[gailtate]

This is just not a good football team. All the indicators were there after the Red/White game last April but I was in denial and figured they could hit 7-5, injury-free. Injuries took a toll early and helped create the avalanche we're suffocating in right now. Honestly, we're Colorado-class this season, a click above 'zona. The Northwestern game was instructive. It was the harbinger of things to come. I hope Shaw can turn this around and rebuild, but I see no evidence that he will, or even can. He's the guy doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I just hope that 2019 is the bottom of this down-cycle. I fear that it's not. OK, PollyAnnas, fire away.

[gailtate]

This is just not a good football team. All the indicators were there after the Red/White game last April but I was in denial and figured they could hit 7-5, injury-free. Injuries took a toll early and helped create the avalanche we're suffocating in right now. Honestly, we're Colorado-class this season, a click above 'zona. The Northwestern game was instructive. It was the harbinger of things to come. I hope Shaw can turn this around and rebuild, but I see no evidence that he will, or even can. He's the guy doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I just hope that 2019 is the bottom of this down-cycle. I fear that it's not. OK, PollyAnnas, fire away.

[CowboyIndian]

This is just not a good football team. All the indicators were there after the Red/White game last April but I was in denial and figured they could hit 7-5, injury-free. Injuries took a toll early and helped create the avalanche we're suffocating in right now. Honestly, we're Colorado-class this season, a click above 'zona. The Northwestern game was instructive. It was the harbinger of things to come. I hope Shaw can turn this around and rebuild, but I see no evidence that he will, or even can. He's the guy doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I just hope that 2019 is the bottom of this down-cycle. I fear that it's not. OK, PollyAnnas, fire away.

I hope your numerous posts acknowledging the obvious are at least helping YOU feel better.

[CowboyIndian]

This is just not a good football team. All the indicators were there after the Red/White game last April but I was in denial and figured they could hit 7-5, injury-free. Injuries took a toll early and helped create the avalanche we're suffocating in right now. Honestly, we're Colorado-class this season, a click above 'zona. The Northwestern game was instructive. It was the harbinger of things to come. I hope Shaw can turn this around and rebuild, but I see no evidence that he will, or even can. He's the guy doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I just hope that 2019 is the bottom of this down-cycle. I fear that it's not. OK, PollyAnnas, fire away.

I hope your numerous posts acknowledging the obvious are at least helping YOU feel better.

[JohnR34231]

This is just not a good football team. All the indicators were there after the Red/White game last April but I was in denial and figured they could hit 7-5, injury-free. Injuries took a toll early and helped create the avalanche we're suffocating in right now. Honestly, we're Colorado-class this season, a click above 'zona. The Northwestern game was instructive. It was the harbinger of things to come. I hope Shaw can turn this around and rebuild, but I see no evidence that he will, or even can. He's the guy doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I just hope that 2019 is the bottom of this down-cycle. I fear that it's not. OK, PollyAnnas, fire away.

The reality that sucks, at least IMO, is that runs like we had from 2010-2015 are going to be the exception rather than the rule in Stanford football, no matter who the coach is. Any Stanford fan who expects them, or anything like them, is setting him or herself up for disappointment and discontent.
The silver lining in the cloud is that when they do happen, we appreciate them more.

P.S. I don't think the notion that Shaw can't get this thing turned around is obvious. If that makes me a Pollyanna, so be it.

[JohnR34231]

This is just not a good football team. All the indicators were there after the Red/White game last April but I was in denial and figured they could hit 7-5, injury-free. Injuries took a toll early and helped create the avalanche we're suffocating in right now. Honestly, we're Colorado-class this season, a click above 'zona. The Northwestern game was instructive. It was the harbinger of things to come. I hope Shaw can turn this around and rebuild, but I see no evidence that he will, or even can. He's the guy doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I just hope that 2019 is the bottom of this down-cycle. I fear that it's not. OK, PollyAnnas, fire away.

The reality that sucks, at least IMO, is that runs like we had from 2010-2015 are going to be the exception rather than the rule in Stanford football, no matter who the coach is. Any Stanford fan who expects them, or anything like them, is setting him or herself up for disappointment and discontent.
The silver lining in the cloud is that when they do happen, we appreciate them more.

P.S. I don't think the notion that Shaw can't get this thing turned around is obvious. If that makes me a Pollyanna, so be it.

[gailtate]

This is just not a good football team. All the indicators were there after the Red/White game last April but I was in denial and figured they could hit 7-5, injury-free. Injuries took a toll early and helped create the avalanche we're suffocating in right now. Honestly, we're Colorado-class this season, a click above 'zona. The Northwestern game was instructive. It was the harbinger of things to come. I hope Shaw can turn this around and rebuild, but I see no evidence that he will, or even can. He's the guy doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I just hope that 2019 is the bottom of this down-cycle. I fear that it's not. OK, PollyAnnas, fire away.

I hope your numerous posts acknowledging the obvious are at least helping YOU feel better.

[gailtate]

This is just not a good football team. All the indicators were there after the Red/White game last April but I was in denial and figured they could hit 7-5, injury-free. Injuries took a toll early and helped create the avalanche we're suffocating in right now. Honestly, we're Colorado-class this season, a click above 'zona. The Northwestern game was instructive. It was the harbinger of things to come. I hope Shaw can turn this around and rebuild, but I see no evidence that he will, or even can. He's the guy doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I just hope that 2019 is the bottom of this down-cycle. I fear that it's not. OK, PollyAnnas, fire away.

I hope your numerous posts acknowledging the obvious are at least helping YOU feel better.

[BostonCard]

This is just not a good football team. All the indicators were there after the Red/White game last April but I was in denial and figured they could hit 7-5, injury-free. Injuries took a toll early and helped create the avalanche we're suffocating in right now. Honestly, we're Colorado-class this season, a click above 'zona. The Northwestern game was instructive. It was the harbinger of things to come. I hope Shaw can turn this around and rebuild, but I see no evidence that he will, or even can. He's the guy doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I just hope that 2019 is the bottom of this down-cycle. I fear that it's not. OK, PollyAnnas, fire away.

This seems like an odd statement considering that if my results in my first 8 seasons as a head coach were: 3 conference championships (as many as in the prior 40 years combined, and fully 1/4 of the conference championships in our history), 4 Pac-12 North titles, 4 BCS caliber bowls (3 Rose Bowls and a Fiesta), 8 winning seasons, 8 bowl games (as many bowl games as we'd gone to from 1979 and 2010), I might be inclined to continue doing the same thing over and over again in the hope of getting the same result.

Perhaps a more valid critique might be that he continued to do the same things even as the game around him has evolved, or that he failed to grasp that doing the same thing was unlikely to continue to work in a changing college football landscape.

But it is far from self-evident that what he was doing before was "not working".

BC

[BostonCard]

This is just not a good football team. All the indicators were there after the Red/White game last April but I was in denial and figured they could hit 7-5, injury-free. Injuries took a toll early and helped create the avalanche we're suffocating in right now. Honestly, we're Colorado-class this season, a click above 'zona. The Northwestern game was instructive. It was the harbinger of things to come. I hope Shaw can turn this around and rebuild, but I see no evidence that he will, or even can. He's the guy doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I just hope that 2019 is the bottom of this down-cycle. I fear that it's not. OK, PollyAnnas, fire away.

This seems like an odd statement considering that if my results in my first 8 seasons as a head coach were: 3 conference championships (as many as in the prior 40 years combined, and fully 1/4 of the conference championships in our history), 4 Pac-12 North titles, 4 BCS caliber bowls (3 Rose Bowls and a Fiesta), 8 winning seasons, 8 bowl games (as many bowl games as we'd gone to from 1979 and 2010), I might be inclined to continue doing the same thing over and over again in the hope of getting the same result.

Perhaps a more valid critique might be that he continued to do the same things even as the game around him has evolved, or that he failed to grasp that doing the same thing was unlikely to continue to work in a changing college football landscape.

But it is far from self-evident that what he was doing before was "not working".

BC

[JohnR34231]

This is just not a good football team. All the indicators were there after the Red/White game last April but I was in denial and figured they could hit 7-5, injury-free. Injuries took a toll early and helped create the avalanche we're suffocating in right now. Honestly, we're Colorado-class this season, a click above 'zona. The Northwestern game was instructive. It was the harbinger of things to come. I hope Shaw can turn this around and rebuild, but I see no evidence that he will, or even can. He's the guy doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I just hope that 2019 is the bottom of this down-cycle. I fear that it's not. OK, PollyAnnas, fire away.

This seems like an odd statement considering that if my results in my first 8 seasons as a head coach were: 3 conference championships (as many as in the prior 40 years combined, and fully 1/4 of the conference championships in our history), 4 Pac-12 North titles, 4 BCS caliber bowls (3 Rose Bowls and a Fiesta), 8 winning seasons, 8 bowl games (as many bowl games as we'd gone to from 1979 and 2010), I might be inclined to continue doing the same thing over and over again in the hope of getting the same result.

Perhaps a more valid critique might be that he continued to do the same things even as the game around him has evolved, or that he failed to grasp that doing the same thing was unlikely to continue to work in a changing college football landscape.

But it is far from self-evident that what he was doing before was "not working".

BC

I think what bothers gail is not the entire body of work (which of course is excellent) but the trend line. We've gone from major bowls to minor bowls, to quite possibly no bowl at all this year. He wants someone to convince him Shaw has the ability to turn this trend around.
Good luck to anyone who wants to try.
At any rate, time will tell.

[JohnR34231]

This is just not a good football team. All the indicators were there after the Red/White game last April but I was in denial and figured they could hit 7-5, injury-free. Injuries took a toll early and helped create the avalanche we're suffocating in right now. Honestly, we're Colorado-class this season, a click above 'zona. The Northwestern game was instructive. It was the harbinger of things to come. I hope Shaw can turn this around and rebuild, but I see no evidence that he will, or even can. He's the guy doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I just hope that 2019 is the bottom of this down-cycle. I fear that it's not. OK, PollyAnnas, fire away.

This seems like an odd statement considering that if my results in my first 8 seasons as a head coach were: 3 conference championships (as many as in the prior 40 years combined, and fully 1/4 of the conference championships in our history), 4 Pac-12 North titles, 4 BCS caliber bowls (3 Rose Bowls and a Fiesta), 8 winning seasons, 8 bowl games (as many bowl games as we'd gone to from 1979 and 2010), I might be inclined to continue doing the same thing over and over again in the hope of getting the same result.

Perhaps a more valid critique might be that he continued to do the same things even as the game around him has evolved, or that he failed to grasp that doing the same thing was unlikely to continue to work in a changing college football landscape.

But it is far from self-evident that what he was doing before was "not working".

BC

I think what bothers gail is not the entire body of work (which of course is excellent) but the trend line. We've gone from major bowls to minor bowls, to quite possibly no bowl at all this year. He wants someone to convince him Shaw has the ability to turn this trend around.
Good luck to anyone who wants to try.
At any rate, time will tell.

[fullmetal]

Let's be fair: Shaw isn't quite doing the same thing over and over again.  He's making changes, albeit incrementally.  He's also facing new challenges unique to head coaching, some of which he hasn't exactly handled well.  Let's hope the staffing issues (all of them) never happen again.  Hopefully the culture issues are being handled.  We've seen minor flashes of brilliance from the offensive braintrust, but we've also seen much of the same predictable/exploitable playcalling that doesn't suit the personnel Stanford has available.  Recruiting needs a jolt, and real talent development has to be a priority ASAP.  Can we get a real QB coach that isn't distracted by OC duties?  Is there room on the staff for such an assistant under the NCAA coaching limits?  Every year there's a different dynamic, and that alone means that Shaw is probably not doing the same thing.

Shaw needs to show that he's learned how far removed head coaching is from the players.  He's managing the program; the assistants are coaching the players.  He's got to hire good assistants, and then go fight the program-level fires because no one else can do that for him.

[fullmetal]

Let's be fair: Shaw isn't quite doing the same thing over and over again.  He's making changes, albeit incrementally.  He's also facing new challenges unique to head coaching, some of which he hasn't exactly handled well.  Let's hope the staffing issues (all of them) never happen again.  Hopefully the culture issues are being handled.  We've seen minor flashes of brilliance from the offensive braintrust, but we've also seen much of the same predictable/exploitable playcalling that doesn't suit the personnel Stanford has available.  Recruiting needs a jolt, and real talent development has to be a priority ASAP.  Can we get a real QB coach that isn't distracted by OC duties?  Is there room on the staff for such an assistant under the NCAA coaching limits?  Every year there's a different dynamic, and that alone means that Shaw is probably not doing the same thing.

Shaw needs to show that he's learned how far removed head coaching is from the players.  He's managing the program; the assistants are coaching the players.  He's got to hire good assistants, and then go fight the program-level fires because no one else can do that for him.