[gailtate]

JH staying on The Farm for another year or two?!?  LOL
OK, that idea is funny.   Made me laugh.

Harbaugh was actively looking for bigger, more prestigious roles almost before he started coaching at Stanford, definitely was looking hard after the 2008 season.   That type of EUTM we admired extended to his career aspirations.   There was no way he'd have multiple 10+ win seasons at Stanford.   One 10+ win season would be more than enough to keep him on his trajectory at the time.   So 2010 was the end of our journey together.

Before we go there EUTM was about accomplishments not the money.   So coaching in a relatively quiet 50,000 seat stadium for a small private school in the Pac-12 just was not going to be enough.   He almost certainly understood a 10+ win season would be the perfect launching pad for better roles.  So we got the one and then he was done.

I am not sure I am happy to see him struggle since I don't think he did anything that warrants that perspective.   He was a change agent with a passion to do amazing things as a football coach.  Stanford got 4 years.   Stanford got a blast of EUTM that fueled the program for a decade.   We were lucky to get what we got, and I can't imagine that anyone involved with that hiring process ever thought he would stay more than 3-5 years if he was even moderately successful.

In this particular FBS/CFP era Stanford football will not get to keep an outsider for more than 4 years unless the coach bounces between good (not great) seasons and mediocre/bad seasons like Willingham.    And even with his track record Willingham got a more lucrative gig in 7 years.

Yep, that's the Catch-22. Any coach with the football savvy, drive, and moxie to succeed at Stanford is likely to be the kind of guy who will want to move on after he has had some success. 
We are going to be a stepping stone. The possible exception might be a Stanford alum. Like we have now.

It's now clear that Shaw's "savvy, drive and moxie to succeed" are in significant decline -- evidenced most clearly by fall-offs in quality hiring, staff upgrading, game-day management and recruiting.

[gailtate]

JH staying on The Farm for another year or two?!?  LOL
OK, that idea is funny.   Made me laugh.

Harbaugh was actively looking for bigger, more prestigious roles almost before he started coaching at Stanford, definitely was looking hard after the 2008 season.   That type of EUTM we admired extended to his career aspirations.   There was no way he'd have multiple 10+ win seasons at Stanford.   One 10+ win season would be more than enough to keep him on his trajectory at the time.   So 2010 was the end of our journey together.

Before we go there EUTM was about accomplishments not the money.   So coaching in a relatively quiet 50,000 seat stadium for a small private school in the Pac-12 just was not going to be enough.   He almost certainly understood a 10+ win season would be the perfect launching pad for better roles.  So we got the one and then he was done.

I am not sure I am happy to see him struggle since I don't think he did anything that warrants that perspective.   He was a change agent with a passion to do amazing things as a football coach.  Stanford got 4 years.   Stanford got a blast of EUTM that fueled the program for a decade.   We were lucky to get what we got, and I can't imagine that anyone involved with that hiring process ever thought he would stay more than 3-5 years if he was even moderately successful.

In this particular FBS/CFP era Stanford football will not get to keep an outsider for more than 4 years unless the coach bounces between good (not great) seasons and mediocre/bad seasons like Willingham.    And even with his track record Willingham got a more lucrative gig in 7 years.

Yep, that's the Catch-22. Any coach with the football savvy, drive, and moxie to succeed at Stanford is likely to be the kind of guy who will want to move on after he has had some success. 
We are going to be a stepping stone. The possible exception might be a Stanford alum. Like we have now.

It's now clear that Shaw's "savvy, drive and moxie to succeed" are in significant decline -- evidenced most clearly by fall-offs in quality hiring, staff upgrading, game-day management and recruiting.