08-25-2010, 05:11 PM
As to how many players Lane Kiffin has at his disposal: he claims 53 (see: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/preview10/...id=5484021), which is excluding players he intends to redshirt.
As to the logic behind Mandel\'s prediction: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/wr...?eref=sihp
After seeing it, I don\'t think it makes much sense. He thinks Stanford\'s defense will become more of a liability because...other defenses will be better? This doesn\'t seem to make much sense on its face and I think the factual claim is lacking: Pac-10 defenses weren\'t much last year and most of its top performers (i.e. All-Pac-10) left (I seem to remember Ted Miller providing the exact numbers on this, but alas I can\'t find it at the moment.) (Though this link does make it clear that fewer defensive than offensive players are returning: http://espn.go.com/blog/pac10/post/_/id/...g-starters)
Mandel, I think, is fairly knowledgeable though not particularly insightful about the media-hogging conferences (i.e. Big Ten and SEC), and not so knowledgeable and less insightful about the rest of them.
As to the logic behind Mandel\'s prediction: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/wr...?eref=sihp
After seeing it, I don\'t think it makes much sense. He thinks Stanford\'s defense will become more of a liability because...other defenses will be better? This doesn\'t seem to make much sense on its face and I think the factual claim is lacking: Pac-10 defenses weren\'t much last year and most of its top performers (i.e. All-Pac-10) left (I seem to remember Ted Miller providing the exact numbers on this, but alas I can\'t find it at the moment.) (Though this link does make it clear that fewer defensive than offensive players are returning: http://espn.go.com/blog/pac10/post/_/id/...g-starters)
Mandel, I think, is fairly knowledgeable though not particularly insightful about the media-hogging conferences (i.e. Big Ten and SEC), and not so knowledgeable and less insightful about the rest of them.