David Shaw's downfall at Stanford attributed to lost identity and settling

Stanford's football program is far from its days of former glory

It wasn't too long ago that Stanford was atop the college football world, and had many people marveling at the fact that a private school out West with a 4% acceptance rate was having as much success as they were in college football.

Jim Harbaugh helped cement Stanford as one college football's premier programs out West, and following his departure to the NFL to take the San Francisco 49ers job, came David Shaw. It is always difficult to be the guy after the guy, and many didn't know what to make of a Harbaugh-les Stanford program.

Shaw hit the ground running, no, he hit the ground sprinting at a record pace. The new coach led Stanford to success the program had never experienced before, securing 11 wins in four of his first five seasons, the school’s first Rose Bowl win since the 70s, and two Heisman Trophy runner-ups in Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love. The program recruited at an elite level, and became renowned for their physicality and playing ball their way.

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Two things that seemed to have faded as time went on, and college football evolved. After Saturday's loss to BYU in front of a mostly empty stadium that featured more BYU blue than Stanford red, Shaw told a suspecting media who waited for a season long one hour "“I just informed the team that I just coached my last game at Stanford.”

A move that many fans and college football personalities around the country have been speculating about due to the program's tumultuous last half decade. The Cardinal have had losing seasons in three of the last four seasons, with their most recent winning season coming during the COVID-19 shortened season. Offensive and defensive units that once ranked among the nation's best were ranked in the 100s with college football programs stuck in the dungeon of the sport. While many point at Shaw's inability to be creative as the issue, The Athletic's Stewart Mandel pinpoints a loss of identity and settling as Stanford's issues that led to the demise of the program and Shaw's tenure.

We are soon to find out if Stanford has a place in the modern era of college football that sees schools such as USC take in 33 transfers and ascend from bottom feeder to College Football Playoff contender. A college football that is essentially like a never ending cycle of free agency, where enough NIL opportunity can buy the No. 1 class in the country. Even seeing this happening, Shaw and the program were far too late to the party.

It was reported within the last week that there will be more of an effort to use the transfer portal and NIL in the future, but that tardiness and lack of adaptation from the program right there is what Mandel believes hurt the program. The demise was a long time coming though, as Stanford strayed away from the Intellectual Brutality” and “Party in the Backfield” mantras and slowly lost what made them who they were as explained by Mandel saying:

Those who came through the program around that time say the further Stanford got from Harbaugh, the more the program strayed from its physical identity. Mason left to become Vanderbilt’s head coach in 2014. Mike Bloomgren, Shaw’s offensive line coach for his first seven seasons and offensive coordinator from 2013-17, was named Rice’s head coach. In their stead, Shaw promoted his former quarterback Tavita Pritchard as offensive coordinator and former Harbaugh assistant Lance Anderson as defensive coordinator.

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Stanford defenses went from ranking as high as No. 2 in the country, to consistently being one of the worst units in the country. The offense, led by Shaw's play calling also began to plummet towards the bottom of the college football ranks. His solutions to his struggling offense was to make scheme additions that didn't fit his personnel.  However, despite the horrendous numbers, Shaw didn't adjust his coordinators once. A move that I tried to ask him about following his announcement on Saturday, to which he replied "You're going to be that guy? Next question."

I had to be that guy, because it seemed that it was just accepted that Shaw's way was the only way over these past few years. 

There was one staffer fired that many believe was the worst mistake made in the entire tenure, as strength and conditioning coach Shannon Turley who was brought along by Harbaugh, was a staple of the culture. However, in 2017 his methods of pushing Kubotas filled with weights around the track and the Stanford tradition of "Taking the Rope" which consisted of one player pulling one side while a group of veteran players pulled back on the other end until they felt he competed enough, were viewed as extreme by the administration. 

Turley told Mandel that the changes around the program had him feeling burnt out saying:

“As things started to change at Stanford, and different players were coming into the program, they wanted to renegotiate the standards,” said Turley, currently at Colorado. “I felt like I was fighting to justify why those things were critically important to us.

Turley's tenure at Stanford ended after he was placed on administrative leave as the university investigated an anonymous complaint brought about him, reportedly by a player. In 2019, the university announced Turley had been dismissed. Losing Turley, hurt not only what was left of the culture implemented by Harbaugh and reapplied by Shaw, but it also hurt the Cardinal on the field. While Turley was on staff, Stanford saw a record low amount of injuries, but since have been absolutely decimated by them. 

This season alone, Stanford lost every scholarship running back available and had to turn to a reserve safety in Mitch Leigber to fill in. Injuries of course hurt the program over the past few years, but going back to Mandel's point of settling. Shaw and company had no clue how to combat the transfer portal and NIL, and it was something he clearly undervalued saying:

“What I didn’t know until we started the season,” he said, “was how much the transfer portal had really bolstered our competition. … The ability in college football right now to put together an All-Star Team is daunting.”

Some people will point to Stanford taking in Oklahoma safety Patrick Fields as a sign of evolvement, but what many don't realize is that Fields got into a Stanford graduate school on his own and walked on to the football team. Meanwhile, the rest of the Pac-12 was able to bring in what Mandel reported was an average of 26 transfers. I understand that Stanford will never ever bring in 20 transfers, hell, they likely will never surpass the 10 mark. However, Shaw chose not to even try to pursue them. 

Something that is odd though was the fact that he told the media on Monday that had Stanford had maybe five transfers on the roster this season, they would be in a bowl game. We will never technically know if that statement is true, but again never attempting to utilize a data base of thousands of players that have college experience is a bold strategy. 

Clemson's Dabo Sweeney is someone who also doesn't use the transfer portal, but the Tigers are able to bring in top-15 classes in recruiting, and even then we are beginning to see a decline in their program. A program that has won two championships since 2016.

Who knows if making coordinator changes could have saved this sinking ship with an ancient mindset, or if attempting to utilize NIL and the transfer portal would have helped, but the fact that no attempts were made is exactly what led to the demise of Shaw's time at Stanford.

Now, Stanford is just one week away from being without a coach when the transfer portal officially opens on December 5, and is three weeks away from early signing day. The Cardinal have already lost their top recruit in Walker Lyons, and coaching candidates are beginning to be linked to jobs. 

There are still viable candidates, such as Chris Petersen, Tom Herman, and Bill O'Brien among others but Stanford needs to move fast. 

Something they have consistently not done when it comes to adjusting to the college football landscape, but certainly need to begin doing so now. Shaw will never be renowned for his innovation or forward thinking while at Stanford, but his success as the winningest coach in program history will always be remembered. It will be hard to follow in his foot steps, but Stanford needs a new voice in the locker room. One that will at least attempt to make changes.

The clock struck 12 on his tenure likely a couple years ago as the losses began to pile up and changes weren't made, so now Stanford is having to play catchup to the rest of the country.