[Hank 91]

I'm also wondering about the prevailing idea that Shaw is conservative in his play calling. I think this is still a hold over from his management of the final few minutes of the Fiesta Bowl, but I think that's a completely different issue. In general, I think once we got to midseason, the offense was pretty imaginative. Not Chip Kelly imaginative, but still pretty good. If you pay attention to what other college teams are doing on offense, you don't see anything close to the number of formations that Stanford features (again, except Oregon), and there was a stretch during the season when Shaw rolled out something new each game. My feeling was that he was consciously putting more stuff on tape to give defensive coordinators more things to prepare for. The Sequoia formation (okay, wildcat) was much discussed here, but like it or not, it was certainly creative, and they added wrinkles to it each week. Eventually, defenses couldn't just key on Gaffney to run up the middle. There could be a sweep, a sweep option, a reverse, a toss pack to Luck for a pass, and even A PASS TO ANDREW LUCK. And that was all out of one formation. Again, you can be critical of this if you want, but taking the best player in America and moving him away from the ball is certainly thinking outside the box.

Also, this year I think we'll see lots of things we haven't seen before, specifically plays designed for Kelsey Young. Creative, aggressive play calling is not something we have to worry about with this team.

[Hank 91]

I'm also wondering about the prevailing idea that Shaw is conservative in his play calling. I think this is still a hold over from his management of the final few minutes of the Fiesta Bowl, but I think that's a completely different issue. In general, I think once we got to midseason, the offense was pretty imaginative. Not Chip Kelly imaginative, but still pretty good. If you pay attention to what other college teams are doing on offense, you don't see anything close to the number of formations that Stanford features (again, except Oregon), and there was a stretch during the season when Shaw rolled out something new each game. My feeling was that he was consciously putting more stuff on tape to give defensive coordinators more things to prepare for. The Sequoia formation (okay, wildcat) was much discussed here, but like it or not, it was certainly creative, and they added wrinkles to it each week. Eventually, defenses couldn't just key on Gaffney to run up the middle. There could be a sweep, a sweep option, a reverse, a toss pack to Luck for a pass, and even A PASS TO ANDREW LUCK. And that was all out of one formation. Again, you can be critical of this if you want, but taking the best player in America and moving him away from the ball is certainly thinking outside the box.

Also, this year I think we'll see lots of things we haven't seen before, specifically plays designed for Kelsey Young. Creative, aggressive play calling is not something we have to worry about with this team.