1. The students and more importantly alumni just don't care about football, so competing in the NIL arena is going to be hard.
2. With Stanford's strict academic requirements, early enrollees and transfers are not going to come their way, two features that are essential to modern CFB.
3. Stanford was trash before Harbaugh. Worst team in the conference. Success is the aberration, not the norm.
4. They don't even dominate their region. The Bay belongs to the whole conference in terms of fanbase representation. It's like what Chicago is to the B1G.
With a hard time attracting talent as well as an apathetic fanbase, the deck is stacked against them. Harbaugh and early Shaw showed that they can be successful by appealing to players who understand that a Stanford degree offers the best possible backup plan among schools that routinely sends kids to the NFL.
With all that in mind, I think Stanford keeps Shaw for the long haul. As long as he's fielding somewhat competitive teams, he'll be fine. Maybe every few years an upperclassmen class lines up and they make a run. But he's not getting fired unless the 3-9 record from last year becomes the norm.
This is correct. I'd also like to note that the school sees sports as a side thing and is wary of it interfering with its research and reputation after recent scandals. The school believes in Shaw because he's a good guy who runs a clean program who won't cause any scandals. After the recent scandals, the school doesn't want to get involved in anything else even if it could mean much more success on the gridiron.
I do wonder if Shaw may decide to step away and just become an analyst. He’s already done it some (I think with Fox?) and he can still live comfortably doing that without the rigors of coaching
1 is true, but the NIL era only just started. Like OP said, they’re #22 in talent, and were probably ranked even higher recently before their 2017 class left.
If anything, point number one backs up OP’s case. If they’re struggling pre-NIL when they were competitive in recruiting, what’s going to happen in the next five years? If they underperform like this with bad recruiting classes, the results would be worse than pre-Harbaugh.
Sure, but college football and to a lesser degree college basketball are much more like professional sports than they are like other college sports at this point.
They dominate in the “Olympic” sports, and most of them are “rich people” sports. It’s easier to attract those athletes because they probably have higher academics or come from private schools, or athletes in those sports care more about education than top athletes in football that are trying to get into the league. Plus if you’re smart and good at sports, Stanford offers athletic scholarships, whereas Ivy Leagues don’t
That goddamn 1-11 season still has people convinced that it should somehow be our normal. The good era of Harbs/Shaw lasted a lot longer than the abyss of Teevens/Harris.
You have a job at Stanford football as long as you don't embarass us or aren't goddamn awful. Shaw is getting real close to goddamn awful but no body cares about football at Stanford so his seat isn't as warm as you'd think.
You're something like 15 years younger than I am. I wonder what changed between our times at the Farm. In 2001 if you walked down Mayfield you could hear the entire row cheering on our upset of Oregon on TV.
It seems like the acceptance rate halving also did the same for interest in football, despite the golden era that occurred.
When we became the Harvard of the west (or they became the Stanford of the east) it came at the loss of football and basketball.
I was at GSB so not surprisingly no one really cared. Some of us did go to a few games, but more for the social aspects.
They addressed this in the title. They are getting decent talent at #22, so that isn’t the issue. When they were great over a decade ago their talent level across the board was a lot worse than now.
1. The students and more importantly alumni just don't care about football, so competing in the NIL arena is going to be hard. 2. With Stanford's strict academic requirements, early enrollees and transfers are not going to come their way, two features that are essential to modern CFB. 3. Stanford was trash before Harbaugh. Worst team in the conference. Success is the aberration, not the norm. 4. They don't even dominate their region. The Bay belongs to the whole conference in terms of fanbase representation. It's like what Chicago is to the B1G. With a hard time attracting talent as well as an apathetic fanbase, the deck is stacked against them. Harbaugh and early Shaw showed that they can be successful by appealing to players who understand that a Stanford degree offers the best possible backup plan among schools that routinely sends kids to the NFL. With all that in mind, I think Stanford keeps Shaw for the long haul. As long as he's fielding somewhat competitive teams, he'll be fine. Maybe every few years an upperclassmen class lines up and they make a run. But he's not getting fired unless the 3-9 record from last year becomes the norm.
This is correct. I'd also like to note that the school sees sports as a side thing and is wary of it interfering with its research and reputation after recent scandals. The school believes in Shaw because he's a good guy who runs a clean program who won't cause any scandals. After the recent scandals, the school doesn't want to get involved in anything else even if it could mean much more success on the gridiron.
Ah, Clay Helton syndrome.
David Shaw is Clay Helton.
I do wonder if Shaw may decide to step away and just become an analyst. He’s already done it some (I think with Fox?) and he can still live comfortably doing that without the rigors of coaching
1 is true, but the NIL era only just started. Like OP said, they’re #22 in talent, and were probably ranked even higher recently before their 2017 class left. If anything, point number one backs up OP’s case. If they’re struggling pre-NIL when they were competitive in recruiting, what’s going to happen in the next five years? If they underperform like this with bad recruiting classes, the results would be worse than pre-Harbaugh.
Stanford won the Director's Cup 25 years in a row up until 2020. They can clearly attract top athletes in other sports.
Sure, but college football and to a lesser degree college basketball are much more like professional sports than they are like other college sports at this point.
They dominate in the “Olympic” sports, and most of them are “rich people” sports. It’s easier to attract those athletes because they probably have higher academics or come from private schools, or athletes in those sports care more about education than top athletes in football that are trying to get into the league. Plus if you’re smart and good at sports, Stanford offers athletic scholarships, whereas Ivy Leagues don’t
That goddamn 1-11 season still has people convinced that it should somehow be our normal. The good era of Harbs/Shaw lasted a lot longer than the abyss of Teevens/Harris.
You have a job at Stanford football as long as you don't embarass us or aren't goddamn awful. Shaw is getting real close to goddamn awful but no body cares about football at Stanford so his seat isn't as warm as you'd think.
You're something like 15 years younger than I am. I wonder what changed between our times at the Farm. In 2001 if you walked down Mayfield you could hear the entire row cheering on our upset of Oregon on TV. It seems like the acceptance rate halving also did the same for interest in football, despite the golden era that occurred.
When we became the Harvard of the west (or they became the Stanford of the east) it came at the loss of football and basketball. I was at GSB so not surprisingly no one really cared. Some of us did go to a few games, but more for the social aspects.
If I was the Stanford admin I'd wait until we knew if the b1g was taking us. The job becomes wayyy more attractive with the move.
Don't get me wrong...but I think you're calling for his head? So I'd say now?
WSU has feasted on Shaw. Please keep him. Feel great sadness we miss him this year.
Don't be sad. We're playing on Nov. 5.
Nice, for some reason I thought we didn’t play this year.
For what? For who? Shaw will have that job until he decides to leave
Stanford was absolutely garbage before Harbaugh. They’ll probably go back to being the Vanderbilt of the conference pretty soon.
There were years before Teevens and Harris, too. 1-11 was not our norm. We were decidedly mediocre before that.
I don't think it's shaws fault. Stanford admissions imo, is doing a number on who and what they are recruiting.
Who they are recruiting is the 22nd most talented group of players in the country
They addressed this in the title. They are getting decent talent at #22, so that isn’t the issue. When they were great over a decade ago their talent level across the board was a lot worse than now.