Good decision

The world has changed on this issue, including me. It makes perfect sense for him to sit, given his injury history and the megabux involved.

I know some on this board wanted him to avoid the NFL and just go to med school, but seriously that was not in the cards if he ever had a viable NFL offer given the cash involved.

This is the right decision for him, and I wish him well in the draft. I wonder whether other draft-ready players should also sit, to be honest. The Sun Bowl means nothing, ultimately, in comparison with potential NFL futures.

By Brendan Ross on 12.17.18 6:32pm

is sun bowl turf an issue?

I seem to recall hearing that one reason McCaffrey skipped the Sun Bowl was because the turf there is considered treacherous. Chryst’s injury in that game only cemented that sense. I don’t recall him getting tackled hard. I think his foot just kind of got stuck on the turf somehow. Looking for the video on YouTube but no success so far.

By brandtjl1 on 12.17.18 8:10pm

I also have some doubts...

…that he can get completely healthy by the draft or even by next September. I don’t think he played completely healthy in any of this year’s games and he had eight months to recover from last year.

By brandtjl1 on 12.17.18 8:19pm

O-line in trouble?

Love made the right call in my opinion. He needs to recover and do his best at the upcoming combine(s). Looks like Little and Herbig are out for the Sun Bowl as well. In my opinion they are our two best O-linemen this year. Seems strange we don’t have a reason for Herbig being out. Looked like there were some disagreements (to put it lightly) on the sideline for one of the games between him and Shaw. Starting to worry about what is going on with the O-line in general and the coaching. Part of that also comes from the lose of some good recruits that (if you believe the recruiting news) Stanford had a shot at.

By NowBoy on 12.17.18 8:30pm

The Higgins reveal is tonight

If we get a top WR, this class is going to look pretty decent.

By vk on 12.17.18 11:25pm

Higgins looks like a jjaw type receiver

Big possession receiver 6-3 4.7 40. Hopefully he got hands like jj. Personally I’m interested what the speed guys on our team like fehoko wedington and st brown can do to stretch defenses next year. All around 4.5 40. Put them on the field on the same time and see what happens. Jj and Trent and kaden were great but not known for their speed.

By stanford6thman on 12.18.18 3:09am

Thanks for the heads up!

Been watching Higgins news but I didn’t know he was going to announce tonight, really hoping he chooses Cardinal. The wide receiver corps has been making great strides in recent years. Landing Higgins would be a big step up as well.

By NowBoy on 12.18.18 7:48am

Also... the Tucker situation

Casey Tucker announced that he would transfer to ASU for the 2018 season because he wanted to play offensive tackle and there just wasn’t room in the starting lineup for him in that position at Stanford…. However, when a need to play guard arose at ASU he apparently volunteered for the job…. Say what?

By NowBoy on 12.18.18 7:53am

Nothing but love, for Dr. Love. Good luck and best wishes in the NFL.

Go Stanford.

By Max McArthur on 12.17.18 9:12pm

Honestly his decision is 12 months late

He should’ve sat out last years bowl game and declared early. Hindsight is 2020.. I thank Bryce for being such a class act and wish him all the best in his nfl and more importantly medical doctor career. Maybe not being a first round pick is a good thing. Less pounding as an every down back. Longer nfl career and less injuries. Protect ur head Bryce.

By stanford6thman on 12.18.18 2:43am

I think other guys will take note of his sitting out

Herbig could be protecting himself from injury too. Maybe a first day selection. Little might be too. JJ should sit out this one too.

I hope Shaw is telling all the potential day one draft picks to sit this one out. No one cares about whether we win sun bowl. No one will remember. Protect your star players and use that as a recruiting tool that ur more interested in their futures than your bowl record.

By stanford6thman on 12.18.18 2:48am

Yes, very good point

Shaw knows himself that this bowl game is meaningless. Sure, he wants to win it, but not at the risk of his players and the health of the team going into 2019. If we win by twenty points, great, but nobody will remember. If we lose by twenty points, it’s a shame, but nobody will remember. And that is the absurdity of the current post-season structure. Winning the Big Game is important; being champions of California is important; winning the North is important; winning the Pac-12 is important. Winning the Sun Bowl? Not so much.

By Jeff Tarnungus on 12.18.18 3:55pm

Yes

Basically nowadays the only critical bowls are the playoff bowls and the Rose Bowl. Everything else is a meaningless post-season exhibition game that noone will care about 2 years from now or even remember. CFB is pretty much badly broken under the current system, and that’s one reason I expect that the playoff system will expand, at least once, maybe twice, in the next decade or so. Until that happens, we’re going to see most guys who are first day pick types sit out non-playoff, non-RB bowls, and it’s perfectly justified really. In fact, I am guessing that a coach like Shaw would prefer those guys to sit out the bowl so that next year’s starters can get some live reps against a decent opponent, and all of the extra practice time — really the only advantage of playing one of these meaningless exhibition bowls.

By Brendan Ross on 12.18.18 4:50pm

Yes, agree with Jeff and Brandon with a slight exception.

The CFB has made the other bowl games largely irrelevant. However, there is tremendous value for any given program to accept a bowl game because of the extra practices it affords. I will also add that a loss in a bowl game does affect the initial rankings in the upcoming season, but my observation is that information is overwhelmed by the season’s actual results.

While I find myself in favor of Shaw taking a humanistic approach, a counter point is that you wonder if it makes the program a little soft. There’s something to be said for everyone being fully committed. If the very idea of sitting out a game was abhorrent to the staff and that was transferred to the players, it’s easy to imagine the players would be playing at a higher level. Nevertheless, this is college football, not a branch of the armed forces and there are lots of reasons why I’m fine with kids electing to sit out these bowl games.

By Blackjoy on 12.19.18 9:11am

a loss in the bowl game...

…also affects the current year’s poll.

By brandtjl1 on 12.19.18 10:41am

Yes...there is that. <img src="//fonts.voxmedia.com/emoji/unicode/1f604.png" alt=":smile:" class="emoji">

By Blackjoy on 12.19.18 12:09pm

I have no problem with players sitting out...

…but at the same time, as a fan, I DO care how we do in the bowl game, even if I’m the only person in the world. OK, it’s not a conference game, but I don’t know why this game means any less than for instance the San Diego State game that opened the season. I cared about the Sun Bowl two years ago and about the Alamo Bowl last year—both games were actually very exciting—and I think there’s a big difference between finishing the year 9-4 with a potential top 25 poll finish and an 8-5 season where you don’t even get votes to be in the top 25.

By brandtjl1 on 12.19.18 10:00am

A possible answer...

but I don’t know why this game means any less than for instance the San Diego State game that opened the season.

For programs who hold the CFP, NY6, or a conference title as a goal, any games that occur after those possibilities are eliminated, are less important to the program as a whole. About 10 years ago, Notre Dame declined a bowl invitation as the seniors on the team said they didn’t think they deserved it.

I think this is unfortunate. As a fan of Stanford football, I enjoy all of Stanford’s games. But I don’t hold any ill will to players avoid the bowl game for whatever reason. Honestly, it gives other players a chance to play and I’d rather watch someone who was enthusiastic about playing.

By Blackjoy on 12.19.18 12:17pm

Valid points

I also am hoping we have enough firepower on the field to close out the season with a victory, a 9-4 record and a top-25 final ranking. But the San Diego State game was at the beginning of the 2018 campaign when the team had a series of goals, some of which required us winning that game. Blackjoy alludes to this in his post: there is a hierarchy of goals that I am sure each team has. Win the division, win the Pac-12, get to a prestigious bowl game (Rose or NY6), make the CFP, win the national championship. Losing to San Diego State probably would have eliminated any discussion of the CFP, so that game was important (Ohio State finished 5th in the final polls with a single conference loss to Purdue).

The Sun Bowl takes place at the end of the season when we now know that we have failed to achieve these goals. Hence, it matters less. When Bryce Love was asked why he returned for his senior season, he answered that he wanted to complete his degree and also stated that the team had some unfinished business, which was interpreted to mean a Pac-12 championship and a Rose Bowl appearance. A Sun Bowl appearance was certainly not the unfinished business he was referring to. Love knows the game is meaningless for his future; Shaw sees it as a chance to get a number of second-level players some reps and certainly would like to secure his 9th win and a top-25 ranking, but not at the risk of injuring key players for the 2019 campaign. It is an exhibition game with no real consequences; and hoisting the Sun Bowl trophy does not have the same significance as hoisting the Rose Bowl trophy.

By Jeff Tarnungus on 12.20.18 3:36am

What about giving Adebo some reps on offense next year

With hands and speed like that, I think we could design some plays to take advantage of that. USC did that with their star cb last year too

By stanford6thman on 12.18.18 3:10am

Talented Adebo could do it.

I like that idea, would be great fun to watch too. I’m thinking Shaw wouldn’t be into it tho.

By NowBoy on 12.18.18 7:50am

Stacked WR group

I think he would do well to stay a CB1 which judging by NFL trends pays a lot more. Plus we have guys like Micheal wilson, Osiris St. Brown and Conor Wedington (who I would move to RB if possible), etc. who are uber talented and waiting for the opportunity

By layman on 12.20.18 9:25pm

Fare well, Bryce

I’m hoping he hasn’t done permanent damage to himself playing injured as often as he has. Why the staff has allowed him to do that has mystified me. It seems to me that we’d want to have a rep for looking after our players’ best interests…

By g8tgod on 12.18.18 10:17am

The O Line Stuff Is Incredibly Disturbing

Has Shaw (or anyone else) ever put forth a reasonable explanation for our abysmal O-Line performance this year? Sure…we had some injuries but we also brought back a lot of players from last year and presumably some experienced depth. What did Casey Tucker see looking forward to this past season that encouraged him to move on? And now, some potential recruiting issues? Since the O-Line is the foundation of David Shaw’s offensive strategy, one would assume that he would at least get this right.

As BlackJoy would say, the game is won or lost in the trenches. Adding another wide receiver won’t be worth much if we can’t run or pass protect.

By hoyaparanoia on 12.19.18 9:54am

Yea only one four star o line commit this year

Rest all three stars. Maybe it’s just a one year blip considering we got two five stars two years ago. Guess this years five stars don’t want to compete for playing time behind little and sarrell. Or not enough met our academic requirements.

By stanford6thman on 12.19.18 11:12pm