I watched the replay of the 2019 Nebbie game on BTN Thursday and was struck at the team Stanley had:
Tyler Goodson at RB
Tyrone Tracy and Smith Marsette at WR
La Porta at TE
Wirfs, Lindy, and Alaric Jackson on the line.
That is a sick amount of talent. All of those guys were drafted or played in the league, and two of them are considered Top 5 at their position in the NFL.
Stanley was good and got drafted, but if Tate or Banks were on that team, we would not have lost three times.
And that is why they are on the Mt. Rushmore, and he is just off of it.
Over his last 2 seasons, he lost 7 games, 5 of which were to ranked teams, and all of which were 1-score games (2018 Wisky was technically 11 pts, but Iowa had the lead up until 1 minute left in the 4th, and then Wisky tacked on a meaningless TD after a late tipped INT).
His losses...
2018
17-28 to #18 Wisky at home...2 turnovers by the punt return unit, and 3 points out of 2 trips inside of the 10-yard line due to some truly head-scratching play-calling.
24-30 to #17 PSU on the road...again, 3 points out of 2 goal-to-go situations, including the goal-line INT to essentially end the game after Fant didn't run his route because he didn't realize the ball was snapped.
36-38 to Purdue on the road...our offense scored 5 TDs, but the D gave up passing TDs of 36, 41, and 82 yards, and we failed on a 2-pt conversion to give us a 3-pt lead in the 4th...Purdue won on a FG with 8 seconds left.
10-14 to NW at home...Stanley completed 66% for 269 yds and 1 TD/0 int, but Fant had 1 catch for 0 yards (this is the game he was inexplicably benched in the 2nd half), we missed a 38-yd FG, our RBs lost 2 fumbles, and we turned it over on downs in NW territory
2019
3-10 to #19 Michigan on the road...offense did absolutely nothing, we were down to backup OGs and they got absolutely brutalized...Stanley got sacked 8 times and threw 3 int; probably a game
@Fryowa thinks about when he denigrates Stanley
12-17 to @10 PSU at home...see above, our interior OL was manhandled, but Stanley still managed 58%, 286 yds, 1 TD/1 Int. Goodson lost a fumble deep in our territory, and we missed a FG.
22-24 to #13 Wisky on the road...Stanley was 61%, 208 yards, 2 TD/0 Int, but he came up short on a 2-pt conversion to tie the game, and J. Taylor rushed for 250 yards against our D at an 8.1 ypc clip (Wisconsin rushed 46 times for 300 yards).
If he was Banks/Tate/Stanzi/Beathard, he probably makes enough plays to win a few more of those. In particular, in 2018 PSU he left some plays on the field that would have put that game out of reach early. Also, better playmaking/play-calling near the goal-line nets us two more wins in 2018.
But we also lost some of those games for reasons completely unrelated to Stanley (2 punt return TOs vs. 2018 Wisky, our D getting gashed in 2018 Purdue and 2019 Wisky). Mt. Rushmore-level players overcome those things, but I think we consider Stanley for that upper-echelon if the D makes a few more stops in those games, and our PR team doesn't shat the bed. In that scenario, with Stanley not doing anything different, all of a sudden he has a 5-3 record against ranked teams during his junior/senior seasons and only one loss in a game we were favored (NW), and a 14-4 conference record over those 2 years.
