Go Mighty Card

Recruiting Focus, Class of 2012: Josh Garnett

Any discussion of 2012 recruits comes with the understanding that even those players who have committed to the Cardinal could change their minds.  Nothing is official until national signing day on February 1, 2012, so recruiting news should be read through that filter.  It's an inexact science, but it's simply too much fun to ignore.

I spoke to a friend this evening about the state of the current Stanford football recruiting class, and a simple question was posed: "Why would someone choose anyplace but Stanford?" That's a long discussion for another time, but if we focus that question a bit and apply it to someone who blocks out the sun as he stands in a doorway and aspires to be a doctor after playing in the NFL, it just might be the key to what could become the greatest recruiting class in Stanford history.

Recruiting Focus, Class of 2012: Barry J. Sanders

Any discussion of 2012 recruits comes with the understanding that even those players who have committed to the Cardinal could change their minds.  Nothing is official until national signing day on February 1, 2012, so recruiting news should be read through that filter.  It's an inexact science, but it's simply too much fun to ignore.

Imagine that it's twenty-five years from now and Andrew Luck is sitting in his rocking chair looking back on a Hall of Fame NFL career and enjoying his position as one of the greatest living quarterbacks. Even though it's been a quarter century since he wore the Cardinal and White, Stanford fans haven't forgotten him, and they certainly haven't seen another quarterback like him since he left.

If you were Andrew Luck's son, would you want to go to Palo Alto to play quarterback? Would you want to live with those comparisons day after day?

Perhaps more important than that, if you were a high school running back watching the Fiesta Bowl last Monday night and you were trying to decide between playing for Stanford or Oklahoma State, which school would you choose?

It seems simple, doesn't it? So it shouldn't come as any surprise that Barry J. Sanders (son of the Barry Sanders, the 1988 Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma State), has chosen Stanford. Sanders (who prefers not to be called Barry, Jr.) spoke often during the recruiting process of the attraction of coming to Stanford and not standing out, not being his father's son, and he noted during a September visit that Andrew Luck, then the clear face of college football, was able to walk campus freely as if he were just a typical student. Next fall, Sanders will do the same thing. When he announced his choice at the tail end of the U.S. Army All-America game, he explained his choice like this: "I get a chance to play with the best student athletes in the world."

The Fan's Dilemma

The problem with being a true sports fan, the type who lives and dies with each win or loss, is that you have no control over anything connected to your team. I remember talking with a friend a few years ago, and our conversation wandered from concerns about a bad financial investment he had made to our shared frustrations with the Lakers and their latest playoff demise. "I'm so pissed about the Lakers," he said, "and I'm not even invested in them."

He was wrong, of course. He was heavily invested in the Lakers. There's almost always a financial investment made in tickets to see your team in person; cable packages to watch them on TV; jerseys, sweatshirts, and caps to proclaim your allegiance; donations to college athletic programs; and even travel expenses for trips to glamorous places like Glendale, Arizona.

More important that all that, though, is the emotional investment. The time you spend worrying, wondering, thinking, predicting, discussing, and rationalizing could be measured in minutes and hours, but there's no way to quantify the weight of all that on the human soul. As Stanford fans, we all fall victim to this. If you're reading this right now instead of analyzing a spreadsheet, writing a brief, working on a problem set, or playing Monopoly with your kids, you're invested. (How invested am I? Including this piece, I've written 123,895 words about this team over the past two years, not including work I've done for other sites.)

As invested as we are as fans, however, we have no control. We can't decide when to take out a pitcher, which quarterback should start, or whether or not to sign the hottest free agent. Sure, we trick ourselves into thinking we can influence on field results by wearing a particular lucky shirt, sitting in the same recliner, or even -- as a friend of mine in college frequently did while watching his Chicago Bulls -- refusing to use the bathroom. It's all nonsense, and we know it. Unless you're a superfan like Phil Knight or Boone Pickens, you have no influence. Sports is the one important thing in your life that you have no control over.

Oklahoma State 41, Stanford 38 (OT)

If you woke up on Tuesday morning hoping to find it had all been a dream, hoping to learn that the football had managed to stay inside of the left upright on the field goal attempt at the end of regulation, I'm sorry to disappoint you. The kicker who had been so accurate all season wasn't able to make that field goal. The defense that had been so stout all season -- and effective on Monday night -- wasn't able to get Oklahoma State off the field when they had to. The offense, easily one of the best in the nation, couldn't get the ball in the end zone for the touchdown that would've assured victory.

It wasn't a dream. What you saw really happened.

But if you can put those final fifteen minutes out of your head for just a moment, you have to realize that this was a great, great game played by a wonderful team led by the best quarterback you'll ever see.

Once More, With Feeling

When your team is playing in a BCS bowl game, usually there's cause for nothing but celebration. The Fiesta Bowl is the reward for a wonderful season and a space on the national stage, but more importantly if offers the Cardinal the opportunity for one more signature win.

The downside, of course, is that we're saying goodbye to Andrew Luck. Win or lose, I'll have a lot more to say about Luck over the next several days, but for now I can only suggest one thing. No matter where you are -- the other side of the world, the other side of the country, or Glendale, Arizona -- watch Andrew Luck carefully tonight. Study every pass, listen to every play call, focus on each play action fake, and remember the way he flips a towel over his shoulder when the defense takes the field. 

Only four quarters remain in Andrew Luck's career, and I'm guessing we'll never see another quarterback like him at Stanford or any other university. So set your DVR, gather the children, and take it all in. No matter what happens tonight, it will be special.

Silver Squad #2: RB Toby Gerhart

I've been writing in this space for the past fifteen months, and if there's one regret I have about starting when I did it's this. I never had the chance write about Toby Gerhart (2006-09).

You remember Toby. 

Even though he had put up some astounding numbers in high school, expectations were low for him upon his arrival at the Farm. Other Pac-10 schools had recruited him, but most had seen his bruising running style and physical frame and figured he translated into a fullback at the collegiate level. Stanford offered him a chance to compete at the tailback position -- and play baseball as well -- so Toby became a Cardinal.

He played in every game as a freshman, and even started once, but his contribution was modest: 106 carries for 375 yards. Even so, he entered his sophomore campaign as one of the top backs on the squad and rushed for 140 yards on just twelve carries in the season opener against San Jose State... before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the third quarter.

Expectations are obviously reduced for any running back returning from a serious knee injury, but Gerhart had a phenomenal junior season, one of the best of any Stanford running back in history. He broke Tommy Vardell's single-season school rushing record, racking up 1,136 yards, and also ran for fifteen touchdowns. Following the season he was named second-team All-Pac-10 and seemed poised for an historic senior season.