Depending on your perspective: BYU favored by 6.5

I had thought this game was considered a toss-up. Maybe Vegas finally catching on to us.

I always start these threads on the big holidays even though this year it is tough as I lost my mother two weeks ago. She wasn't a big sports fan but she use to get into it watching me watch the 9ers and Stanford ( she loved that nice Italian boy number 16 of the 9ers 🤗). But I'm thankful for having her around so long as she lead a wonderful 97 years.

I hope you all find things to be thankful for tomorrow and live life to the fullest !!!

Friend of mine has three tickets he can't use for tonight's final regular season home match vs Cal at 6pm, located in Lower Bowl, Section 5, Row FF. Free to a good home, just let me know and I'll get you in contact with them.

Thanks!

10:30 PM PT on ESPNU. I'm gonna drop a quick preview of the tourney in here, but before I do, I wanted to get the game hub going. And Happy Thanksgiving!

He’s having a better pro than college career. Happy for him.

Read that here.

Read that here.

Read that here. I'll get my recap up later, but I wanted to address this topic first. I'm still baffled by this and the officials need to offer up an explanation. They need to be held accountable for totally ignoring that late hit that Session had on Gilman.

Following up on a post by StanfordMan a couple of weeks ago, I encourage you to contact Stanford to share your views about the football program.

Email addresses:

Bernard Muir - athleticdirector@stanford.edu
Marc Tessier-Lavigne - president@stanford.edu
Persis Drell - provost@stanford.edu
Howard Wolf - hwolf@stanford.edu

I sent an email to the AD, and I sent a somewhat different email to the President and the Provost. I got a response to the second email from Howard Wolf, the VP for Alumni Affairs. Among other things, Wolf said he is collecting input on this issue and sharing it with university leadership.

When Wolf reports on the feedback, it would be great if he were to say that an overwhelming number of people are urging the university to take action. I encourage you to take a minute and share your opinion.

Stanford has a depth chart here: BYU depth chart

Maybe its not totally accurate. Berzins is listed as a starter and Omari Porter at nickel. No Hornibrook, Hinton, Sinclair, Fields, Williamson. No Cooper so I guess a redshirt there. it does list Kelly (who Shaw said might not play) and Dubre. No STM, but does list Collin Wright.

the game notes say;
The Cardinal will honor all fourth-, fifth- and sixth-year seniors on Senior Day and will recognize 28 student athletes prior to Saturday night’s game. • This year’s seniors are:
Bradley Archer, Ethan Bonner, Colby Bowman, Branson Bragg, Levani Damuni, Aeneas DiCosmo, Patrick Fields, Stephen Herron, Elijah Higgins, Jake Hornibrook, Spencer Jorgensen, Jason Kaul, Thunder Keck, Kyu Blu Kelly, Jacob Mangum-Farrar, Jonathan McGill, Ricky Miezan, Barrett Miller, Drake Nugent, Walter Rouse, Ryan Sanborn, Tristan Sinclair, Jay Symonds, Nicolas Toomer, Brycen Tremayne, Salim Turner-Muhammad, Kendall Williamson and Michael Wilson.

I wonder if almost all 28 are not coming back. Surely some 4th years will be back as conventional 5th year guys, but maybe all 5th years and Covid eligible guys are on the way out?

Add in Manley, Lukrich and Harris who left since last spring plus Mckee to the NFL, any undergrad to the portal, maybe a medical retirement and I think its easy to see 25+ guys from the summer not back. Not all of the above are on scholarship, but Shaw better have his portal plan ready to go. He's only got 12 committed high school seniors arriving on campus right now because 2 will be on missions. Seems likely they will add more high school commits though.

Read that here. 4:00 PM today.

I'll make this part quick because everyone who watched the game knows this: Stanford suffered one of the most jarring meltdowns I can ever recall seeing from Tara's teams. Basketball IQ seemed to drain from the brain of multiple players and we saw an eye-opening and diverse array of mistakes rob Stanford of a chance for a big win. If you watched, you know the plays I'm referencing. If you didn't, there's no way in heck I'm describing that play-by-play of "what the ... ?".

I was never wound up about the importance of winning this game so long as we didn't get shockingly exposed in a blowout — never a realistic worry but just proving my point about my mindset for this game. This loss has zero effect on our résumé. It may have a short-term negative effect on our psyche and you can be sure Tara, Kate, Steding and Anderson will not be fun teachers to be around for the next few practices and film sessions. They'll balance picking the Cardinal up with making it clear that some of that stuff can't ever happen again.

What we saw from Jones is that every couple of blue moons she tries to do too much and because she's so important it's really bad when she goes haywire. She was great in the first half, but when she got out of rhythm she sunk further into the mess with every wild attempt to get out of it. That happens to the Hall of Famers and the scrubs. We still had a great chance to win despite one of the five best players in the country playing at a level far removed from her best.

I think Brink, Boston and Fudd at UConn are the three best players in the country right now. I didn't see any gap between Brink and Boston today and for all the talk about Brink's foul trouble, Boston was hit with the same issue today. Brink is so athletic and incredibly competitive that she is going to have at least one "don't try that" foul a game. She's also going to get a call or two a game that I think officials whistle because it looks so violent when she does things. So she routinely doesn't have much wiggle room on the foul front.

Still, she was a joy to watch when she was on the court.

The best individual result from today with far-reaching impact for this season is the play of Lepolo. The fact that Kate and Tara think Lepolo could be one of their better point guards in recent years is eye-opening. Kate in particular doesn't give compliments like that just for a nice quote. Lepolo played very well. I'm excited to see her develop this season and how the starting five comes together with her.

I was worried about how we'd play without the Hulls and Wilson, but especially the Hulls. I'll repeat myself for the 100th time that the Hulls made so many winning plays every game that I wondered how we'd replace that in the first game against real competition this season. I thought rebounding and defense would take a hit without Lexie and Lacie. We did just fine in those categories against a fantastic team. So, we played at best our B+ game (Jones almost switched teams in the fourth quarter) and demonstrated some stunning examples for "what not to do" videos.

It's disappointing to miss an opportunity for a cool win but I doubt this staff and this team will let the opportunity for improvement and redemption slide by.

Got several pairs in Section 131 and 132 (Sunny side, 30 yard line, north half of the field) that need good homes. If interested, DM me and sit near me and other diehards, too!

Ok, Stanford had their weekly press conference before Saturday's season ending game against BYU. Watch that here.

Login to view embedded media
Injuries: Kendall Williamson, Patrick Fields, and Jake Hornibrook are out. Kyu Blu Kelly is questionable. They'll see how his movement is over the next couple of days.

Shaw then lead with talking about what I had already been tipped off about after the Utah game. The NIL and transfer portal changes they hope to make at an administrative level. They are being methodical about things, but at the same time eager to get to work on making waves in this new era. As I said after the Utah game, the former player who tipped me off this was pretty excited. Couple of details I've learned, $10,000 minimum for each player. Major boosters along with John Elway and Andrew Luck have really been pushing for this. So there are so major names pushing this through and making this happen. The team just had a meeting about this so the players have all been briefed.

As for how the transfer portal will work, Shaw said it's about being more flexible with admitting guys who do have good grades in college and then also are a good fit with their all-around mission and community. So, I'm sure interviews will play a role in the process as well as GPAs. I did ask about the junior college route since I went to Foothill College and I know California has a lot of really good junior colleges.. Shaw said the junior college landscape has changed and he's not sure how many of those guys they'll add. It's not something they've talked about as an administration specifically. But, it is a pool that they do keep their eyes on.

Honestly, I really don't know much about the details of how administration is going to be more flexible beyond the fact that it's going to be easier for guys to get admitted as transfers. That doesn't mean lowering their academic standards per se. One possibility is being more flexible with course reciprocity. Stanford has a lot of unique academic courses and one thing that could help with that is being more flexible in allowing classes at other schools to count towards requirements at Stanford. That's just a guess, but I would imagine if they're going to be more flexible with transfers, course reciprocity will be something they're gonna have to be more flexible with.

I'll add more of my thoughts in here later once I get my notes on the entire press conference up, but I wanted to lead this thread off with more information or at least as much as I know. Also, we've had additional thread going that is on the same topic as well. @anurag41 had some interesting information to pass on in that thread about how the $10K minimum will be dished out and how they plan to help out franchise players. Check that out here if you have not already done so.

Tonight at the Maui invitational. OSU came into the game 3-0. I’m not sure what it means, but SDSU seems like a strong team.

Ben you know anyone associated with SDSU who can provide thoughts on where our program is now? A compare contrast with OSU?

Read that here.

Read that here.

Hey, Haley Jones and Kiki Iriafen, look no further than Walker Zimmerman for a relatable "what were you thinking?" mistake in a critical moment. You think a five-second violation or calling a timeout when you have none is bad, you should try wiping out an opponent from behind in the penalty box when the opponent is not in position to do anything other than receive the ball. No one is immune to those moments.

Overall, I was pleased with the performance of the USMNT against a Welsh side that is capable of beating most teams in the tournament. Zimmerman's disastrous penalty aside, I thought the central defense held up well and Ream had a fantastic performance. Adams was the man of the match and did exactly what we need to support teammates who sometimes leave openings for opponents while trying to make plays.

The buildup and execution of the USMNT goal was quick, decisive and clinical. It looked easy. I thought Pulisic's really poor deliveries on crosses and set pieces was a major down arrow on his grade but otherwise he did well. I really hope we see Gio Reyna Friday vs. England — we have to get a point.

McKennie and Dest aren't 100% healthy and their form faded fast in the second half. I really prefer that Aaronson start instead of McKennie — he's fit and relentless. Aaronson is an important part of Leeds' high pressure that leads to scoring opportunities.

England is obviously an enormous test. They are no longer a side of talented individuals who you can count on to underperform as a unit, so we can lose 2-0 without even playing poorly. I think what's most likely to happen is a more dramatic version of what happened in the opener: one confident, assertive half and one when we have to hang on for dear life.

I wonder how many other players from the golden years feel the same way (and are willing to say it publicly)?

Login to view embedded media

Daiid Shaw = Tom Landry

I was upset when our coach called for a meaningless 61 yard fg at the end of the game. Thought it would ruin Karty's perfect record.

Oh, yee of little faith. 61 yards? What's the problem?

He is an extraordinary talent.

Is there a bet available on how long into the match the first “grievous” injury flop occurs? Under one minute might be a safe bet.

Mark not winning this award is a complete JOKE.

Login to view embedded media

Ok, folks. When the game clock strikes 00:00 at about midnight Saturday I reckon that another clock will start ticking in the minds of all of us who are waiting impatiently to know what, if anything, Stanford and Shaw will do.

In a "normal" situation I think we would know by Monday if Shaw is staying or going. Does anyone have a different opinion or a guess about when things may happen?

If silence drags on for days afterward, is that a good sign? I think it is but Stanford might just stay quiet because there's no external pressure to quickly say anything about the future of football. At what point next week do guys start boarding life rafts because they're not sure if anything will be done to save the ship?

I genuinely don't know what to predict for next week, except it feels like a safe bet that nothing will happen and we'll just float along in a state of anticlimax.