[Goose]

This is why if there is one thing that I would really knock Shaw for is the inability to fill classes, especially in the trenches.  We absolutely need at least 8 offensive linemen in every two year interval (to allow for some lumpiness in recruiting).  No matter how highly rated, we can never again go with just 4 offensive linemen over two years, as we did in 2017/18.


BC

I totally agree that we need 8 offensive linemen (on average) every two years. I guess I also can't believe that Shaw ever thought otherwise. There must be more to this issue than just "We just didn't bother to recruit enough guys". Shaw isn't that dumb. It may be that we set our sights too high on who we would accept. If you only want 5 start or 4 star guys, some years you won't have enough of them. I don't know why it happened, but I would sure like to know. I expect I never will.
One of the many reasons I wouldn't want to be a football coach or a political leader is the necessity to dissemble. Shaw can't just say "The OL coach targeted a bunch of guys we couldn't attract/get admitted to Stanford and had a flawed fallback plan" even if that were the case. He would be accused of having thrown the guy under the bus. He has to use coachspeak. There are tons of things, good and bad, that happen in the program that we outsiders will never know about.

[Goose]

This is why if there is one thing that I would really knock Shaw for is the inability to fill classes, especially in the trenches.  We absolutely need at least 8 offensive linemen in every two year interval (to allow for some lumpiness in recruiting).  No matter how highly rated, we can never again go with just 4 offensive linemen over two years, as we did in 2017/18.


BC

I totally agree that we need 8 offensive linemen (on average) every two years. I guess I also can't believe that Shaw ever thought otherwise. There must be more to this issue than just "We just didn't bother to recruit enough guys". Shaw isn't that dumb. It may be that we set our sights too high on who we would accept. If you only want 5 start or 4 star guys, some years you won't have enough of them. I don't know why it happened, but I would sure like to know. I expect I never will.
One of the many reasons I wouldn't want to be a football coach or a political leader is the necessity to dissemble. Shaw can't just say "The OL coach targeted a bunch of guys we couldn't attract/get admitted to Stanford and had a flawed fallback plan" even if that were the case. He would be accused of having thrown the guy under the bus. He has to use coachspeak. There are tons of things, good and bad, that happen in the program that we outsiders will never know about.