[OutsiderFan]

Harbaugh may have been the perfect guy to get the program out of the doldrums and to a place of national prominence; and Shaw may be the perfect guy to keep it there.

David Shaw has the attitude needed to stay on top in the dog-eat-dog world of big time college football.  He now can walk into any living room or H.S. coach's office in the world and say "no program can match our combination of football and academic excellence," then point to the 977 APR, two consecutive Top 5 finishes, three consecutive Voldemort finalists, three first round NFL picks, and a recent Top 5 recruiting class to prove the point.  No rival coaches can any longer say "Stanford won't win, so don't go there if you want to win."  No rival coaches can say "it's too hard and you won't make it there," because Stanford leads the Pac-12 in APR.  No rivals can say "you can't make it to the NFL at Stanford."

The only thing Stanford can't offer is a raucous, 100,000 seat stadium, and it can't even promise a raucous, sold out 60,000.  But, if that is really what you desire more than all the other things Stanford offers, you probably aren't really a fit for Stanford anyway.

In other words, there isn't a program in the country that can offer the academic and football package as Stanford does.  That differentiation from the pack has to give Shaw and co. a ton of confidence that I am quite certain they project on the recruiting trail.
So I have no doubt Shaw will continue recruiting well.

The only question I have about Shaw is his aggressiveness and ability to take risks to get rewards in games.  When you have Andrew Luck, you don't have to take too many risks.  But when you don't, you may need to do some fake punts and field goals.  You may need to go for it on 4th and 5 from the 35 rather than settle for a 52 yd FG attempt.  You may need to do a few onside kicks to gain an extra possession to beat Oregon.

But, if Shaw can get the team to execute at a high level, and maintain an excellent performance standard, he may fall into the Bill Walsh school of thought that taking extra risks and doing gimmicky things to try to win is totally unnecessary.  His team may perform well enough that they really aren't necessary.  And maybe, he won't do an onside kick, but his team will recover Chip Kelly's next time!

[OutsiderFan]

Harbaugh may have been the perfect guy to get the program out of the doldrums and to a place of national prominence; and Shaw may be the perfect guy to keep it there.

David Shaw has the attitude needed to stay on top in the dog-eat-dog world of big time college football.  He now can walk into any living room or H.S. coach's office in the world and say "no program can match our combination of football and academic excellence," then point to the 977 APR, two consecutive Top 5 finishes, three consecutive Voldemort finalists, three first round NFL picks, and a recent Top 5 recruiting class to prove the point.  No rival coaches can any longer say "Stanford won't win, so don't go there if you want to win."  No rival coaches can say "it's too hard and you won't make it there," because Stanford leads the Pac-12 in APR.  No rivals can say "you can't make it to the NFL at Stanford."

The only thing Stanford can't offer is a raucous, 100,000 seat stadium, and it can't even promise a raucous, sold out 60,000.  But, if that is really what you desire more than all the other things Stanford offers, you probably aren't really a fit for Stanford anyway.

In other words, there isn't a program in the country that can offer the academic and football package as Stanford does.  That differentiation from the pack has to give Shaw and co. a ton of confidence that I am quite certain they project on the recruiting trail.
So I have no doubt Shaw will continue recruiting well.

The only question I have about Shaw is his aggressiveness and ability to take risks to get rewards in games.  When you have Andrew Luck, you don't have to take too many risks.  But when you don't, you may need to do some fake punts and field goals.  You may need to go for it on 4th and 5 from the 35 rather than settle for a 52 yd FG attempt.  You may need to do a few onside kicks to gain an extra possession to beat Oregon.

But, if Shaw can get the team to execute at a high level, and maintain an excellent performance standard, he may fall into the Bill Walsh school of thought that taking extra risks and doing gimmicky things to try to win is totally unnecessary.  His team may perform well enough that they really aren't necessary.  And maybe, he won't do an onside kick, but his team will recover Chip Kelly's next time!