Stanford has lost three games in a row, a first for David Shaw. Even worse, all three games were lost in embarrassing fashion.
Against Oregon, the Cardinal never found the end zone. Overall, Stanford’s offense has only scored five times through four games, not exactly impressive for a team hoping to depend on its offense. After an initial promising drive for Stanford against the Ducks, the Cardinal gained only 80 yards on their next seven possessions.
A bad offense is not the main concern however. It’s the penalties that the offense committed. They were guilty of only six penalties for 45 yards, but the timing of them effectively killed three separate drives. When Oregon ran into the Stanford punter, the drive would have been extended if not for a Stanford holding penalty that offset it. Early in the second quarter, an illegal blocking penalty put Stanford at 1st and 25. Then in the third quarter, back-to-back five yard penalties put Stanford at 1st and 20. When KJ Costello completed a 15 yard pass on first down, a holding penalty brought the ball back.
Penalties were one of the main factors why Stanford lost this game, which is not normal for Stanford football. Stanford has always been a disciplined program. Last year, they averaged 40.3 penalty yards per game. This year, they’re averaging 57.8 so far.
David Shaw has slowly been losing his grip on the team for some time. They’ve lost their identity of power football, sustained more injuries than ever, and has been losing the time of possession battles, mainly because the offense has failed to extend drives.
This is not the football team that Jim Harbaugh left David Shaw.
That football team scared opponents on the line. They could tell you where they’d run the football and it wouldn’t matter. They could suffer an injury or graduate a player, and the next man up would be ready. Stanford was a force to be reckoned with.
I have a solution to get back to power football and to get back to national recognition: Bring back Jim Harbaugh.
Harbaugh hasn’t worked at Michigan and could easily be on his way out. This week, they lost to Wisconsin 35-14. Their offense looked asleep and defense helpless. Despite two weeks to prepare, Harbaugh and his coaching staff were never prepared. Now, he is under a microscope at Michigan and could be gone after this year, or even sooner.
Harbaugh is 0-7 as an underdog at Michigan and is yet to beat Ohio State. In his fifth year, there are no more excuses for the former Stanford coach. He has his recruiting classes and his quarterback. UM might be ready to move on, and Stanford should be ready to capitalize.
Stanford’s biggest need right now is a spark. Harbaugh brings that with him. Stanford went 1-11 before Harbaugh arrived. Three years later, the team went 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl. He made the NFC Championship three straight times in his first three years with the 49ers. Before Harbaugh arrived to Michigan, the Wolverines were 5-7. In his first year, Michigan went 10-3.
Plus, Harbaugh brings headlines to a Stanford program and a conference that so desperately needs some. If Michigan moves on from Harbaugh, I’m confident that a PAC-12 team will chase him hard. USC could replace their coach; Harbaugh, who tormented them for years, could be a potential answer. As a Stanford fan, I’d hate to see Harbaugh coaching against us every year.
What I would like to see, however, is Urban Meyer on the USC sideline, and Jim Harbaugh on ours.
Boy, that’d put a smile on my face and probably everyone else in the PAC-12.
Comments
Harbaugh Served His Purpose At Stanford...
…..and "graduated" to the 49ers. No…..it is not working out at Michigan for him, despite everybody believing it was going to happen. He has returned Michigan to very good, but still behind several programs in the Big 10. Which, absent this season, is about where Shaw has had Stanford or will have Stanford in the future.
Yes………..Stanford has lost its identity of a team than can control its destiny through power football. I don’t know why. We seem to recruit 4 star and 5 star offensive linemen every year. Our defense is unquestionably weaker, despite some solid players. We built some great Ds on the back of 3 star recruits in the past, but have trouble matching that performance with arguably higher ranked players these days. These days, I don’t even know what our offensive philosophy actually is. We are passing more, and never run an I formation with a fullback, but seem to lack creativity – which may be needed if our personnel is weaker than other teams. As I noted in one of the 13 comments on the game watch, Shaw does not seem to gameplan for specific opponents on offense or defense – prefering to just let Stanford be Stanford and, if we execute, we will be ok. That does not seem smart or, at least, suboptimal. Also, when I seem to routinely see completely inexperienced QBs play lights out in their first game I wonder – does Shaw make this game just more complicated that it needs to be? The absolutely perfect play, executed poorly, is worse than a solid play, executed well.
Intellectual Futility. Yes. But I, for one, do not want Jim Harbaugh back. Shaw is head coach for life which is fine by me. I just wish he would bring in a real offensive coordinator.
By hoyaparanoia on 09.22.19 12:35pm
And a better stable of position coaches and trainers
It’s maddening to have well-regarded recruits who don’t seem to improve or get injured all-too-often. I realize some of that is luck of the draw, but it seems like it’s happening a LOT more than it used to…
By g8tgod on 09.29.19 12:33am
This would never happen
First, Shaw would need to produce three seasons in a row at three wins or less before there would be any talk of replacing him. If this should happen, Harbaugh will be two years into his next gig.
Second, Harbaugh would not want to go back in time to an earlier phase: he did great things at Stanford, had his success and moved on. That’s how things work in life. When Taggart bolted for FSU, so many Duck fans hoped for the return of Saint Chip. With Kelly on the market during that critical juncture, the return didn’t happen.
I am also very critical of where the program is and of what Shaw has allowed to happen to a once excellent team. I still think Shaw is a great coach, but he has not assembled a high-caliber coaching staff, and that is proving to be the downfall of the program. He needs to revamp and retool his staff to a higher echelon, or the decline will continue and result in permanent bottom-feeder status for the Cardinal. If he is unable to do this, then his future in Stanford is in doubt. But if he leaves at some future date, his replacement will NOT be Harbaugh.
I think Charlie’s Cardinal Corner has floated this idea to stir some controversy and get some responses. Mission accomplished.
By Jeff Tarnungus on 09.22.19 12:53pm
Actually Not Much Controversy ..... At All
I think there is an overwhelming view that Shaw needs to get some better assistants or, in case of the offense, a real offensive coordinator. I think there is also an overwhelming view that Shaw is a great head coach for Stanford, who represents the university well and is a fine developer of young men.
To the best of my recollection, I do not think that David Shaw has EVER fired an assistant, though he has had to replace those who have chosen to leave (often for a step up the coaching ladder). Obviously poor performance makes it harder for assistants to leave for good opportunities – unless the new team feels that the underperformance is due to talent, not coaching. So I do not see a broad exodus. Promoting Tavita Pritchard to the title of Offensive Coordinator was the epitome of not taking action when it was needed. We NEEDED a new offensive coordinator! We had an opening! Yet we filled it (sort of…..as I cannot believe Pritchard is given any real responsibility….or the problem is bigger than I think) by promoting a QB coach who could not even get hired even as a QB coach at any major program in the county – no less begin to be considered for an offensive coordinator position. This is both laughable…..and telling. David Shaw does not want to relinguish control. Which makes it hard to find a great offensive coordinator to come in. So we circle the wagons and wait it out. It could be a long wait this season. I also continue to believe that the long list of 5th year players who opted not to come back this year is a telling sign as to the state of the program. Something is not right on the inside, and it is showing itself on the field.
By hoyaparanoia on 09.22.19 1:24pm
No controversy about the state of Cardinal nation
The controversy is the idea that Harbaugh would ever return. He will not.
Shaw appears to be the classic case of a program leader who sticks to what has worked in the past and is convinced that success passes by osmosis through the walls of the institution he leads. When you have been as successful as Shaw, it’s easy to think that tweaking and adjusting the program and maintaining continuity will keep you at the top. Replace Hamilton by Bloomgren and Bloomgren by Pritchard, and everything is still fine. Not so. That’s two downgrades in the same position, and the performance suffers. Replace Fangio by Mason, and you are still good. Replace Mason by Anderson, and you are already weaker. Rather than upgrading the coaching staff, Shaw has choreographed its decline. We all considered Pritchard a weak QB position coach during the Burns/Chryst debacle of 2016 and again in 2017. Rather than upgrade that position, Shaw promoted the incumbent to offensive coordinator. Madness. In effect, that was a way for Shaw to say: Tavita will handle the administrative duties of offensive coordinator, while I remain firmly in command of the offense. What Shaw appears unable to comprehend is that you are only as good as your staff. Each coach needs to be top tier to win at a place like Stanford, which will never be in the top ten of recruiting. Shaw clearly thinks that continuity trumps excellence. We see the results.
By Jeff Tarnungus on 09.22.19 2:42pm
Won't happen
First, Harbs won’t come back. That would be going backwards for him. Yes I know Walsh did that, but this is a different era, and his brother is an NFL coach. He won’t come back here.
Second, Shaw won’t be ditched due to a 4 or 5 win season. Even USC doesn’t do that to its coaches, and Stanford certainly won’t for Shaw. I could see Shaw himself deciding to leave if the program sinks to the level it was pre-Harbaugh for several years in a row, but otherwise I don’t see it. Certainly not after this season if we win 4-6 games (which seems the range at this point).
The real issue is that the player development appears to be non-existent. We’ve lost a lot of coaches over the years, certainly, and this has hurt us in several key areas (OC, OL in particular, but not only there). We also have been less lucky in recruiting than in the past (yes more star rankings but they aren’t always great players in the end, and that has happened more to us — probably a combo of bad development and inaccurate rankings). We need to attract and retain better coaches at key positions to develop the players we recruit, and this has been a major failure on the part of Shaw. I do not know how quickly this will be addressed. I do know that Shaw won’t be "held to account for it", however, in terms of being ditched short-term.
By Brendan Ross on 09.22.19 1:27pm
I don't think we have been less lucky in recruiting
Rather, I am convinced our player development has suffered in a big way. We are not turning 3-star athletes into 4-star performers anymore. On the contrary, we get 4 to 5-star athletes that never deliver on their promise. The paradigm used to be that Stanford would attract a lower talent pool than USC, but would make the whole greater than the sum of the parts and still beat the Trojans despite their superior raw talent. It was about coaching, discipline, strength-training, intellectual brutality. All that is gone. The Shayne Skovs who would party in the opponent’s backfield are history. The team is soft, the injuries are piling up and the coach is attributing the losses to "lack of execution". He needs to look in the mirror and recognize that there is a problem. That problem starts with David Shaw and his choice of coaches. He’s a great coach, but he needs to fix this problem.
By Jeff Tarnungus on 09.22.19 2:51pm
Recruiting
Coach Shaw seriously messed up when he recruited Davis Mills, Fehoko, Austin Jones, Weddington,.Wilson, Osiris and Parkinson…….Man, what was he thinking
By Slot_Man22 on 10.08.19 4:06pm
That's what I'm talkin 'bout!
I like your out-of-the-box thinking. Stanford does not accept mediocrity in any other department, whether it comes to teaching, research, facilities, and they hire the best lawyers, doctors, former government officials, etc., that they can find and pay top dollar. They are also very proud of their Sears Cup dominance. So Stanford should accept nothing less when it comes to football.
Stanford should never be considered a step down or a lateral move onto something bigger. You’ll never see a top SEC coach or Clemson coach leave voluntarily for another position. The SEC pays and keeps the best. I remember when our former AD (the one before Bowlsby) commented after Willingham accepted the Notre Dame position that he would have done the same. In other words, he bought into the notion that Stanford is a lesser entity than Notre Dame. That’s a loser mentality. He should have said that Stanford is the best job in the country, great location, schools…and this is the right place for Tyrone.
Stanford has more money than all of the other Pac-12 schools combined. They are the most prestigious academic institution of all D-1 schools. Shaw’s downward trend the past few years is unacceptable. Yes, he is loyal to Stanford and would stay for a long time. But if Stanford makes football a priority and pays whatever it wants, then Stanford will not have to accept 2nd or third rate coaches. They can guarantee Harbaugh the highest salary for him and his assistants, free housing, etc., and never worry about successful coaches leaving on their own, just like Alabama, Auburn, and Clemson.
If I were in charge at Stanford, not only would I go after Harbaugh, I would talk with Bill Belichick, Sean Payton, Nick Saban, and offer to double their salary. I would also lower admissions standards to the minimum NCAA requirements or whatever USC’s standards are – we compete in the Pac-12, right?, not the Ivy League (these are ATHLETIC scholarships, not ACADEMIC scholarships, right?) – and create a very easy major for these players to stay eligible, and rack up the national championships, as almost every parent and former NFL players want their kids to attend Stanford. Recruits would not have to spend hours writing essays on an application, taking AP classes, retaking the SATs,or any of that stuff. If you’re one of the highest rated recruits in the country and meet minimum NCAA standards, you are in PERIOD.
By ajpaly on 09.22.19 3:08pm
No
Assuming that your post was not intended as satire (always possible on the internet, where it can be hard to judge such things) …
In no way should Stanford ever compromise its higher academic standards for the sake of recruiting. Ever. Period. That is our identity as an institution. This was probably the red flag that your post was intended as satire, but in the off case that it was not, that should be clear — that is not-negotiable.
As for the rest, we are not Alabama, and we never will be. As a community we are in no way committed to football in the way that Alabama is. Alabama’s HC is more important in the state of Alabama than the governor is. I’d bet you could say the same thing about Dabo these days in SC as well. We will never be like that, we are not a community that revolves around football (nor should we be), and we will not go out there and spend whatever, have 25 experts working for the team at high salaries (like Bama does) and so on … that isn’t our university or alumni community, it isn’t our culture, and it will never happen.
By Brendan Ross on 09.22.19 3:21pm
What Brendan said.
By Jeff Tarnungus on 09.22.19 3:25pm
Why can't we be committed?
Stanford is fully committed to volleyball, water polo, soccer, tennis, gymnastics and so on. Stanford has won more national NCAA championships than any other school in the country. Why not basketball and football? It has nothing to do with academic standards as there are plenty of outstanding athletes in this country who are academically gifted. Stanford football excelled in recent years because we had amazing athletes like Luck, Gerhart, Gaffney, McCaffrey, Love and so on. This year we just don’t have the talent we have had in the past. Name one player who has made a big difference this year other than Toohill. Coach doesn’t play so he has to go with what he has. That said, I agree with the comments above that are offense is stale (where was Wedington in the last game?), unimaginative and predictable, our receivers are ordinary, we run the ball stubbornly off-tackle over and over, the defensive backfield and line has underperformed, our great punter graduated and so on. Shaw is stubborn to a fault and harps on execution when he doesn’t deploy his talent to advantage. The majority of head coaches in this country do not call the plays for many reasons. After this dreadful season, I hope and pray to see some changes.
By gaffman on 09.22.19 4:19pm
We have the Talent
I disagree w you…we have the talent but this system of seniority is not working out for us. Our offensive approach is based on a team that existed 5 years ago.. Today’s team is different and it takes a keen eye to recognize use players properly!
We have young playemakers: Austin Jones,
Fehoko
and of course Davis Mills just to name a few!! Unfortunately the players can’t call their own plays lol
By Slot_Man22 on 09.22.19 4:48pm