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Joined: Mar 2014
Shaw has said that Stanford will take a very big class this year. If he has 25 scholarships to give, how would it break down by position?Â
I assume just 1 QB (Costello), 1 TE (hopefully Smith), 1 RB (if Shaw can find a good one), and maybe 1 FB (possibly Manuwai).Â
In light of the great pool at WR, I'd say 3 (Fehoko; as many of the whales as possible--Robertson, Crawford, Imatorbhebhe, McKinley; plus maybe Stewart or another Plan B if the whales don't work out).
Teams always need quality OL, so I'd say 2 OT (Yarbrough plus hopefully one of Menet, Farniok, Hamilton, or Schaffer) and 2 interior OL (hopefully Bredeson or Owens, but maybe a Plan B or two).Â
That's a total of 11 on offense.
I could write up something similar for the defense, and I bet I'd arrive at a similar number. It seems like the goal each year of the Harbaugh/Shaw era (except 2013, which I still don't fully understand) has been to field approximately 1 full starting lineup. They may miss on 1-2 positions that don't work out, but it seems like the staff is shooting for that goal. The advantage of a plan like that is that the coaches can tell the players, "You're my guy at RT" or "You're my guy at FB." It's not clear to me that this year is going to work out any different than most of the past 7 years have worked out. Any reason to think Shaw will land more than 20-21 this year? Wouldn't it be better in the long run to balance out the classes a bit more anyway? The batch of offers for the 2017 class suggests to me that Shaw isn't really planning on taking 11 ever again.Â
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