12-13-2019, 12:54 PM
(12-13-2019, 01:27 AM)BostonCard Wrote: That’s an odd statement to make, given that under Shaw, we have had the third best (2011) and fourth best (2015) offense in the country. While there is always room for improvement, if there is really a gap between recruiting and offensive output, it didn’t show. I could buy an argument that the “Shaw offense” only works effectively under certain hard to reproduce circumstances, but the fact that he was able to do it twice, four years apart, with no lineup overlap means that it is not impossible to reproduce.
2011 was Harbaugh's players and Andrew Luck running the offensive show.
2015 is "the exception that proves the rule." And even that team was led by 5th year senior Hogan (Harbaugh recruit) and a few other Harbaugh leftovers playing important roles. And of course, C-Mac, a generational talent who was robbed of the Heis.man Trophy.
Why do I think Shaw perenially underperforms to talent? First, the number of sub-350 yards of total offense during his tenure. Second, the number of 21 points or fewer games under his tenure. And it is not just I. Per Sea Hang on TOS:
"And my pet stat, games with 21 or fewer points by the offense:
1. 2011 - 0
2. 2015 - 1
3. 2013 - 4
3. 2017 - 4
5. 2018 - 5
6. 2014 - 6
6. 2016 - 6
8. 2019 - 7"
And as another poster there said:
"I occasionally think about the amount of talent on the 2014 offense. To get results as bad as we got is astounding
OL:
Peat
Murphy
Garnett
Shuler
Caspers
Fanaika
TE:
Hooper
Cotton
Taboada
WR:
Montgomery
Cajuste
Rector
RB:
McCaffrey
Wright
FB:
Lee Ward (beast)
QB:
Hogan
Sea Hang came back with this:
About the offense from that 2014 season:
We had two NFL running backs on that team, and they had the two highest average yards per carry, and they were 5th and tied for 6th (with Ricky Seale) in carries.
We had nine drives against USC, all of them reaching USC territory, and we scored 10 points. We punted from the USC 29 while trailing by 7 in the first quarter. It was a touchback. We punted from the USC 32 while tied in the fourth quarter. USC immediately drove for the game-winning FG.
We scored a TD on our opening drive against Utah, then proceeded to get shut out for the rest of regulation, including a punt from the Utah 34 with 1:38 remaining in a tie game. We then made a FG from that exact spot in double overtime after the offense lost nine yards on the drive.
The defense finished second in the nation in points allowed, but we lost five games in which the offense scored, in regulation, 10 (lost by 3), 14 (including a 12-yard drive set up by the defense, lost by 3), 10, 16, and 7 (lost in OT)."
So these are the reasons, among others, why I think Shaw is not a good steward of the Stanford offense. At all.