[jayasena]

I'm not saying Shaw is right.  May he is just plain stubborn?  I don't know him personally, but neither do most of you, and I'm confident that he's seen our alternatives run this offense a few more times than any of us have.  Maybe he just doesn't want to win games, so he's intentionally keeping his best QB option off of the field?!?

You may be onto something here. Shaw has said he wants to stay at Stanford for a long time. I'd bet the national attention (and mentions of NFL interest) following the SC win spooked him. Perhaps he figured the only way to avoid the temptation of NFL offers, or having to explain to his family why he's turning down jobs that could pay integer multiples of his current salary, is to lose a few games. What better way to do that than to keep his best QB hidden from public sight?! That's got to be it!!

Honestly, I wouldn't want to be in Shaw's shoes (well, maybe I'll rethink that stance given his salary). It's clear he's frustrated with the offense (cf. his comments to the TV reporter at half time). It also looks to me like he's looking for a solution, given the increasing frequency of Hogan plays. But all of our recent games have been close. We led late even in the games we lost. It's a brobdingnagian risk to make a change under those circumstances. And changing your starter after a convincing win is an even greater risk. It's one thing to change your QB just to see what happens when you have nothing left to play for. It's a whole 'nother thing with a team whose only losses are two close ones and still a lot on the line.

The increasing Hogan plays show that this isn't about Nunes having compromising pictures of Shaw or something of the sort. To me, it seems clear that Shaw just doesn't think he has better options. He clearly doesn't think Nottingham is a long-term, or even a short-term, solution.

Personally, I'm not concerned about what some see as Shaw being obstinate. His comments and actions indicate he's frustrated with the status quo himself. To me, that's not being obstinate -- that's just being stuck in a tough situation with no viable alternative. The thing that concerns me more is our staff's apparent inability to spot or develop QB talent (aside from Luck, who even a blind man could probably tell was going to be a great one). I don't know if this is still the case -- it's hard to tell since on-field results will lag actual improvement in this respect by a couple of years. But if Hogan and subsequent QB recruits continue to underperform realistic expectations, this would be a real and much more significant question mark about the staff.

[jayasena]

I'm not saying Shaw is right.  May he is just plain stubborn?  I don't know him personally, but neither do most of you, and I'm confident that he's seen our alternatives run this offense a few more times than any of us have.  Maybe he just doesn't want to win games, so he's intentionally keeping his best QB option off of the field?!?

You may be onto something here. Shaw has said he wants to stay at Stanford for a long time. I'd bet the national attention (and mentions of NFL interest) following the SC win spooked him. Perhaps he figured the only way to avoid the temptation of NFL offers, or having to explain to his family why he's turning down jobs that could pay integer multiples of his current salary, is to lose a few games. What better way to do that than to keep his best QB hidden from public sight?! That's got to be it!!

Honestly, I wouldn't want to be in Shaw's shoes (well, maybe I'll rethink that stance given his salary). It's clear he's frustrated with the offense (cf. his comments to the TV reporter at half time). It also looks to me like he's looking for a solution, given the increasing frequency of Hogan plays. But all of our recent games have been close. We led late even in the games we lost. It's a brobdingnagian risk to make a change under those circumstances. And changing your starter after a convincing win is an even greater risk. It's one thing to change your QB just to see what happens when you have nothing left to play for. It's a whole 'nother thing with a team whose only losses are two close ones and still a lot on the line.

The increasing Hogan plays show that this isn't about Nunes having compromising pictures of Shaw or something of the sort. To me, it seems clear that Shaw just doesn't think he has better options. He clearly doesn't think Nottingham is a long-term, or even a short-term, solution.

Personally, I'm not concerned about what some see as Shaw being obstinate. His comments and actions indicate he's frustrated with the status quo himself. To me, that's not being obstinate -- that's just being stuck in a tough situation with no viable alternative. The thing that concerns me more is our staff's apparent inability to spot or develop QB talent (aside from Luck, who even a blind man could probably tell was going to be a great one). I don't know if this is still the case -- it's hard to tell since on-field results will lag actual improvement in this respect by a couple of years. But if Hogan and subsequent QB recruits continue to underperform realistic expectations, this would be a real and much more significant question mark about the staff.