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"The most impressive team in the country" - Printable Version

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Re: "The most impressive team in the country" - washingtonismoney - 09-27-2010

Also favorably impressed Michael Wilbon.

Re: "The most impressive team in the country" - Farm93 - 09-27-2010

These past four weeks I have tried to watch as many college football games as possible.  Stanford is a top 20 team, and those that enjoy great football should come to Stanford Stadium to see the team play.  So if the hype drives attendance then great.

Stanford\'s offensive packages are far and away the most diverse in the FBS.  Stanford has the full compliment of traditional West Coast Offense style plays, a full compliment of traditional Big Ten smash mouth plays, and a full compliment of odd alignments to force mismatches.  It really is a stunningly complicated collection.

Stanford\'s D amazingly includes guys that have a nose for the ball and now appear to have very sound tackling skills.

But the first 4 weeks usually reveal very little about the season since it is full of cupcakes and unfamiliar non-conference opponents.

On both sides of the ball I think I am seeing faster teams on TV every week.  Scheme and power can sometimes overcome raw speed, but....

The next two weeks will tell us everything.  Stanford plays two very motivated conference opponents with loads of speed and talent.  One in Eugene looking for revenge and a BCS championship game invite.  The other from LA looking for revenge in a bowl-replacement game.

If Stanford gets to 6-0, then I think I will feel more comfortable about "most impressive team in the country" type hype.  For now I see the hype and can\'t help but cringe a touch.

Re: "The most impressive team in the country - fullmetal - 09-27-2010

Basically, what Farm93 wants to see is Stanford beating the Pac-10 powers first, and I agree with that.  Also, I want to see that revenge game against Oregon State as well, but for some awful reason, Oregon State is the last game of the season this year...

Also, try not to use garvin\'s link, as it deep-links to a USA Today article instead of linking directly...here\'s the original link:http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/lopresti/2010-09-26-lopresti-college-football_N.htm

What\'s deep-linking?  Well, if you click that link, it takes you to a Bleacher Report page that displays the original USA Today article with a Bleacher Report link bar up top.

Wikipedia says:
Quote:Some commercial websites object to other sites making deep links into their content either because it bypasses advertising on their main pages, passes off their content as that of the linker or, like The Wall Street Journal, they charge users for permanently-valid links.

Bleacher Report generates none of its own content as far as I can tell.  It tries to get users to write for BR with the incentive of measured article popularity.  It\'s not that I don\'t like them, but deep-linking is one of those things that makes me suspicious of a site\'s intentions.

Re: "The most impressive team in the country" - washingtonismoney - 09-27-2010

Bleacher Report is a semi-Associated Cotent-esque content mill. Besides deep-linking, they also put together a roster of writers. If you\'ve ever wanted to know what the people of the "American Voices" section of The Onion were thinking about sports, the Bleacher Report is for you! (Of course, newspapers--like the SF Chronicle--have been syndicating their content, because, well, they don\'t understand the internet.)

Re: "The most impressive team in the country" - fullmetal - 09-27-2010

BR once solicited me as a Stanford writer.  I\'d probably have performed the analog version of deep-linking by using the SF Chron\'s, the Cardboard\'s and Dave Fowkes\'s content...primarily because I wouldn\'t know anything if not for these sources.  Well, I guess I could do a decent job of breaking down the game if I\'d seen it.  Meh.

Re: "The most impressive team in the country" - readarmy1976 - 09-27-2010

Quote:Bleacher Report is a semi-Associated Cotent-esque content mill. Besides deep-linking, they also put together a roster of writers. If you\'ve ever wanted to know what the people of the "American Voices" section of The Onion were thinking about sports, the Bleacher Report is for you! (Of course, newspapers--like the SF Chronicle--have been syndicating their content, because, well, they don\'t understand the internet.)

Ha ha, yes. Many of the BR "pieces" do have the flavor of a guy with a high school education taking his first try at writing. (At least you haven\'t been subjected to blue books from the University of Colorado, which make BR contributors look like Corey Booker)

The team is really getting its due in the national media. I mean, even Herbstreit has gotten into the act. I can\'t argue that there\'s any kind of conspiracy against Stanford. Its exciting to see. All the credit goes to Harbaugh in my mind. He is one impressive, committed, absolutely awesome coach.


Re: "The most impressive team in the country - Farm93 - 09-27-2010

In defense of Herbstreit...
He predicted Stanford would win the Pac-10 conference back in August.  I am sure ESPN saves those conference preview pieces, and his prediction is there.  He does say something like, "Don\'t hold me to this" but he did think highly of Stanford back in August.

Few have been as consistently positive about Stanford\'s potential, last year during Gamedays he routinely believed JH and Stanford could get it done.  A few times he was wrong, but he picked Stanford quite a number of times.

I think others get hung up on the various player demographics that would normally allow people to assume the team could not actually be very good.  So I have tremendous respect for Herbstreit and his ability to look beyond those things.

I think it also helps that he called the Stanford ND game last year.  Unlike most in the media, he has actually seen the Stanford players and had a chance to learn a touch about the Stanford system under JH.