days later (Labor Day) at the same stadium. The venue could help create added exposure for some of the conference's top teams and limit the travel for everyone involved. The other benefit of this setup is that it helps guarantee Stanford plays no more than two conference road games east of Dallas in a given year. The Notre Dame game, of course, adds to that travel burden. But even that can be alleviated by scheduling a more regionally focused OOC slate. All in all, we'd be looking at 1 Dallas Trip, 1 South Bend Trip, and 2 East Coast trips in our most travel-heavy year (even years), which really isn't all that bad.

* Starting every season with two road games may seem daunting in one regard but it helps knock out the away games early before students return to campus. It also creates opportunities for our students to actually attend these away games by scheduling them early enough in the season that they overlap with the end of summer break. In doing so, we would host 6/10 games at home to close out the season in even years and 7/10 games at home in odd years. It's a win-win.

* I like the idea of ND + SMU alternating as our season closers. It guarantees we finish each season on the Farm and ensures that our away games at those schools take place at a point on the calendar where the weather is much more hospitable (late September/early October vs. late November/early December).

* Initially, I was very concerned with the viability of balancing out a cross-country slate of conference games. But two things changed my mind. First, the ACC only plays 8 conference games. That's a massive advantage in that it allows us to schedule an additional West Coast game to help balance out the rest of the schedule. The Notre Dame game is technically our 9th conference game, even though both schools have already gone on the record in saying that the series will continue as an OOC matchup moving forward. In any case, we now get 3 OOC games as opposed to the usual Notre Dame + 2 OOC game slate that we've been dealing with in the Pac-12. That's a huge win. Secondly, the ability to utilize our away games at Cal & SMU (in addition to a neutral site season opener in Dallas) would go a long way towards minimizing the travel burden as much as possible.

* There's no question that our travel miles logged in the ACC will be significantly greater than what it was in the Pac-12. But with the help of some creative scheduling, it's more than doable. I've never been more optimistic that this whole thing is going to work out just fine.

_

It would be interesting to speculate what Troy Taylor could have put together if last years players who hit the portal would have stayed. Starters on other teams as far as I know:

Nugent C - Michigan
Hinton OT - Michigan
DiCosmo Edge - Vanderbilt
Herron Edge - Louisville
Damuni ILB - Utah
Miller OT - Cal
Rouse OT -Oklahoma
Metcalf C - UCF

I'm one of those readers who is easily distracted. It's stressful to try and read static words when there is animated stuff on the screen. Is there a way to disable that on this board, or do I need to accomplish that with browser or plugins?

Or should I say Duke!

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but to me, Duke looked like the more physically impressive team on the field last night. Just the size and speed of the players was impressive. But man did Clemson make costly mistakes In its 28-7 collapse.

Two missed FGs, two turnovers inside the Duke 5, several drops and other mistakes. The #9 team scores just 7 points. I had never heard of Duke QB Riley Leonard, and I see Mel Kiper has him as his #3 NFL QB prospect.

From a Stanford standpoint, Jake Hornibrook started and they have a lot of transfers.

Another reminder of how derelict Stanford’s admin has been, asleep at the football wheel while Duke’s admin has clearly prioritized it. Duke stole Stanford’s lunch with its hoops program and high academics bullshit. Has never been able to pull it off in football, but Stanford can’t allow itself to slink into the same level it has allowed MBB to slide, or Duke could usurp Stanford as the top academic school playing good football. It doesn’t matter that we know Stanford’s standards are way higher than Duke’s. What matters is public perception and getting the best athletes possible on campus.

Now with Stanford in the same conference as Duke, it is 1000x more important that Stanford quickly get its shit together in football and not allow Duke to decisively outclass Stanford Football as it has done in MBB. It will be catastrophic for Stanford Football to get sand kicked in its face and bullied by Duke in same conference.

Read that here.

Who takes over for McKee in 2023? Just picked up the latest copy of Phil Steele and he's tabbed Patu as our 2023 starter. I can understand the logic seeing as how Patu is the only QB on the roster with any starts under his belt (2021 @ Oregon State). Not to mention, Phil usually does his homework and compiles these depth charts using "insider" knowledge such as interviews with the coaching staff. Despite all of this, however, my gut tells me it's Lamson.

I feel like we pretty much know what we have in Patu and Daniels at this point. While it's too soon to say that Patu is no better than what he showed against Oregon State, suffice to say that a stat line of 7/14 for 51 YDs, 1 TD + 1 INT (against one of the more mediocre defenses in the Pac-12 that season) is not going to cut it. Lamson, on the other hand, is an intriguing wild card and his departure has left much of the Syracuse fan base up in arms. After doing some research, there was a pretty clear sentiment that Lamson possessed the highest upside of any QB on Syracuse's roster (which is definitely saying something considering they return 2-year starter Garrett Shrader). Let's hope Taylor has a unique eye for offensive talent and Lamson surprises some people this Fall while providing the perfect bridge between Tanner McKee and Elijah Brown.

With Fall camp around the corner, I'm interested to see what other people's opinions are as we gear up for yet another QB battle on the Farm.

_

Read that here.

9 of 19 guys are Stanford students or graduates.

Read that here. I also got good quotes from Paul Ratcliffe and Nya Harrison about joining the ACC. Ratcliffe also commented on what UNC's coach said about wanting Stanford and Cal to die on the vine.

I think I already know the team most of you will choose, but just for fun debate purposes, which team do you most wanna see the Cardinal defeat this year?

So I saw the official Hawaii post-game "presser" on YouTube. It was done via Zoom, so it was very easy for any reporter to attend, assuming they knew the link to click.

Who came? Ben Parker of the Stanford Rivals site was there. Jackson Moore from the Stanford 247 site attended. And so too did Harold Gutmann of the Mercury News. That was it. Nobody from Chronicle/SF Gate. Nobody from Daily Stanford. Nobody from ABC 7, KPIX 5, NBC Bay Area, NBC Sports Bay Area, or even KRON. Nobody from KNBR or 95.7 The Game. Jon Wilner couldn't even be bothered to log in at 8:30pm to ask a few questions to the coach of the most local team in the sport on which he career is pretty much based.

My reflexive reaction is to assume this is a massive failure by Stanford's Sports Media Relations, and of course that ultimately means Muir. How can the SID not be reaching out to as many sports reporters and personalities they possibly can to join a post-game Zoom with Stanford's new coach and players? It's not like these people had to travel 5 hours to Hawaii to cover the game. They could have taken 20 minutes out of their lives to partake, couldn't they? I mean I understand college sports get short shrift there, but my gawd, you wee getting a lot of attention over the Pac12 implosion, so there was a big chance to at least remind people about your team and its new coach, and make a statement that could be heard by more than the people on fan sites.

But maybe this is indicative of the hollow shell local news has become. If it is, and just three people are going to cover Stanford after it plays a game, how about opening up the questions to fans who might make a donation (like a YouTube SuperChat) for the privilege of being able to ask them? Something has to be done. Either the Media Relations staff is an abject failure at its job, or the job doesn't really exist any more and someone needs to come up with something new to drum up coverage of, and interest in the football program and I would imagine other sports as well.

Thoughts?

I just finished reading an Associated Press article/summary of Friday night's game. It was a positive summary of the game for Stanford (as expected) as it covered the highlights and stats. It got me thinking... what did Coach Taylor hold back, if anything, for its upcoming game against the toejams? This board is notorious with attempting to predict the previous coach's withholdings of plays and strategies from game one to its second game over the last few seasons... what did we not see from Taylors strategy that will be displayed against SC? Anything different? Or is Taylor in the position to get the team to synch together in all aspects of the game instead of attempting to hold back/surprise the upcoming foe?

The entire coaching staff is new and so much of the team is young and inexperienced that I tend to believe Taylor is just trying to get everyone on the same page in the first half of the season before worrying about holding plays/strategies in reserve. Some of you have much keener minds for football strategies...thoughts?

The PAC had one hell of a week, 12-0 overall and 10-2 ATS.

PAC teams AVERAGED 46 points per game, with three teams hitting the over on their own.

I would be very happy if Stanford can somehow go 3-6 in the conference, 2-7 feels like the most likely outcome.

I know they do it every game but, I still think it’s great. One new conference road trip I may make before I expire:

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First women’s tournament of the golf season. Stanford (-8) has a 1 shot lead over Arkansas (-7) in Round 1. Megha Ganne (-6) and Rachel Heck (-2) lead the Cardinal.

Pulls no punches in a recent interview:

Q: Do you hope that, as the athletes enter into this experience, people will share their experiences so people understand the consequences this has on sports beyond football?

A: The powers that be don’t care. Intellectually, they can figure it out. They understand the consequences for the other sports. This was the choice that people made for the TV money. It’s hard for me to think that a TV executive who might have a daughter or son who went to Stanford or Oregon or Washington or UCLA, that this is the life that they would choose for their children. But this is what adults do. I mean, this does not make sense.

There are all kinds of situations in our world where instead of standing up and saying, “This isn’t right,” we live with it. I don’t see this as being good for us, but it’s what we have to do, and the alternative was worse for us. I mean, I’m not like, “Yay, I can’t wait to fly six hours across the country,” but the thought of not being in a league was more painful.

Q: How many of your fellow Pac-12 coaches have you talked to over the past few weeks?

A: I have talked to people from Stanford probably more than anything. But I have talked to [Cal coach and Stanford alum] Charmin Smith and I talked to [Oregon coach] Kelly Graves. Different coaches in the league have reached out. I know that this doesn’t have anything to do with the basketball coaches. We have no decision making input or anything.

What I do think is kind of interesting is that I’ve not heard from a single ACC school since the announcement that we are going to their conference. I would have reached out to any new coaches [if it had been the other way around]. I would have done that. So I’m kind of surprised that there’s not a single coach in the ACC who I’ve heard from.

Find it really surprising and disappointing that not a single ACC coach has reached out. It's not like she's a coaching legend or anything. Pathetic.

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She's a member of the UM water polo team.

** Roster Arrows are designed to get a better feeling about the status of a player on the roster. Call it a real time depth chart. Arrows are not given out on performance because that can sometimes be subjective and argumentative which I like to avoid, although I will add my .02. I learned a long time ago you should see a player at least twice before evaluating and the closed practices didn't help, so I will tread cautiously in game one. It was nice to actually root for Stanford again. LFG

DEFENSE G1 VS HAWAII

ARROW UP

0 BERNADEL - ILB1 played all but 4 snaps. Was hoping to see more of that 'Miami speed' but it just wasn't there. Tackling wasn't there either. I'm glad to have the player because there just isn't anything behind him.
4 Manley - Played every snap at RCB. I thought he was sound.
6 Wright - Played every snap at LCB.
8 Sinclair- ILB1 played all but 4 snaps.
14 Aybar - Top backup at OLB. Bottom end of time share with Keneley.
18 Wyrick - Played every snap before taking friendly fire from Jorgensen. Didn't return which is a big problem.
20 Slocum - Played 60 snaps at NB. And this is why the Wyrick injury is a big issue. The player was always on the chase in coverage and just did not look comfortable over the slot.

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21 Edwards - Starter at S. Looked solid in G1. It was clear that the biggest dilemma the defensive staff was wrestling with coming in was whether to play Edwards at S with Wyrick at NB OR Wyrick at S with Slocum at NB. The film in G1 did not do Slocum any favors but the injury to Wyrick muds it all up.
23 Bailey - Stanford's most dynamic defender. How much does Lifetime Cardinal have in it's saving account?
33 Gilman - Starter at S. Played every snap. Doesn't move going back all that well but he is a laser guided missile moving forward. Love the staff sending him after the QB, which means he doesn't have to be in coverage.

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35 Rose - 4 2Q snaps for Bernadel. 2nd year player gets the arrow up after not seeing the field in year 1. Also on multiple ST's.
40 Phillips - DL starter. Solid enough.
44 Cooper - Only 5 snaps but a couple of them came early and the staff chose him over Tafiti/Lytle/Aybar to replace Bailey for a series with Stanford only up 2 scores. Kind of gets after the QB a little bit.
51 Moi - Part of the rotation on the DL. Tough dude. Didn't think he played all that great.
92 Keneley - Starter at OLB. Another player who got after the QB. Nice motor.
94 Franklin - DL starter. Another nice motor.
98 Buckey - Part of the rotation on the DL. Gets a hand up a lot as QB releases and did get 1. All of these guys have good motors. I was actually cautiously impressed by the DL. Pretty good at getting after the QB. We have sent much worse out there at DL/OLB.

ARROW DOWN

9 Armitage - 3 snaps
27 Porter - 4th year player only got 1 snap.
32 Leigber - Stanford's leading rusher in it's previous 4 games, didn't see a snap on D.
47 Ellis - Nothing for the 3rd year DB
57 Lytle - 5th year player only in for 5 snaps to give Bailey an extended breather before the end of the 3Q.


* 10 Jorgesen - 4 2Q snaps at ILB for Sinclair and that was it. Should probably be with Lytle on this list but the early 2Q action was considered. Also on multiple ST's.
* 11 Tafiti - Got 2 1Q snaps at OLB and that was it. Did not look like he should be out there as he was not moving well. A little weird. Maybe trying to get the Hawaii native on the field.

** I am assuming Uke and Taylor are injured?

Read that here.

No surprise.

It’d be better to post this /after/ the season, but what can I say? I have a sick mind.

Also, conference games won’t really have *oomph* for a long time, IMO, because we have no collective feelings about any of our new conferencemates (except ND and Cal).

So why not /form/ some feelings?

TIER-ONE ENEMIES:
Cal — you all know why.
Duke — zero tolerance for Dollar Store Stanford.
Clemson — FB program is the undisputed king of the ACC, *but* they have a truly insufferable fan base. I visited one of their message boards and found at least three fans fantasizing about how brave they would be in the face of CALIFORNIA LIBERALS trying to CANCEL THEM for SINGING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM before games. Others were saying expansion was great because it would hasten Clemson’s exit from the ACC. These people are turds and belong in the toilet.
UNC — speaking of turds, UNC’s regents put out a whole entire statement telling us to eat… does this board censor swear words?… let’s say *slop*. Never forget.

TIER TWO:
Notre Dame — may be controversial to leave them out of Tier One, but realistically, without them we’d be dying in the wilderness, right? They pushed *hard* for this.

TIER THREE:
Georgia Tech — we must grind them to dust beneath the wheels of our chariots. No, I will not explain why.
Florida State — Fans think they’re USC; team plays like Arizona. Extremely irritating combo. Could really rocket up the tier list if we have to actually interact with their fan base.
Miami — one day, when the stars align and Great C’thulhu stirs beneath the waves, Miami will be relevant again.

TIER FOUR:
Wake Forest — clearly just Rice in disguise.
Syracuse — you know how Army, Navy, and Air Force play for the Commander-in-Chief trophy? We, ‘Cuse, and NC State need to play for the Block S trophy. So let it be written; so let it be done.
Boston College — aggressively, *offensively* bland. So mediocre you can’t even look at them without a tremendous effort; your eyes keep sliding away in search of *anything* more interesting.
Louisville — I guess they’re in the conference????

TIER FOUR:
Virginia — I mean… whatever. Probably a pretty nice road trip.
Virginia Tech — adequate! Also, smashing them to pieces in the Orange Bowl was very very fun. Good memories!
Pitt — reliably good program, no complaints.

TIER FIVE:
SMU — helmet has horsey. I repeat: HELMET HAS HORSEY. My inner six-year-old is delighted.

TIER EIGHT HUNDRED:
NC State — our saviors. We love and support NC State.

Have you ended your holdout??

1. What a day for Stanford football! We wake up to find that we’ve been spared calamity in the conference realignment musical chairs, giving us genuine reason to hope we can compete for relevance in future years rather than kneecapping the Troy Taylor era just as it’s starting, and then go to bed happy having watched that era get off to a good start. All the vibes from the off-season mattered for culture and setting the foundation, but in the big picture yesterday was the first salvo that really mattered in Taylor’s campaign to restore respectability to Stanford football. It won’t make a dent in national perception but that only comes from piling up some wins and this gets us our first one. Most importantly, it gives the players a joyful and successful business trip to Hawaii that will help build confidence for a young team, and it gives the fans something fun to wash the taste of the failed former regime from our mouths.

2. Fun. That’s the word. Fun. What a concept. The play designs on the Yurosek and Farrell touchdowns looked like they could have come from the Kansas City Chiefs rather than the Shawfense we’ve been saddled with for so long. The tempo saved fans from falling into the catatonic state we’re used to. And, of course, we won, which hasn’t happened often the last few years. We still will probably not win often this year and we should continue to keep in mind that we need to be patient with this rebuild. Nonetheless, patience needs to be rewarded if the players are going to believe or if the fans are going to reciprocate the new staff and rejuvenated players’ energy, and this was a start.

3. I need to restrain myself from too many stats in the first few weeks of a season as small sample sizes, teams feeling each other out, and teams revealing true selves rather than off-season sketches all make initial stats dubiously insightful the first month of the season. Still, with the caveat that we shouldn’t draw too much from a couple data points, we have the helpful perspective at this early stage of seeing how Stanford did against a common opponent compared to one of the teams most comparable to us nationally. Like us, Vanderbilt is expected to be one of the worst Power Five (four more months!) teams in the nation and is trying to build something respectable. We have a lot more talent, but they are further into the rebuild. We did quite well against Hawaii in comparison to Vanderbilt. From the eye test, having watched both games, last night’s game was far less competitive and dramatic and there was no doubt who the better team was. Statistically, both sides of the ball outshined the Commodores (special teams perhaps not given the Vandy touchdown return). Our defense was a lot better, giving up 5.07 yards to play to Vandy’s 6.52, and the offense was better too, gaining 5.80 yards per play to Vandy’s 5.30. And of course there’s the scoreboard. Eventually “better than Vanderbilt” will be an insult but this season it would be very welcome given the bombed out crater Shaw left.

4. The guys who replaced Shaw and his staff had a good day. We shouldn’t gloss over that this was Taylor’s first ever game as a major college football head coach, it was April’s first game as a defensive coordinator, and it was every single offensive coach’s first game as a full, major assistant. They probably had nerves just like their players. I am sure they got great satisfaction from this and I hope they rewarded themselves with a sunrise on Waikiki this morning. As for their performance, Taylor was varied and dynamic in his play calling, though if we’re being fair those who loved to criticize Shaw’s game day management have plenty of grist from Taylor’s debut too (some third down calls that didn’t seem optimal, not taking an injured/gassed Filkins out until a play too late, losing a timeout because he didn’t know what was challengeable, etc.). April had a really nice debut, but he also has more talent to work with and Bailey would make anybody look better. Most importantly and what Taylor is clearly most proud of, the players (despite being so young and inexperienced) played with poise and resilience. Definitely something to build on.

5. Aside from Taylor getting his first win, there were two main stories. The first is the starting debut of Ashton Daniels. I had been following tea leaves closely enough that I wasn’t surprised Daniels got the start, but I was floored he played the whole game (ok, Lamson got a few plays in the victory formation). I have mixed views on this. On balance, I’m fine with it because he acquitted himself nicely and gave us a stability that lent itself to having the ultimate result be as positive as I’ve described above. But I think it might be a mistake if we go through the season without seeing what Lamson and/or Patu can do under the bright lights, and the first game is by far less awkward to alternate QBs than as the season progresses (especially since opponents get better). I can’t imagine the game plan against USC can be anything other than Daniels gets the nod and is QB1, period. That said, I only view the clarity of Daniels as QB1 as a mistake if he is mediocre this season and we don’t get good insights into what we have in the others. Based on Taylor’s talk for weeks of “separation” and how Daniels played, this may just not be that close of a call. Daniels was above-average in his debut, 15th of 37 QBs so far in Total QBR. By Total QBR, it was better than seven of McKee’s performances last year. PFF thought Daniels was great, edging out Yurosek for our best grade, better than Bailey too. We may have found QB1 earlier than most of us imagined. Let’s see how he does under really bright lights next week. Hawaii was a nice opponent to start off against, not good at pass defense. Then again, I don’t think highly of USC’s defense either.

6. The other big story was the stars. Stanford doesn’t have many established star players but the guys who qualify couldn’t have gotten off to a better start. Among the 37 teams that have played, Yurosek is second in the nation in receiving (first among TEs), Bailey has the most sacks or tackles for loss of any player in America, and Karty has the second most made field goals. Big statements to start our stars’ years. I hope Bailey can play and is full go against USC. It was a huge relief he came back after being hobbled (and got yet another sack!), but I’ve seen enough football to know that those kind of sequences can turn into doubtful or even out for the next week.