Legends vs. Computers: Washington-Stanford Preview

Moderator: John, Washington has got to come down to Stanford this week. You know, Washington is 5 and 1, but they’re a pretty young team still and they’ve got – they lost to Nebraska 51-38 and they beat Eastern Washington, Hawaii, California and Utah and Colorado. They’ve kind of beaten the bottom of the Pac-12 in their league games. What do you see happening there? Do you think Stanford’s just going to take them apart or can Washington compete?

John Robinson: No, I think Washington is an upward moving team. I think they have a good coach and over the next five years they’ll trend upward. I don’t think they can handle Stanford. Unless Stanford has a terrible game or something of that sort, but I think Stanford’s at a point where we’re going to see Stanford as one of the most improved teams in the country from now to the end. I think they’ve focused on just steady improvement. They’ve lost one really good defensive player, but other than that I think they’re okay healthwise. So, I don’t see Washington much of a chance.

Moderator: This is a game, wouldn’t it, if you were coaching Stanford where you want your guys to go out an play their absolute best – if you’re going to get a blowout game, you want to do it against another ranked team even though they’re ranked about 22nd or something like that, because this will get Stanford some juice in the BCS, right Richard?

Richard Billingsley: It really will. You took the words right out of my mouth there because Stanford is really getting into the heart of their schedule now. They’ve got Washington this weekend and they’ve got USC at USC next week. They have Oregon on the 12th and then they have California, then Notre Dame, so, this is the beginning week of what you could see for a real rise for Stanford in my rankings. I know that this game is going to have a big impact and with the upcoming schedule you’re really going to see Stanford get a lot of credit if they can go through that kind of schedule undefeated.

Don Nehlen: If they go undefeated, it’s going to be hard to keep them out of it, I think.

Moderator: Yeah, they also, they have that Big East set up, you know, like Don you are always talking about the Big East there’s never really two tough games in a row. You can play a good team and then you play a lousy team and you can kind of set up for the next good team. And they’ve got, like you said, they’ve got Washington and USC, but then they go to Oregon State and that kind of gives them a week to prepare for Oregon and then they have to play Cal before Notre Dame. So, they don’t have back-to-back-to-back really hard games along the way. Like Tennessee has, you know, they played Georgia, LSU, Alabama, and South Carolina – four straight weeks.

Robinson: Hey fellas. Hey, wait a minute now. You guys are getting a little off here. Now, from a coaches’ perspective the thought, if I’m Stanford, the thought of playing Cal in the rivalry game is a huge game. Going to Oregon State in November with a huge rain storm – Oregon State has murdered California teams forever up there. So, the coaches are just trying to win the damn next game. I listen to you guys and I think, wait a minute, they’re talking about a different world. The coach is just trying to – I mean, what Stanford wants to do is win each game and then go where everybody tells them to go at the end of the year. So, you know, they’re just going to try to do that. And I think all of these teams are focused on just winning the game – not points or – I can’t imagine a coach standing on the sideline in a game and the game winding down and thinking about the BCS standings or rankings or points. I just can’t even imagine that.

Nehlen: Exactly.

Billingsley: I’ll tell you there’s one thing about scheduling here that we have not talked about that probably bears a little conversation and that is let’s don’t forget that the Pac-12 and the Big 10 both have a Conference Championship game this year. And the Big 12 does not. This will be the first year in the BCS era that the Big 12 has not had a Championship Game. So, traditionally in my rankings, that Championship Game can create quite a little bump for teams. So, if we’re looking at an undefeated Stanford team, playing in that extra game in that Championship Game and if they have an opportunity to play someone that might be ranked in the, let’s say the Top 15, they’re going to get quite a little bump from that game.

Moderator: But I’ll tell you the luck of the Big 12, though, this year, even though they don’t have a Championship Game, on that Championship Saturday they’ve got the Oklahoma/Oklahoma State game scheduled.

Billingsley: True.

(Image courtesy of Flickr, Daaka2)

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