It's Chow Time on the Farm

When Buddy Teevens was hired to replace Tyrone Willingham in 2001, I was optimistic. Here's a guy who worked under Steve Spurrier and had great success in constructing prolific offenses. His first game as Stanford's coach last season was a rout of San Jose State, and I thought "No Tyrone, no problem. We haven't missed a beat."

The two consecutive Big Game losses were shameful enough. But yesterday's debacle against Notre Dame made it clear just how far Stanford football has fallen in the last 15 months. The coach should have been more than able to get the team motivated for the ABC cameras last night, given that it was Senior Night, you're up against your former coach and the team you're facing is the most hallowed program in college football. Given those circumstances, a 50 point loss sends a perfectly clear message: Buddy Teevens has completely lost his team. I know that athletic director Ted Leland has repeated that he will give Teevens three full seasons. I know that Stanford didn't have great talent or experience this season. But to give up the worst home loss in school history tells me that this team has no future with Teevens. Can anyone say with a straight face that the program is better off now than it was after that SJSU game last year? Does anyone honestly think that Teevens can magically dig us out of the canyon he's created from a squad that went 9-3 in 2001?

Stanford needs to suck it up and cut its losses. We can't endure another year of quarterback controversies (next year it's just gonna be Edwards, Matter and Ostrander playing musical chairs), impotent offensive schemes (we averaged just 283 yards per game this year) and blowout losses (we were outscored by 138 points this season). So let's be proactive and hire USC's offensive coordinator Norm Chow as our coach. Chow's offense has been one of the best in the nation for the past few years and he obviously knows how to succeed against Pac 10 defenses. Chow is the hottest commodity on the coaching market, and Stanford would be foolish to let him get hired by someone else. Pass the collection plate to buy out Buddy's contract!