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."

They are now 10-4 after beating Cal last night. Their signature win so far was beating Arizona at home in Huntsman arena. Here's their schedule/record so far:

And their roster... And like Colorado, they also have a 7 footer playing inside:

Bobby April III coming on board as the defensive coordinator comes with promise that he'll bring Wisconsin Badger flavor the defense badly needs as well as anxiety Stanford is handing the keys of the defense to a coach who's never coordinated/called a defense. I thought it might be interesting to look at Wisconsin's defense over the years to try to get a sense of the defense we're hoping to emulate and what role April played in it.

April joined Wisconsin's staff in 2018 (one year into Jim Leonhard's tenure as defensive coordinator) as the outside linebackers coach and from 2020-2022 also had a defensive run game coordinator. While the defensive performance during that time has been elite, Badger defensive greatness preceded them. Here's the Defensive FEI rankings by year (DCs listed parenthetically):

2007: #53 (Hankwitz)
2008: #43 (Doeren)
2009: #30 (Doeren)
2010: #40 (Doeren)
2011: #41 (Ash/Partridge)
2012: #20 (Ash/Partridge)
2013: #8 (Aranda)
2014: #21 (Aranda)
2015: #12 (Aranda)
2016: #6 (Wilcox)
2017: #6 (Leonhard)
2018: #32 (Leonhard)
2019: #12 (Leonhard)
2020: #4 (Leonhard)
2021: #3 (Leonhard)
2022: #18 (Leonhard)

Leonhard/April had a very tough act to follow after Aranda and Wilcox and managed to live up to that standard. In the five years April coached at Wisconsin, the median defense was #12 in the nation. To put that into perspective for Stanford fans, the Harbaugh/Shaw glory years median for Stanford was #8 or #9, depending on where you cut off the years. As we all know, even a tick behind that as Wisconsin has been the last decade (with two of the last three seasons being even more elite than prime Stanford mustered) is dominant. That's an exciting defense to try to draw lessons from.

The questions for us become how much of the credit a mid-level assistant like April deserves as opposed to Leonhard, how much of the Wisconsin magic baked in to the program's DNA (by Aranda, Wilcox, Leonhard, and others) rubbed off on April, and how much of the Wisconsin staff responsible for this magic April will be able to bring with him to Stanford. For each of these I think there are reasons for optimism regarding what April can mean for Stanford, as well as reasons to be concerned we're getting the understudy rather than the maestro. Stanford's own experience is a bit of a cautionary tale - based on program trajectory/departing DCs moving on for other opportunities/etc., there are obvious parallels between April and Lance Anderson. Stanford calculated that Anderson's apprenticeships under Mason and Fangio rubbed off, but it became clear that the magic didn't translate. For Wisconsin, Leonhard himself was an assistant for a year under Wilcox who moved up to the big job in the way Stanford tried with Anderson, but Wilcox and Aranda were both proven DC hired guns/rising supernovas. The Wilcox/Aranda model is the more reliable one and the one I wish Stanford would use for the critical DC position, just as I wish we would belly up to the big kids table and hire a proven Power Five head coach, but we are where we are: trying to identify good candidates among guys looking to make a professional leap.

How have Wisconsin defensive assistants done trying to make professional leaps? Daronte Jones coached only one year under Aranda and then got half a decade of NFL experience, so his experience is inverted compared to April (and much less time marinating in the Badger defensive stew), but for what it's worth he got a year as LSU's DC and had a mediocre year by LSU standards (#44 in Defensive FEI); he went back to the NFL when LSU's coaching staff turned over. Tim Tibesar (the coach April replaced at Wisconsin) parlayed his Wisconsin job into a Pac-12 defensive coordinator gig as well, at Oregon State, though Tibesar had years of major college football experience previously so is not a good analogue to April; for what it's worth, Tibesar's track record at Oregon State was not successful and he's now DC at Akron and in his first year squeezed out modest improvement in what had been the worst defense in America before he got there. In general, there isn't much track record of Aranda/Wilcox/Leonhard Wisconsin assistants making a jump to DC. Jones is really the only guy to make the leap without DC experience and he only did it for a year. This is a small sample and if April is going to be a good hire he'd naturally be an outlier. We have to hope he's got a good mix of talents and experience to be a good DC. He's got a relatively clean upward trajectory and lengthy apprenticeships under Rex Ryan in the NFL (four years) and Leonhard in college (five years), which means a lot more to me than a coach getting one year under Aranda for instance.

To the extent April has been a defensive scheme guy and empowered in the Wisconsin defense, it's been as the run game coordinator. It's nigh impossible for outsiders to discern how much credit to assess for titular roles like this, how integral April was to Leonhard's scheme and calls, how much more empowered April was in the defensive run game compared to the defensive pass game, etc. But for the sake of trying to understand what April brings to the table let's take a look at Wisconsin's yards per carry allowed ranks in the defense's salad (Aranda-Wilcox-Leonhard) days:

2013: #9
2014: #28
2015: #4
2016: #9
2017: #9
2018: #75 (April joined staff)
2019: #15
2020: #14 (April became defensive run game coordinator)
2021: #1
2022: #6

Well, gotta love that! If Stanford can come even close to replicating that run defense it would be a godsend. In the five years April has been part of a defensive staff that had a median year of being #14 in the nation in run defense, Stanford's median run defense has been #115. What a difference.

Notably, it appears the plan might be for April to bring his fellow defensive front seven assistants, inside linebackers coach Mark D'Onofrio and defensive line coach Ross Kolodziej, with him to Stanford. D'Onofrio has only coached with Leonhard and April for one year after a three year absence from coaching and many years as a defensive coordinator at Temple, Miami, and Houston. Looking at the arcs of D'Onofrio's defenses at each of those three schools, he was very modestly successful at Temple, unsuccessful at Miami, and unsuccessful at Houston. The way I'd think about D'Onofrio is a failed coordinator who can nonetheless provide April with some perspective from years of major college football play calling, and the two have a year of successful experience navigating the seams and gaps between outside and inside linebackers. Kolodziej led Badger strength and conditioning for six years between 2015-2020 before serving as the DL coach the last two years. The performance of the defense, especially in run defense, the last two years suggests that Chryst and Leonhard didn't err in making Kolodziej DL coach. Certainly he's been integral to the program spanning Aranda, Wilcox, and Leonhard successes. In my view, the theory of the case for the Stanford defense under April would be much stronger with Kolodziej and D'Onofrio than it would be if he is forced to retain Stanford assistants or search elsewhere for new partners. Big arrow up for me if these three come together. They have proven synergy as defensive coaches and, as a bonus, synergy with one another in integrating strength and conditioning with defensive coaching: in addition to Kolodziej's obvious strength and conditioning expertise, D'Onofrio's time at Houston overlapped with new Stanford honcho Ryan Deatrick.

The biggest unknown for me with regard to April as DC is the defensive secondary coaching. I remain convinced we need two defensive secondary coaches, as Leonhard operated at Wisconsin and as Taylor operated at Sacramento State. I do not know anything about the coaching Taylor and April plan to bring on for the secondary. Big unknown for me. Hopefully we can nail down the rest of the staff soon and the synergies are as good as my optimistic read so far.

How could Muir bring him back?

Read that here.

Read that here. I'm on my way to Maples.

Read that here.

Just creating this now so that it's all ready to go. All signings will be added in here as they come in. Troy Taylor will have a press conference on Zoom tomorrow at 4:00 PM PT. I'll add a link to that thread in here once that becomes available.

National Signing Day Interview Troy Taylor had with Adam Gorney is here.

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Troy Taylor's presser with Stanford media is here.


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Merry Christmas to all!

I never thought to really dig into this during my time, and maybe no one on here knows much about this, but I'm curious what the onboarding process is for new coaches at Stanford, specifically football. I think everyone here has experienced some form of onboarding when joining a new company and the detail and usefulness can vary greatly. There's all the standard stuff an HR department needs a newbie to do and then there should be a process to educate someone about the unique characteristics/tasks at a company.

Of course, my mind first goes to recruiting. We talk about the learning curve all the time and it seems to be considered a given that it takes them a year to get their feet under them and really understand. So what does Stanford do for these coaches? Is it a powerpoint presentation? Do they talk with someone from admissions?

#3 in initial poll. Gonna be fun.


Who has it better than us???

Looking at the season stats there are some really astonishing numbers.

FG % - us 49.3%, them 33.2%

Reb- us 666, them 394

Some of the individual FG%s are truly eye popping. Betts .607, Brink .606, Iriafen .580.

OK, those are posts. How about the backcourt? Jump .513. Jones .484 And this was the most surprising to me - Lepolo .482.

Big fun

I've always been a fan of "MT3". Great to see him still in the league and still representing the university well.

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First, thank you again to @SamuelMcF for the transfer tracker thread. It's really a great resource. I have an exercise for fans to divert a few brain cells away from the coaching search and trying to decipher what the bones tell us about our future.

Which 10 current Cardinal (on the roster or in the portal) do you want on the roster next season? I'm tempted to say you can't include Bailey or Cooper because literally every list should include them. Nugent belongs on the "duh, we want him" list, too. Anyway, do what you will with your list.
Which five transfers would you take from this thread?

As promised. I'm sure I will miss people, but the absolute deluge of guys into the portal means there are plenty of likely-academically-qualified transfers out there (if a coach/staff were to actively seek them out, cough cough).

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Link to Google Sheet

Read that here.

So great to log on here, read the posts and get a hugely positive vibe. This place has been a downer for too long.

College football can be a brutal place. Chryst had a .720 winning percentage, went to a bowl every year and didn't even keep his job until yearend.

Read that here. Clint Cosgrove with a bit on Leviticus Su'a. He thinks Arizona is the front runner (which others on here have also felt as do I). But, I do believe with a new staff in town and the presence of David Bailey, there is a chance that he comes to Stanford. The fact that he (A) hasn't committed elsewhere and (B) still has Stanford on his list is reason for optimism.

I know it's been mentioned in a few threads already (Mcook just did) but I think it warrants its own thread, so let me say to all posters Merry Christmas to you all and your families.

Most of us got our Christmas present early when Shaw resigned then we got a few stocking stuffers with the new head coach and new staff.

As Mcook posted, the energy and anticipation of next season is also a gift regardless of how bad we might be just seeing the potential rise of the program is a gift to us all.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year

Read that here.