I had fun in 2020 and 2019 taking a stab at a top 35 for the Stanford football team and thought I'd try again this year. The exercise is meant to predict how good players will be this fall (so upperclassmen will tend to be higher than newcomers). The basic rule of it is I'm trying to predict the top 35 players by snap count at the end of the season and rank them in terms of quality (best understood in terms of things like quality in relation to Pac-12 peers, which can be approximated by year-end PFF grades although that doesn't quite fully capture what I'm getting at here as grades are pure rate evaluations and thus don't account for playing time). One change from the past is I'm not ranking specialists here. [For what it's worth, I predict Sanborn's grade will be top 10 and Karty's top 15.] You can see in the earlier threads how I did the last two years. Let's see if I can do anywhere near that well again:
1. Thomas Booker
2. Branson Bragg
3. Austin Jones
4. Walter Rouse
5. Elijah Higgins
6. Ricky Miezan
7. Kyu Blu Kelly
8. Michael Wilson
9. Stephen Herron
10. Jacob Mangum-Farrar
11. Nathaniel Peat
12. Levani Damuni
13. Brycen Tremayne
14. Barrett Miller
15. Gabe Reid
16. Dalyn Wade-Perry
17. Houston Heimuli
18. Benjamin Yurosek
19. Myles Hinton
20. Kendall Williamson
21. Jordan Fox
22. Tanner McKee
23. Tucker Fisk
24. Drake Nugent
25. Zahran Manley
26.Jake Hornibrook
27. Jack West
28. Salim Turner-Muhammad
29.Ryan Johnson
30. Loa Kaufusi
31. Bryce Farrell
32. Ethan Bonner
33. Noah Williams
34. Omari Porter
35. Connor McLaughlin
Obviously lots of judgment calls and close calls in here. Would love to hear any debates/reactions.
1. Thomas Booker
2. Branson Bragg
3. Austin Jones
4. Walter Rouse
5. Elijah Higgins
6. Ricky Miezan
7. Kyu Blu Kelly
8. Michael Wilson
9. Stephen Herron
10. Jacob Mangum-Farrar
11. Nathaniel Peat
12. Levani Damuni
13. Brycen Tremayne
14. Barrett Miller
15. Gabe Reid
16. Dalyn Wade-Perry
17. Houston Heimuli
18. Benjamin Yurosek
19. Myles Hinton
20. Kendall Williamson
21. Jordan Fox
22. Tanner McKee
23. Tucker Fisk
24. Drake Nugent
25. Zahran Manley
26.Jake Hornibrook
27. Jack West
28. Salim Turner-Muhammad
29.Ryan Johnson
30. Loa Kaufusi
31. Bryce Farrell
32. Ethan Bonner
33. Noah Williams
34. Omari Porter
35. Connor McLaughlin
Obviously lots of judgment calls and close calls in here. Would love to hear any debates/reactions.
