The NFL draft starts tonight. The real action for Stanford will come in the later rounds (hopefully Wilson can sneak into the third round and give us something to cheer tomorrow, but most likely all our guys go Day 3). But there is one piece of intrigue for us tonight: whither Davis Mills? I haven't been following the draft very closely this year and am seeing both Kiper and McShay now predict that the Texans will opt for an edge rusher rather than a QB at #2. With a pick at #12 as well plus the possibility of a trade there are still lots of scenarios where a presumed replacement for Mills comes on board, but it hadn't even occurred to me that the Texans might pass up on a QB at #2, so this opens up a glimmer of hope that Mills could stay as QB1. What say you @fborg81?

To all the mothers on this site and all mothers of CSR posters a huge Happy Mother's Day. My mom passed 6 months ago at age 97 so this is the first mother's day without her. She was a single mom at a time when it was difficult to find work. But she sacrificed everything to provide for me and my brother. Everything I did in life I learned from her.

She never was a big sports fan, surprisingly considered that's all my brother and I did, but to tie this to Stanford she loved Tiger.

She is now after some 55 years reunited with her husband my dad who died very young. Enjoy your day Moms

So we're looking for some help. We are looking for Stanford alums to sign our petition. Sigma Chi is the only residential group on campus to own their own house through their Alpha Omega Housing Corporation. The university housing group has been able to wrest away the buildings of other fraternities and eating clubs over the years so we stand alone. The university housing has been trying to take our away our house and even sued us a few years ago. The judge ruled that Stanford's suit had no merit and ruled in favor of Sigma Chi and even ordered Stanford to pay for all legal costs. I'm not a lawyer, but I know that making them pay for legal says something. Since we're not in breach of the ground lease, Stanford has now notified Sigma Chi that they will not renew the ground lease later this year. Owning our house without a ground lease is like owning a boat and not being able to use in a body of water. Notice, I said 'take', not buy (the house isn't for sale!) We've had the ground lease since 1937 and Jane Stanford said that the ground lease should be renewed for private buildings for groups in good standing. Well, the no fun administration/bureaucrats want the house. The Sigma Chi Alpha Omega Housing Corporations has even retrofited after Loma Prieta without any funds from Stanford.
We even registered the building for historic status as Sigma Chi Alpha Omega Chapter, led the fight for the desegregation of national fraternities in the mid-60's. The frat got lots of national press for their stance and left Sigma Chi and had their own local fraternity until Sigma Chi national amended their charter. Speaking of charter, Sigma Chi got their charter and began their presence at Stanford in 1891. Yes, the same year Stanford was founded. So in a way, some bureaucrats may see Sigma Chi as the poster child of the Greek system at Stanford.
Earlier this year, Sigma Chi had opened their house for any student looking for summer school lodging for 86 years. This program is called Summer Chi! The housing authorities told Sigma Chi earlier this year that they would not be permitting the house to provide lodging for other students this summer. This is part of the games that the university housing czars are playing.
What's hilarious is that if the university takes away the house, there's a clause in our agreement with them calls for that says they have to give us another house!!! Apparently their brilliant lawyers who filed the lawsuit three years ago haven't thoroughly read the document. Why would the university take the house only to have to give them another residential house?
When freshmen were asked where they wanted to be housed next year, 900 out of 1700 wanted to be housed in the Greek system. That had to really make the housing czars bonkers! There isn't space in the Greek system for 900 plus the other classes already in them. And yet, they're playing games with Sigma Chi by trying to take their building.

Please help by signing our petition. Enough is enough with Stanford administrators gone wild!
Use this link: tinyurl.com/saveourgroundlease

Please cut and paste and send to other Stanford alumni and students to sign petition, like at TOS if you have a membership there.

Thank you!

We all know this. Making sure Ben knows the numbers. 2 team championships this year. Hopefully women's golf is next.

Read that here.

Read that here.

Read that here.

10.09 in the prelims:

It is officially official. Syracuse transfer QB Justin Lamson has announced his commitment to Stanford. He has a real chance to win the starting job. Gonna be interesting to see how the QB battle shakes out now.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

From SJ Merc News outlet: Bottom line: just a bit less opaque and still TBD, stay tuned...

Read that here.

Stanford won in a rout, 23-0. Yes, a shutout vs Biola. But the surprising news is that usual semifinals in the NCAAs of Stanford, USC, Cal and UCLA isn't happening this year. Princeton beat Cal 11-9 and will face USC in one of the semifinals. Of course the other semifinal is Stanford vs UCLA. We play UCLA at 5 PM and the other semi is at 7 PM. The championships are at University of the Pacific in Stockton, so only an 80-90 minute drive from the peninsula. The Finals are at 7 PM on Sunday.

There's a link on this page to the semifinal stream against UCLA.
https://www.ncaa.com/game/6147878

Read that here.

Read that here.

Preview is here. Game against Oregon is underway on Pac-12 Networks.

TE Brad Archer to the portal per On3.

Read that here. Note the change to the pitching lineup. Matt Scott no loner projected to go on Saturday. Dixon will go Saturday and Sunday is TBD.

Pale's dad has been in the hospital undergoing now a dozen surgeries related to kidney loss and blood loss complications.

I'm sure it would mean the absolute world for the Stanford community to show their support, and it looks like a bunch of current player parents have already. Please consider donating as well and showing what the Stanford family can do.

guess who he picks #12?

Rocky just recently posted this 'oldie' on TOS (which I had also apparently missed back then). The author was the writer at Shaw's presser who received Shaw's 'you've gotta be that guy' snark mark of opprobium for having the audacity to ask that question.
We all know it to be true, and much has passed since, but well worth the read. New days ahead.

Read that here. This one was nuts.

I have been quite busy with things outside of Stanford football in recent weeks and just realized I never even watched Coach Taylor's post-Spring Showcase press availability. My reactions to that:

* Taylor's tone and attitude are totally consistent in this press availability and from what I can tell in general, with the two hallmarks being an upbeat take on the team's energy, focus, and buy-in and a realistic acknowledgement that there's a lot of work to do. He manages to be pretty relentlessly positive - but not going much beyond boilerplate - when asked for reactions on aspects of the team while also sprinkling in lots of language that makes clear this is a process and we've got a long way to go. More on each below.

* When asked to highlight a concern he did not hesitate: depth. He clearly finds it remarkable how low the team's numbers are and how many upperclassmen transferred out. He noted that everybody feels light in the spring, so maybe he expects depth to feel more manageable when the incoming freshmen arrive, but it seems to me that depends on how many of those guys are ready/playable. No matter how good that class is (and remember that it wasn't one this staff built and on paper it looks really bad), that doesn't fix the abject lack of seniority, something else Taylor clearly finds astounding. One of the most vivid parts came when Taylor marveled that we're not going to have any seniors this year. That's not something Shaw would have said (Sinclair, for instance, will be a fifth year player and numerous guys will be academic seniors) but we're returning to the days when our football coach thinks of his players as football players and can read the eligibility chart showing nobody is a football senior. That is startling realization for a coach and you can tell that it's made quite an impression on Taylor. He expects growing pains and plainly does not view this as a hale roster.

* Taylor mentioned that with the lack of numbers young linemen have gotten an enormous amount of reps. I am guessing he specifically has offensive line in mind. That's a position where the lion's share of the reps this spring went to guys who have played very little major college football. My hunch is this jumped out to Taylor as a position group that has a lot of growing to do, reinforced by the later comment about how many young guys there are on offense.

* When discussing Patu and Daniels, Taylor talked up the intangibles (e.g., desire) in some detail and also said they have a lot of talent (without providing detail), noting that the big differentiator (my word, not his, but he referenced why NFL QBs make the big money so I think it's a fair word) for QBs is "processing" and especially being able to put it all together amidst chaos and pressure. Reading between the lines I think his view is neither Patu nor Daniels are there yet, though in fairness as a ball coach who played QB in the NFL and has coached high-level offenses there probably isn't a scenario in which he'd be satisfied on this front, least of all in April. I also think it was interesting he observed that you can only simulate the complexity and pressure and on some level need to wait until the games to know what you have. I have said this before but will say it again: I don't think Troy Taylor is making any major judgments about any of his QBs until live bullets start flying in the fall. He may or may not name a single starter but in my view it won't be settled until somebody earns it on Saturdays, in pads, taking some shots from people who don't love them.

* Taylor kept returning to the theme that the players have bought in and he's pleased with that, including when asked about any adjustments from the ancien regime. But what I found more interesting about that answer was him starting with the tempo being "a huge adjustment." Yet more confirmation that the tempo is going to be dramatically different than what we're used to and also as much of an acknowledgment of growing pains as we're likely to get. The emphasis on "huge" leads me to believe that the offense was very much not firing on all cylinders this spring. That's no surprise, I just find it noteworthy to hear a specific area where Taylor assesses a growing pain. I don't know if we can read anything into this. If anything, I find it moderately encouraging that Taylor has high enough standards he isn't satisfied and is critical enough that he notices what an adjustment it is.

Read that here.

Firing this up now. I'm on my way to Stanford for the softball. I'll be eying both games of course. Stanford going for the sweep today. Also, I still have Saturday recaps to get up, so I'll get those posted first before recaps of today's games. Just a little FYI on that.

Really helps Stanford that they're going for the sweep. That takes a lot of pressure off and Sunday has been like their best day of the week.