I graduated Stanford in 1992. At the time, while our Olympic sports were strong, I think it was fair to question whether Stanford could ever really compete at the two big revenue sports. At that point, in the modern era we had never really been top-10 on any kind of sustained basis. We had some decent teams and some big upsets. But even teams like 70 & 71 lost some games they shouldn't have and weren't really elite in college football.
Mike Montgomery changed that. He built a basketball program that for the better part of a decade was clearly one of the ten best in the country. He did it over multiple recruiting classes with different players. He proved you could win at a revenue sport despite our academic standards. But I think there was a real question is this applied to football. Schools like Duke had always done well at basketball but never really been able to compete in football.
Harbaugh (and Shaw continuing he program) changed that. In six years we went to 5 BCS Bowl games and finished in the Sagarin top-10 each of those years. Even the one down year of 2014 we finished 18th in Sagarin. This showed the world that Stanford can be a dominant football program.
It is important to recognize how rare that kind of string of success is. In the modern era, what other Pac-12 schools have had that kind of string of success?
U$C clearly. Oregon had a similar run at about he same time we did. UW in the early 90s. CO before they were in the P-12. Anyone else?
I don't remember a similar run at UCLA. WSU, OSU, cal, UA, ASU & Utah clearly not.
NIL & Transfers may have made it a bit harder but the truth is we are one of the few schools on the west coast that have shown they can really compete at the highest levels.
I think Stanford is a pretty good job that many will be interested in....
Mike Montgomery changed that. He built a basketball program that for the better part of a decade was clearly one of the ten best in the country. He did it over multiple recruiting classes with different players. He proved you could win at a revenue sport despite our academic standards. But I think there was a real question is this applied to football. Schools like Duke had always done well at basketball but never really been able to compete in football.
Harbaugh (and Shaw continuing he program) changed that. In six years we went to 5 BCS Bowl games and finished in the Sagarin top-10 each of those years. Even the one down year of 2014 we finished 18th in Sagarin. This showed the world that Stanford can be a dominant football program.
It is important to recognize how rare that kind of string of success is. In the modern era, what other Pac-12 schools have had that kind of string of success?
U$C clearly. Oregon had a similar run at about he same time we did. UW in the early 90s. CO before they were in the P-12. Anyone else?
I don't remember a similar run at UCLA. WSU, OSU, cal, UA, ASU & Utah clearly not.
NIL & Transfers may have made it a bit harder but the truth is we are one of the few schools on the west coast that have shown they can really compete at the highest levels.
I think Stanford is a pretty good job that many will be interested in....
