[murky]

OK, this really pisses me off if what I fear has happened, did.  

I spent $50 to see an obviously injured QB play last week, who was also likely injured the week before, and now, on a Friday before the next game, he is ruled out?  Why was Costello playing when injured in the first place? I would be shocked if we was healthy last week, because he has looked terrible the last two weeks. If Mills gives the team the best chance to win today, it sure as hell seems like he did last week as well. Stanford has historically been exceptionally cautious with injuries, so I'm a little confused here.

I've said it before - and Yvonne ripped me for it - but Shaw is to me continuing his metamorphosis into Jeff Tedford.

1. Not continuing to innovate on offense, refusing to give OC duties to someone else, but having one in name only
2. OL recruiting slippage
3. Blowout losses
4. Defensiveness and paranoia
5. Team losing physicality edge it once had 
6. Questionable game management

The only one missing up until now: Playing injured QB as safety blanket in favor of healthier less experienced one. If this is actually what has happened with Costello/Mills, it is analogous to Nate Longshore and Kevin Riley 12 seasons ago, the one that convinced me Jeff Tedford was in a death spiral and needed to be ousted. 

It sure would be great to see some sign Shaw is going to pull out of the flat spin (to use an aviation analogy) the program appears to be in right now. This latest development does not assuage my concerns that Shaw is about to auger in.

Obviously I have a different read on Shaw, but I will agree with you that playing Costello last week seemed inexplicable.  Whether it was a bad thumb, the lingering effect of concussion, or just poor performance due to having missed so much practice time--I though during the game last week that Mills would have given us a better chance.

But...what if Shaw knew that Mills had something wrong with him last week?  We can't know the information on which Shaw had to make his decision.  I do think that Shaw has in the past been pretty reluctant to bench his first string quarterback.  Fans were calling for Hogan, for Chryst, and for Costello weeks before Shaw made the changes.  From the standpoint of a head coach, at least some consideration needs to be made for building the self-confidence of your quarterback, and jerking them in and out of games could ruin that and make things worse, so I understand the reluctance. 

But I was surprised not to see Mills come out to start the second half last week.

Your post matches what I saw.

Maybe Mills wasn't prepared for the game and Shaw didn't want to throw him to the wolves knowing it would be futile.  I imagine its hard enough to get one set of personnel fully ready for a gameplan that might beat a higher regarded team.  At some point, getting the 2nd stringer up to speed has to come at the expense of having the starters as polished as they could be, right?

[murky]

OK, this really pisses me off if what I fear has happened, did.  

I spent $50 to see an obviously injured QB play last week, who was also likely injured the week before, and now, on a Friday before the next game, he is ruled out?  Why was Costello playing when injured in the first place? I would be shocked if we was healthy last week, because he has looked terrible the last two weeks. If Mills gives the team the best chance to win today, it sure as hell seems like he did last week as well. Stanford has historically been exceptionally cautious with injuries, so I'm a little confused here.

I've said it before - and Yvonne ripped me for it - but Shaw is to me continuing his metamorphosis into Jeff Tedford.

1. Not continuing to innovate on offense, refusing to give OC duties to someone else, but having one in name only
2. OL recruiting slippage
3. Blowout losses
4. Defensiveness and paranoia
5. Team losing physicality edge it once had 
6. Questionable game management

The only one missing up until now: Playing injured QB as safety blanket in favor of healthier less experienced one. If this is actually what has happened with Costello/Mills, it is analogous to Nate Longshore and Kevin Riley 12 seasons ago, the one that convinced me Jeff Tedford was in a death spiral and needed to be ousted. 

It sure would be great to see some sign Shaw is going to pull out of the flat spin (to use an aviation analogy) the program appears to be in right now. This latest development does not assuage my concerns that Shaw is about to auger in.

Obviously I have a different read on Shaw, but I will agree with you that playing Costello last week seemed inexplicable.  Whether it was a bad thumb, the lingering effect of concussion, or just poor performance due to having missed so much practice time--I though during the game last week that Mills would have given us a better chance.

But...what if Shaw knew that Mills had something wrong with him last week?  We can't know the information on which Shaw had to make his decision.  I do think that Shaw has in the past been pretty reluctant to bench his first string quarterback.  Fans were calling for Hogan, for Chryst, and for Costello weeks before Shaw made the changes.  From the standpoint of a head coach, at least some consideration needs to be made for building the self-confidence of your quarterback, and jerking them in and out of games could ruin that and make things worse, so I understand the reluctance. 

But I was surprised not to see Mills come out to start the second half last week.

Your post matches what I saw.

Maybe Mills wasn't prepared for the game and Shaw didn't want to throw him to the wolves knowing it would be futile.  I imagine its hard enough to get one set of personnel fully ready for a gameplan that might beat a higher regarded team.  At some point, getting the 2nd stringer up to speed has to come at the expense of having the starters as polished as they could be, right?