[Goose]

TCU was a great defense in 2008. They were #2 in the nation in sacks and #8 in tackles for loss. By and large, 2008 was a clean year for us. We were #49 in sacks allowed even though we played four of the top 11 sack demon defenses in America (TCU, Oregon, Oregon State, and San Jose State). We were #48 in tackles for loss allowed. Sure we faced some challenges, but compared to how other teams did against these defenses we were blocking well by 2008. And you make it sound like Gerhart wasn't around to help in 2008, but he rushed for 95 yards per game that year and was the #3 back in the Pac-10 after Jahvid Best and Jacquizz Rodgers. I think you're right about the synergies but 2008 is when it arrived. It wasn't as spectacular as it would become, but Stanford's line play was good in 2008 once you adjust for playing TCU, Oregon, Oregon State, and San Jose State. What held us back that year was our defense and, to a slightly lesser extent, Pritchard.

Agree 2008 was when the "synergy" arrived. Never intended to minimize that fact. At the beginning of the year we didn't quite yet know "who we were". Took a while to figure that out. The TCU game was game 4 of the year and we already had 2 losses. Toby rushed for 45 yards. Yes, TCU had a great defense, but we weren't fully there yet. Our OL couldn't handle a high-quality defense at that time. TCU totally dominated the LOS. It was worse than the final score indicated. By 2009 our OL could play with anybody, and rode Gerhart for all he was worth. Replacing Pritchard with Luck made a big difference too, especially because Luck could throw it further faster. The fact everybody had to concentrate on Gerhart helped Luck score a lot of points. Pritchard couldn't do that.

To be blunt, 2008 was still in an era of Stanford football in which our DBs were not anywhere close to Power Five level. We were starting Wopamo Osaisai, Kris Evans, Sean Wiser, and Bo McNally. That is what was not clean about our team. Harbaugh had the rest of it shaping up nicely by 2008.

Yes, the pieces were there, as was subsequently demonstrated. However, what one notices is that Gerhart  had 3  "clunker" games (45, 14, and 21 yards) in 2008 and none in 2009 (worst was 82). Lots of that was OL play. The defense doesn't affect those stats much.

[Goose]

TCU was a great defense in 2008. They were #2 in the nation in sacks and #8 in tackles for loss. By and large, 2008 was a clean year for us. We were #49 in sacks allowed even though we played four of the top 11 sack demon defenses in America (TCU, Oregon, Oregon State, and San Jose State). We were #48 in tackles for loss allowed. Sure we faced some challenges, but compared to how other teams did against these defenses we were blocking well by 2008. And you make it sound like Gerhart wasn't around to help in 2008, but he rushed for 95 yards per game that year and was the #3 back in the Pac-10 after Jahvid Best and Jacquizz Rodgers. I think you're right about the synergies but 2008 is when it arrived. It wasn't as spectacular as it would become, but Stanford's line play was good in 2008 once you adjust for playing TCU, Oregon, Oregon State, and San Jose State. What held us back that year was our defense and, to a slightly lesser extent, Pritchard.

Agree 2008 was when the "synergy" arrived. Never intended to minimize that fact. At the beginning of the year we didn't quite yet know "who we were". Took a while to figure that out. The TCU game was game 4 of the year and we already had 2 losses. Toby rushed for 45 yards. Yes, TCU had a great defense, but we weren't fully there yet. Our OL couldn't handle a high-quality defense at that time. TCU totally dominated the LOS. It was worse than the final score indicated. By 2009 our OL could play with anybody, and rode Gerhart for all he was worth. Replacing Pritchard with Luck made a big difference too, especially because Luck could throw it further faster. The fact everybody had to concentrate on Gerhart helped Luck score a lot of points. Pritchard couldn't do that.

To be blunt, 2008 was still in an era of Stanford football in which our DBs were not anywhere close to Power Five level. We were starting Wopamo Osaisai, Kris Evans, Sean Wiser, and Bo McNally. That is what was not clean about our team. Harbaugh had the rest of it shaping up nicely by 2008.

Yes, the pieces were there, as was subsequently demonstrated. However, what one notices is that Gerhart  had 3  "clunker" games (45, 14, and 21 yards) in 2008 and none in 2009 (worst was 82). Lots of that was OL play. The defense doesn't affect those stats much.