I only stayed for the first half (my 6-year-old joined me and has bedtime). A few thoughts:

Student section was reasonably full, with the middle section standing (and heckling) throughout. One NAU sub had an unfortunate haircut that had the kids chanting “We want Farquaad!” (of Shrek fame).

Disappointing turnout for non-students.

The side scoreboards that show player totals and team stats were not working. Bush league stuff.

Maxime has been a huge defensive presence. They did a good job getting him the ball inside, and I’m also thrilled when he shoots the 3, he has a great stroke. He’s playing with some serious fire!

Agarwal is the player of the game. Awesome defense, excellent shooting and just an all round solid effort. ACC 6th man of the year!

Gealer seems more comfortable shooting the deep uncontested 3. He also did a good job penetrating and drawing contact.

Nice to see Sellers play well after a quiet game 2, and Blakes continues to be a force. His ability to get to the line and convert (18-24 in 3 games) has been huge.

Smith stuck with 7 guys until the very end, and I could see those 7 getting 90%+ of the minutes moving forward.
It was nice to see Jaylen Thompson as the first “garbage minutes” guy and get on the board.

Another easy, fun win for the good guys!

The early signing period for women's hoops begins later this week on Wednesday, November 13th. The following players are expected to sign with Stanford as part of their 2025 class: 5-star point guard Hailee Swain, five-star forward Alexandra Eschmeyer, four-star forward Nora Ezike, and four-star wing Carly Amborn.

If you missed anything from the month of October, check out the recruiting notes thread for October here.

Read and watch that here.

Read that here.

Discuss other games of note here.

NC State 24 Cal 23, 2 minutes, 4th qtr. Cal at NC St 16.

Listed 28th on list of top 50 NFL pro prospects in this morning’s Athletic

Read that here.

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Here, Schwartztein is saying that people are perceiving the NFL's product to be diminished due to overexposure

I think the diminished product is pretty obvious (penalties, QB play, low effort, etc.) . I very much enjoy Saturday's more than Sunday's, and that wasn't always the case

Now, Schwartztein is biased here because he works on Amazon Prime's Thursday game. It's ironic because I think that Thursday production is rather lacking -- lacks a 'big game' feeling to me

Schwartzteins other recent take was that Taylor is "absolutely" the right guy for Stanford

Thoughts?

September thread is here. I’ll add a breakdown when I can.

Preview is here.

Read that here.

Read that here.

Preview is here.

Stanford should not get complacent (lol) and needs to show it is a serious football school. OL coaches and TE coach are at the top of my list. Maybe DB, but he was doing what he can with freshmen.

I like our WR, RB, LB and DL coaches.

So Ben says Brown has one more game to play that will allow him to preserve his redshirt. This means he can play against Louisville, Cal, or San Jose State.

What drives this decision? Obviously, you want to win games, but when you are 2-7, developing players would seem to be the higher priority. Does anyone know what Troy Taylor prioritizes more at the moment?

I've not paid attention to any reporting about how Brown is or isn't developing in practice, or even if any is available. I do know I saw him play against Wake (a Pass D as bad as Stanford's), and he looked positively horrendous. Is there any reason to believe Brown is actually improving under Taylor's coaching?

If it were me, I'd go with Brown in the San Jose State game. I don't think it makes sense to play him against Cal, for a few reasons:

- Cal and Louisville have much better talent to go against than does San Jose State
- There will be a certain momentum going from last start of season into a presumptive QB1 role in Spring practices
- For some reason the SJSU game is nationally televised on CBS, so Stanford's team can be motivated to put its best forward and maybe help Brown as a result

Finally, a question on Troy Taylor. If Taylor was fired at the end of this season, who would want him and in what role? I've seen no hint of any dynamic or innovative offense. I've seen no QB development. I've seen no recruiting improvement. I mean, what is Troy Taylor proven good enough at to get him another coaching job, based on his almost two seasons at Stanford?

You will see it played over and over today.

Washington down 28-27 with 1:30 to go on 4th and 9. Ertz catches pass at first down line, moves forward away from line, and is touched.

It might be the worst ball spot I've ever seen on a 4th down play. And the replay review reinforced the awful spot too. If I get a video of it, I'll post it here. But man, what a terrible ball spot!

Read that here.

Yes, Stanford was tremendous last night. They seem to have learned that the best offense is a diverse offense where Tammi, Elia, Ipar. Jordyn, and Red, I mean Lizzy, all participate. They all had a wonderful time.

Elena and Kami ere fabulous on defense. The blocking was worthy of a Kevin Hambly in college.

Stanford’s serving has improved remarkably over the year. Coco seems to have replaced Pringle whom we affectionately call Chip.

I do have to say that GT did not look like a Pitt or a Louisville. Maybe the travel caused them to lose their edge. They had won nine in a row.

Yes, we are familiar with the ditty “I am a rambling wreck from Georgia Tech and a heck of an engineer“?

Whoever called the GT’s the Wreckettes was a comedic genius..

Putting aside how pathetic it is that Cal and Stanford are dominated by the ACC in their first year in the league...

It is now clear as the day is long that SMU is the best team in the ACC in its first year. Miami has been living a charmed existence, escaping several games in which they trailed by double figures, but their luck ran out today in a truly pathetic performance at Georgia Tech. GT pushed them around all over the field on both sides of the ball.

Miami hasn't played a single great team this year, and the best one is Louisville, who they really struggled to beat. Their Defense has to be the worst of any Top 5 team in memory. Cam Ward has been the presumptive Heisman winner, but today was a very poor performance.

I am picking SMU to win the ACC in their first year as a Power conference team since the 1980s.

Read that here.

Preview is here.

Read that here.

Just heard on the broadcast of their win at Oregon State that made San Jose State Bowl-eligible for the third straight season:

- First Pac win since Stanford in 2006
- First Pac road win since Stanford in 1999

Oregon State is terrible, probably worse than Stanford, and the Spartans only scored 17 offensive points in a 24-13 win. Maybe Stanford can beat San Jose State.

Cal allowed Wake 36 points and Stanford held them to 27. But, Wake's stud RB was injured against Stanford and had over 100 yds vs. Cal. It's amazing how Cal allows teams to stay in games when they do things that suggest they should be pulling away. They are equally likely to screw up on D after doing well on O, as they are screwing up on O after doing well on D. It's really a poorly coached team. Cal has many more better athletes than Stanford, but maybe Stanford can take advantage of Cal's "Calness" and eke out a victory.

If forced to bet on Stanford's final recored, I'm going with 2-10, but 4-8 is at least conceivable. Louisville is -19 next week, so forget about that game, but Cal and SJSU are possibilities.

Moving up to Interim or Acting Head Coach for the Spurs while Pop deals with a health issue.