I think there's more truth than fiction in the Cal fan analysis, by far. It's a hurtful sentiment to our players and I imagine it doesn't resonate with them, but at this point, approaching David Shaw's 12th recruiting class at Stanford, the Stanford Men we recruit wouldn't know real commitment and all-in football mentality if they saw it. It's foreign to them. They ARE here to play school. I don't know how anybody could doubt that. If you read the interviews with our recruits, they're picking Stanford for the school and are orienting their lives around things other than football. That may be good/admirable, and I know most here find that a big part of the attraction, but it creates a non-football-focused culture. I don't think there's any use denying it.
This has impacts on the field. Our players don't need/want to win as much as others. Sorry, they don't. David Shaw is ultimately reasonable for everything in the program and IMHO bears responsibility for shaping a roster in his image, which is not conducive to winning football. So this is on him. But that doesn't make the Cal fan analysis wrong. Shaw isn't the one in between the lines on Saturdays, our players are. And they're losers in the football sense. They may be winners in life but the mentality they bring isn't a winning one for college football.
With critiques like this it always must be said that of course there are exceptions. Stanford obviously has individual winners and guys whose mentalities would play at all manner of winning programs. Of course. So the Cal fan post is a broad brush generalization. But is the generalization wrong? No.
This has impacts on the field. Our players don't need/want to win as much as others. Sorry, they don't. David Shaw is ultimately reasonable for everything in the program and IMHO bears responsibility for shaping a roster in his image, which is not conducive to winning football. So this is on him. But that doesn't make the Cal fan analysis wrong. Shaw isn't the one in between the lines on Saturdays, our players are. And they're losers in the football sense. They may be winners in life but the mentality they bring isn't a winning one for college football.
With critiques like this it always must be said that of course there are exceptions. Stanford obviously has individual winners and guys whose mentalities would play at all manner of winning programs. Of course. So the Cal fan post is a broad brush generalization. But is the generalization wrong? No.