Remember when the Sewing CIrcle & the Kelly Cranks held up Stanford as the shining city on the hill?
Winning "Major Bowls", beating ND 4 out of 5 (09 to 13) Running that 2 Back, Multiple TE, NFL old fashioned power offense. What a difference 9 years makes? After Harbaugh and Luck left, Shaw briefly continued to have success through the middle of the decade winning a couple of Rose Bowls in 12 & 15.
But i cautioned at that time, Stanford would begin to go on the back slide, because the offense they ran, the style of football they played, was TOTALLY unappealing to top level HS skill players. Once the few explosive players Stanford had, were gone.(K Hogan, C McCaffrey, B Love) Stanford had absolutely had NO shot at replacing them. And the results, especially over the last 3 seasons are frankly stunning. I knew they would go backwards, but this is a far worse than i imagined. Remember In 2018, Stanford came into ND Stadium 4-0 ranked #7 and played ND who at that time was ranked #8
And for the first time in the series you could see clearly how ND & Kelly had become a much longer, faster and more athletic roster. ND easily beat Stanford 38-17 that night. And easily blew them out last year. Since that 2018 game ND is 27-3. Stanford meanwhile is 9-14.
Remember the whole Stanford theme was run the ball, eat the clock, throw seam routes off play action to the TE and 50/50 jump ball to big WR's in the Red Zone. WIth guys like McCaffrey and B Love available for the home run to keep you honest. By controlling the ball and the clock, the big, slow, unathletic, Stanford defenses would only have to pay a limited number of snaps
But the chickens have come home to roost. Players like McCaffrey and Love are not going to Stanford. With zero threat for a big play, teams are stacking the boxes and Stanford cannot run. Which means they cannot control the clock. Which means the Stanford defense is on the field for more snaps. The crowds last year shrunk right along with the win totals. The only silver lining for David Shaw, is that no one really seems to care.
RIP Stanford 2007 to 2020 it was nice knowing you.
Winning "Major Bowls", beating ND 4 out of 5 (09 to 13) Running that 2 Back, Multiple TE, NFL old fashioned power offense. What a difference 9 years makes? After Harbaugh and Luck left, Shaw briefly continued to have success through the middle of the decade winning a couple of Rose Bowls in 12 & 15.
But i cautioned at that time, Stanford would begin to go on the back slide, because the offense they ran, the style of football they played, was TOTALLY unappealing to top level HS skill players. Once the few explosive players Stanford had, were gone.(K Hogan, C McCaffrey, B Love) Stanford had absolutely had NO shot at replacing them. And the results, especially over the last 3 seasons are frankly stunning. I knew they would go backwards, but this is a far worse than i imagined. Remember In 2018, Stanford came into ND Stadium 4-0 ranked #7 and played ND who at that time was ranked #8
And for the first time in the series you could see clearly how ND & Kelly had become a much longer, faster and more athletic roster. ND easily beat Stanford 38-17 that night. And easily blew them out last year. Since that 2018 game ND is 27-3. Stanford meanwhile is 9-14.
Remember the whole Stanford theme was run the ball, eat the clock, throw seam routes off play action to the TE and 50/50 jump ball to big WR's in the Red Zone. WIth guys like McCaffrey and B Love available for the home run to keep you honest. By controlling the ball and the clock, the big, slow, unathletic, Stanford defenses would only have to pay a limited number of snaps
But the chickens have come home to roost. Players like McCaffrey and Love are not going to Stanford. With zero threat for a big play, teams are stacking the boxes and Stanford cannot run. Which means they cannot control the clock. Which means the Stanford defense is on the field for more snaps. The crowds last year shrunk right along with the win totals. The only silver lining for David Shaw, is that no one really seems to care.
RIP Stanford 2007 to 2020 it was nice knowing you.
