Card Clicks, January 11, 2013: Pep Hamilton staying at Stanford, the "Secrets" behind Stanford's success

While it isn't being widely reported yet, multiple sources in the know (here, here and here) all believe that Hamilton will be staying at Stanford for now. While there is still a chance that Hamilton could move on, he'll at least be wearing the Big Red S for a little longer. (One possible scenario that might happen in the future: Perhaps 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman becomes the Jaguars head coach and takes Hamilton with him to become his offensive coordinator).

While Hamilton isn't the primary play-caller for the Stanford offense (David Shaw is), he's the Red Zone guru of the offensive staff, the quarterbacks coach, and an excellent recruiter -- in fact, he's the guy who gets the credit for bringing Kevin Hogan to the Farm. When you mix all of his strengths together, well, those are the kind of skills that make you into a hot coaching candidate.

Here's the school athletic site's official take on the 2013 schedule, which includes some interesting tidbits about the year ahead - for example, the Cardinal faces six opponents that played in bowls last season, and plays against Army for the first time since 1979.

Here's an article from Forbes that carefully draws out the "Secrets" behind Stanford's rise to football prominence. Perhaps the most telling quote is this one:

Since 2006-the year before Bowlsby was named athletic director and Harbaugh was named head coach-Stanford football increased its recruiting spending by 63 percent. Over the last five years, its recruiting spending has increased by 25.2 percent, demonstrating the athletic department's continued commitment to the football program's success.

I get asked if Stanford lowered its admission standards to bring in better athletes all the time - and this is the strongest counterpoint there is to that question. The Athletic department now makes a better effort than ever (and spends more money than ever) finding the best student-athletes - and the two words always come in that order.

Applications for undergraduate admission have gone up - shocker.

Stanford scientists developed a new spacecraft to explore the moon of Mars. Pretty cool.