[Austroturf]

In general, I think it's not very useful to spend much time analyzing Shaw's press conferences because I don't think he reveals much about what he's really thinking.

In Shaw's post-ND press conference, he indicated that he is turning his focus to recruiting. I got the impression that Shaw was trying to be as positive as circumstances would allow in an attempt to support his recruiting efforts. I think maybe he wanted to avoid scaring recruits away by being too negative about the program. I would view his comments in that context.

That said, I thought Shaw made a couple of brief comments that I found interesting:

"A lot of things we have to do, a lot of discussions we have to have, some difficult discussions. . . ."

"Some things coaching-wise, which I won't go into detail, that we need to look at. . . ."

I agree that press conferences are low on useful information.  But if Shaw was just trying to put a positive spin on the results to give potential recruits confidence in the program, he is also running the risk of insulting their intelligence (as he did with fans and the press).  When a team is really bad, and the eye test, the stats and the results show it, any whitewashing of that situation by the coach can only be viewed with mistrust.

[Austroturf]

In general, I think it's not very useful to spend much time analyzing Shaw's press conferences because I don't think he reveals much about what he's really thinking.

In Shaw's post-ND press conference, he indicated that he is turning his focus to recruiting. I got the impression that Shaw was trying to be as positive as circumstances would allow in an attempt to support his recruiting efforts. I think maybe he wanted to avoid scaring recruits away by being too negative about the program. I would view his comments in that context.

That said, I thought Shaw made a couple of brief comments that I found interesting:

"A lot of things we have to do, a lot of discussions we have to have, some difficult discussions. . . ."

"Some things coaching-wise, which I won't go into detail, that we need to look at. . . ."

I agree that press conferences are low on useful information.  But if Shaw was just trying to put a positive spin on the results to give potential recruits confidence in the program, he is also running the risk of insulting their intelligence (as he did with fans and the press).  When a team is really bad, and the eye test, the stats and the results show it, any whitewashing of that situation by the coach can only be viewed with mistrust.