[CardinalSagehen]

Let’s assume the naysayers are right that Shaw has mediocre assistants. What’s the alternative?  Look at the headwinds Stanford is facing with its poor recent record, NIL disadvantages, and conference realignment. What makes you think Shaw could reasonably expect to hire a higher quality coach as a replacement?

I understand where you're coming from - the headwinds have picked up - but I disagree. It's a failure of imagination to think that Stanford could not hire good assistant coaches if that truly were the goal.  In 2006, the program was in shambles, and it wasn't clear that Stanford would ever compete again.  We hired an up-and-coming coach from an FCS program.  At present, we're only talking about coordinators and assistants, not even a head coach.

It's definitely harder to draw big-name coaches to Stanford now compared to a few years ago, but David Shaw is a big-name coach and he's compensated as such.  It's his job to attract and lead a high-quality staff. In fact, this is probably the most important part of his job. He just preferred to stick with the current staff.  Let's see how it goes...

[CardinalSagehen]

Let’s assume the naysayers are right that Shaw has mediocre assistants. What’s the alternative?  Look at the headwinds Stanford is facing with its poor recent record, NIL disadvantages, and conference realignment. What makes you think Shaw could reasonably expect to hire a higher quality coach as a replacement?

I understand where you're coming from - the headwinds have picked up - but I disagree. It's a failure of imagination to think that Stanford could not hire good assistant coaches if that truly were the goal.  In 2006, the program was in shambles, and it wasn't clear that Stanford would ever compete again.  We hired an up-and-coming coach from an FCS program.  At present, we're only talking about coordinators and assistants, not even a head coach.

It's definitely harder to draw big-name coaches to Stanford now compared to a few years ago, but David Shaw is a big-name coach and he's compensated as such.  It's his job to attract and lead a high-quality staff. In fact, this is probably the most important part of his job. He just preferred to stick with the current staff.  Let's see how it goes...