In most ways I genuinely admire Stanford as an educational institution, and marvel at their ability to keep athletes of elite qualities in school --- in fact I still am somewhat credulous at what really goes on there.
Meandering reason for last phrase: During the last decade or so of my tenure as a prof, both Stanford and the Ivy League were involved in what to me and many other academics nationwide were embarrassing academic practices of out-of-control grade-inflation [the theory seemed to be: if we admit elite students and they pay out the nose, they have "earned" B's or better just by that. It is then the students' job to take advantage of the outstanding professorship and not the professors' job to nitpick their performance. ] These philosophies resulted in MANY classes at the most famous schools were no grade lower than an "A" was given ever. The key thing then was to get accepted in the first place. If you had what it takes, then you could balance your own schedule and come out being at least as intelligent as you went in, and sounding smarter.
What does this have to do with Stanford football? If some echoes of that still go on [I'll bet a lot of vBucks on it], then Stanford still has a tough road finding the impressive brainy guys, but once in, their life load gets a great deal less. So the hard work would be the time-intensive and national-recruiting travel required to find the high IQers and classroom winners by the recruiting staff. This takes a lot of experience and savvy I'd think, and the right sort of personality to appeal to kids who are both exceptionally athletic and intelligent. [and their parents]. Rough-a$$ed ol' Jim Harbaugh had that ability, it would seem, along with his motivational and coaching skills. I believe that his loss is monstrous in many more ways than the obvious. I don't see how Stanford can stay at that height without his presence. A lot of this year's success was running off veteran hardnosed football leadership within the roster, I believe. Can this coach keep producing that?
So to what I hope for Stanford: Though I mostly admire them, I hope for mediocrity. It's fine that Troy is Burning, but better Irish recruiting doesn't need a Superelite Stanford right in the same state. I'm usually a nice guy... not when it comes to ND recruiting.
