2024 3-star safety/cornerback Cam Richardson just committed to Stanford. Visited June 9th for his official.

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Read that here.

Read and watch that here.

Great Purdue win!
Purdue your basic homegrown team. Arizona, OTOH, simply picks all they want from the Portal's Smorgasbord table.
Yes, Good Guys sometime do win!

Stanford men’s hoops out spreading some holiday cheer tonight at the Boys & Girls Club in Menlo Park. I was able to swing by before heading up to see Tower of Power. Story to come.

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O Canada!
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Sounds like Stanford is off to a strong start again…

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Check that out here. The schedule has been out for a little while. Wanted to make sure everybody saw it. I'll also write up a breakdown of the schedule before the season, but in the meantime, I wanted to make sure the schedule was dropped in here. Should be a fun season!

Read that here.

I have very strong feelings about the level of defensive incompetence Shaw let fester despite years of evidence our coaching wasn’t working, but the man who wasn’t held accountable did a lot for this program overall and by all accounts is a prince of a man (plus the defensive incompetence was a product of lots of things, some of which Anderson wasn’t the culprit for or even resisted). I am very happy for him that he has landed the kind of job I have long felt is the right fit, head coach at the FCS level in an environment where his geographic/LDS niche could bear fruit. I now will be rooting for Dixie State, errr, Utah Tech. Anderson is inheriting the #190 program in the country, #192 and #230 (the latter when still branded Dixie State) the two previous years. Like Bloomberg going to Rice this is a very hard job but one with very low expectations. Bloomberg is in his sixth season at Rice and just got to six wins for the first time after last year broke a seven year bowl drought. Maybe Anderson can have a similar trajectory, albeit at the FCS rather than FBS level.

Read that here.

Read that here.

In another thread I had occasion to draw on my research on skill position usage by Shaw and Taylor. Since I like having a place on the board I can reference via the search function, I'm sharing the data for anybody who's interested:

2011: 30 percent of snaps to TEs (Fleener, Toilolo, Ertz, Dudchock, Gottfried), 28 percent of snaps to WRs (Whalen, Montgomery, C. Owusu, Terrell, Patterson, Roberts), 22 percent of snaps to RBs (Taylor, Stewart, Gaffney, Wilkerson, Seale), 20 percent of snaps to FBs (Hewitt, Meinken, Ward) - 342 snaps per game total

2012: data not available

2013: data not available

2014: 43 percent of snaps to WRs (Cajuste, Montgomery, Rector, F. Owusu, Pratt, Trojan, Stallworth, Crane, Jordan, G. Krishnamurthi), 25 percent of snaps to TEs snaps (Hooper, Cotton, Taboada, Hopkins), 20 percent of snaps to RBs (Wright, Young, McCaffrey, Sanders, Seale), 11 percent of snaps to FBs snaps (Ward, Skov, Marx, Plantaric) - 324 snaps per game total

2015: 38 percent of snaps to WRs (Rector, Cajuste, F. Owusu, Stallworth, Irwin, Brandt-Sims, Jordan, Crane), 27 percent of snaps to TEs (Hooper, Schultz, Taboada), 25 percent of snaps to RBs (McCaffrey, Wright, Love, Sanders, McFadden), 10 percent of snaps to FBs (Marx, Harrell) - 316 snaps per game total

2016: 46 percent of snaps to WRs (Irwin, Rector, Arcega-Whiteside, F. Owusu, Thomas, Stewart, Tyler, Brandt-Sims, Foster), 23 percent of snaps to RBs (McCaffrey, Love, Scarlett, McFadden), 21 percent of snaps to TEs (Schultz, Taboada, Snyder), 10 percent of snaps to FBs (Marx, Williams, Harrell) - 313 snaps per game total

2017: 38 percent of snaps to WRs (Arcega-Whiteside, Irwin, Wedington, Stewart, Tyler, Brandt-Sims, Schwartz, S. Krishnamurthi), 34 percent of snaps to TEs (Schultz, Smith, Harrington, Parkinson), 20 percent of snaps to RBs (Love, Scarlett, Speights, Maddox), 9 percent of snaps to FBs (Marx, Williams, Snyder) [Note: PFF classified Parkinson as a WR but I reclassified for our purposes] - 301 snaps per game total

2018: 39 percent of snaps to WRs (Arcega-Whiteside, Irwin, Wilson, St. Brown, Wedington, Fehoko, Stewart, Schwartz, S. Krishnamurthi, Buzzell), 37 percent of snaps to TEs (Smith, Parkinson, Harrington, Fisk, McCombs), 21 percent of snaps to RBs (Love, Speights, Scarlett, Maddox, Woods, McFarlane), 3 percent of snaps to FBs (Williams, Heimuli, Snyder) - 324 snaps per game total

2019: 47 percent of snaps to WRs (Wilson, Wedington, Fehoko, St. Brown, Tremayne, Higgins, Stewart, Schwartz, Brandt-Sims), 30 percent of snaps to TEs (Parkinson, Fisk, Harrington, McCombs, Archer, Le), 20 percent of snaps to RBs (Scarlett, Jones, Maddox, Peat), 2 percent of snaps to FBs (Heimuli, Symonds) [Note: PFF classified Heimuli and Symonds as RBs but I reclassified for our purposes] - 342 snaps per game total

2020: 48 percent of snaps to WRs (Fehoko, Tremayne, Wilson, Higgins, Wedington, Humphreys, Farrell, St. Brown), 25 percent of snaps to TEs (Harrington, Fisk, Yurosek, Archer, McCombs), 21 percent of snaps to RBs (Jones, Peat, Woods, Smith, Filkins), 6 percent of snaps to FBs (Heimuli, Symonds) - 354 snaps per game total

2021: 46 percent of snaps to WRs (Higgins, Humphreys, Starr, Farrell, Tremayne, Wilson, Bowman, Raines), 27 percent of snaps to TEs (Yurosek, Archer, Fisk, Ungar), 22 percent of snaps to RBs (Jones, Peat, Smith, Filkins), 5 percent of snaps to FBs (Heimuli, Symonds, Taylor) - 296 snaps per game total

2022: 56 percent of snaps to WRs (Higgins, Tremayne, Humphreys, Wilson, Reuben, Starr, Bowman, Raines, Thompson, Farrell), 23 percent of snaps to TEs (Yurosek, Roush, Archer, Hawkins, Ungar), 19 percent of snaps to RBs (Filkins, Leigber, Robinson, Smith, Barrow, Harris), 3 percent of snaps to FBs (Taylor, Symonds, Lowe) - 353 snaps per game total

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2023: 51 percent of snaps to WRs (Ayomanor, Bachmeier, Farrell, Reuben, Raines, Humphreys, Harris, Starr, Cisse, Thompson, Kasemervisz), 27 percent of snaps to TEs (Roush, Yurosek, Taylor, Ungar), 22 percent of snaps to RBs (Smith, Filkins, Irvin, Butler, Hampton), 0 percent of snaps to FBs - 368 snaps per game total

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In addition to the Stanford data, I'd like a point of comparison with Taylor's teams at Sacramento State. Here's that data (no names as I assume they won't be meaningful to folks here):

2019 (only seven games of data so not full sample but maybe meaningful): 54 percent of snaps to WRs, 25 percent of snaps to RBs, 22 percent of snaps to TEs, 0 percent of snaps to FBs - 377 snaps per game total

2020: No season

2021: 51 percent of snaps to WRs, 26 percent of snaps to RBs, 23 percent of snaps to TEs, 0 percent of snaps to FBs - 378 snaps per game total

2022: 51 percent of snaps to WRs, 26 percent of snaps to RBs, 23 percent of snaps to TEs, 0 percent of snaps to FBs - 403 snaps per game total

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I'll likely return to this periodically and won't share observations now other than to say Taylor's offenses at Sacramento State were so consistent in their usage that the big difference in RB/TE usage compared to Taylor's norm strikes me as significant. As I've said, I think he was surviving in pass protection and not playing with toys like he'd prefer.

Read that here.

In a move that I'm surprised to learn of, USC has hired North Dakota State's HC, Matt Entz, to become their new Defensive Coordinator.

I didn't think Entz would leave NDSU, at least not for anything less than a HC gig at a P5 school.

I'm a huge fan of NDSU's program. I love their style of play and the way they run the program. I have believed for years that they are the best model for Stanford to emulate, with their emphasis on targeting certain types of players and then developing them within their schemes. They have been a dominant program for many seasons.

With his move to the west coast, Entz just also may be be amenable to taking a HC job out here as well.

If I'm Stanford's AD, Entz would be on my short list of future candidates.

Correction: He was not hired as DC. Assistant HC for Defense.

In an article discussing the 2023 Mater Dei team and how it compared with previous Mater Dei teams, there is this assessment of Elijah Brown:

“They had it all, starting with a great quarterback, Elijah Brown. He is not the same quarterback as his predecessor, Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young who was more mobile and fleeter of foot. Brown did have the same coolness under pressure as Young, and Brown’s consistent accuracy might be better than Young’s was at Mater Dei.”

Very much sounds like he's sticking with Stanford:

Read that here.

Read that here.

When the Pac-12 was imploding the pit in my stomach was Stanford and Cal were going to be left out of the top tier of College Football. That concern was assuaged a bit by the ACC life raft, but I'm not naive and know the ACC is next on the chopping block. It's not like Stanford and Cal secured a spot at the highest level with their move. But even if the ACC survived, the question wasn't really would the ACC be a place to secure competing at the highest level, it was how does Stanford view big time sports participation in the long run? Will Stanford do what it takes to meet the requirements to compete at the highest level? How does it make sense to get your brains beat in by not doing what it takes to compete at the highest level of College Football? I still don't have a clue.

Last year, Notre Dame's AD said he sees it inevitable that schools would be paying players because it was clear NIL isn't the ultimate answer. Then The Hoover Institute interview with Luck and Rice feature Luck saying within 5 years athletes would be getting revenue from media rights deals. There was talk about how College Football needed to break away from the NCAA and do its own thing.

Now, this week, the NCAA President Charlie Baker has come out and said it is time to create a higher level of competition that includes schools directly paying players and administering NIL transactions. This is an absolute earthquake and it isn't being discussed here at all? Someone can feel free to make the argument that worrying about which football players return in 2024 is more important than understanding Baker's recommendation and how it will impact Stanford, but it will be a difficult one to make.

Baker is effectively saying he wants schools to be responsible for all payments to athletes and require them to make a minimum payment commitment to compete in the highest division of competition he envisions. This will allow schools to clawback some money brokering NIL deals that they have lost to NIL collectives that used to go direct to athletic departments, but more importantly, it will allow the NCAA to regulate the marketplace.

To me, if there is a different division of competition, it also opens up the possibility of one College Football Super League that makes the current conferences totally moot, and would allow geographic divisions. Baker's comments make it seem like he's calling for a show of hands. He wants all schools ready to pay players to raise theirs so they can be included in the professional division. It has kind of been an article of faith around Stanford fans that Stanford would never participate in a level of competition that requires paying athletes. I don't know if this is wishful thinking, guessing, or informed thinking. Stanford has been able to sort of punt and not address this question head on to this point, but here we are. Is Stanford in or out of paying athletes to participate at the highest level of college sports, and football in particular? Nobody here knows, but it's time Stanford be forced to answer the question, because it isn't any longer just a theoretical possibility.

I've got better things to do with my life than invest any time in Stanford sports if not participating at the highest level. So it isn't just a curiosity to know, it's something I want to know to plan my own life.

Rouse and Nugent both make it. Both started 12 games for Oklahoma and Michigan respectively. Rouse allowed 1 sack and Nugent 0.

This plus Ingram dropping 18 pounds and working out w Curry’s shooting coach so he looks like 2nd best player at top 10 UNC hoops team.

Wish all three were still at Stanford

Read that here.

can start listing now:

1. ILB Sinclair
2. DT Phillips
3. QB Daniels
4. OL Rogers
5. OL McLaughlin
6. CB Manley

any others not above?... who's next?

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