[gailtate]

Harbaugh was a tireless recruiter and would go as far as spending the night at recruits' homes.  He was also an innovator. Instead of waiting to check grades and transcripts near a recruits final season, he identified talented and intelligent kids earlier in the process and encouraged them to take AP classes to enhance their chances of getting accepted by their senior year.  

Shaw doesn't appear to put the hard work in recruiting like Harbaugh. You could find Shaw at a basketball game the night before National Signing Day looking relaxed. I doubt Harbaugh did the same. He'd be on the phone all night convincing fence-sitters to come to Stanford.

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Forgot to add that Shaw's recruiting classes often went unfilled with many spots remaining open.  If memory serves, one of the recruiting classes had only 14 signed football players.  That's unacceptable. I remember one year when our lone O-line recruit was a gentleman named Oser...and he medically retired soon thereafter.  Not long ago, due to injuries and lack of bodies, we were down to one scholarship athlete on the O-line and that was a true freshman.  Shaw's low recruiting numbers came back to bite us.

Looking at grades and AP courses early wasn't Harbaugh's idea. Those of us on the Bootleg at the time had been clamoring for this for quite some time, and it was suggested to Harbaugh as soon as he arrived.

Does Shaw do this?  Is he a lazy recruiter?

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I think he's an incredible coach. Fundamentally, I like to judge people by results. Here are his results:

* University of San Diego: took a team that had never even won a conference championship and in his second and third years went undefeated in conference and 11-1 overall each year. No coach since him has ever had as good a season.

* Stanford: took a team that hadn't made a bowl for six years and was coming off a 1-11 season and immediately turned it around to successively more winning seasons every year, culminating in the first top five season the program had had in 70 years. In the following decade the program got back to the top five once.

* 49ers: took a team that hadn't been to a conference championship in 14 years and got them to the conference championship three straight years. In the seven years without him the team has made the conference championship twice.

* Michigan: took a team that had been top 20 once in the previous seven seasons and has now had them top 20 five times in the last seven seasons.

Just an absolutely incredible coach. Now that Urban Meyer has failed in the NFL, I am not sure there is a coach in the sport who has succeeded at all levels like Harbaugh has. Phenomenal coach.

Maybe his supporting cast is a big part of the success, but doesn't he get the credit for that? Head coach is the CEO. The goal for the product is wins. He orchestrates - ALWAYS - wins unlike what the teams he leads have any right to expect based on what came before him. He's as good as it gets as a coach. But in the college game at least 50 percent of coaching is recruiting. He has a ceiling on what he can accomplish compared to, frankly, better/more likeable people like Nick Saban and Ryan Day.

Anyway, I really don't think you should diminish supporting cast. Harbaugh has hired over a dozen coaches who went on to become head coaches at the college or NFL level. Aside from Shaw they haven't achieved great success, but the fact he has an eye for leadership others also come to trust in says a lot. And if you don't buy that, my estimation of Harbaugh's coaching really comes down to the scoreboard. His track record at USD, Stanford, San Francisco, and Michigan is beyond stellar.

I have two friends who are phenomenal salespeople. They instantly generate revenue. One joined a firm and generated their fifth largest client that year.  They fired her and their next year's revenue increase was halved, and then halved again the second year after she left.  They lost out on, conservatively, $20 mms. in revenue those two years. Another joined a firm and led them to their best revenue increase across two decades. They let him go.

 Both had personality issues.  Both made people stretch -- uncomfortably -- for success.  Some people are like that.  Many people can't take people with those personality styles.

"Lazy recruiter" may not describe Shaw, exactly, but here's the thing. His cockamamie emphasis on the mythical "Stanford Man" makes an already shallow recruiting pool seem more like puddle. More recently was his oblivious disregard for what was happening with regard to early commits. This dereliction of duty is right there with his delusions about Stanford "recruitiing itself" -- which is altogether consistent with his ridiculous appraisals of games, as in "we were four plays away from victory" in yet another lop-sided loss. Can't wait to hear his whack-a-doodle post-game excuses starting in September. Far more entertaining than actual games.

[gailtate]

Harbaugh was a tireless recruiter and would go as far as spending the night at recruits' homes.  He was also an innovator. Instead of waiting to check grades and transcripts near a recruits final season, he identified talented and intelligent kids earlier in the process and encouraged them to take AP classes to enhance their chances of getting accepted by their senior year.  

Shaw doesn't appear to put the hard work in recruiting like Harbaugh. You could find Shaw at a basketball game the night before National Signing Day looking relaxed. I doubt Harbaugh did the same. He'd be on the phone all night convincing fence-sitters to come to Stanford.

---

Forgot to add that Shaw's recruiting classes often went unfilled with many spots remaining open.  If memory serves, one of the recruiting classes had only 14 signed football players.  That's unacceptable. I remember one year when our lone O-line recruit was a gentleman named Oser...and he medically retired soon thereafter.  Not long ago, due to injuries and lack of bodies, we were down to one scholarship athlete on the O-line and that was a true freshman.  Shaw's low recruiting numbers came back to bite us.

Looking at grades and AP courses early wasn't Harbaugh's idea. Those of us on the Bootleg at the time had been clamoring for this for quite some time, and it was suggested to Harbaugh as soon as he arrived.

Does Shaw do this?  Is he a lazy recruiter?

---

I think he's an incredible coach. Fundamentally, I like to judge people by results. Here are his results:

* University of San Diego: took a team that had never even won a conference championship and in his second and third years went undefeated in conference and 11-1 overall each year. No coach since him has ever had as good a season.

* Stanford: took a team that hadn't made a bowl for six years and was coming off a 1-11 season and immediately turned it around to successively more winning seasons every year, culminating in the first top five season the program had had in 70 years. In the following decade the program got back to the top five once.

* 49ers: took a team that hadn't been to a conference championship in 14 years and got them to the conference championship three straight years. In the seven years without him the team has made the conference championship twice.

* Michigan: took a team that had been top 20 once in the previous seven seasons and has now had them top 20 five times in the last seven seasons.

Just an absolutely incredible coach. Now that Urban Meyer has failed in the NFL, I am not sure there is a coach in the sport who has succeeded at all levels like Harbaugh has. Phenomenal coach.

Maybe his supporting cast is a big part of the success, but doesn't he get the credit for that? Head coach is the CEO. The goal for the product is wins. He orchestrates - ALWAYS - wins unlike what the teams he leads have any right to expect based on what came before him. He's as good as it gets as a coach. But in the college game at least 50 percent of coaching is recruiting. He has a ceiling on what he can accomplish compared to, frankly, better/more likeable people like Nick Saban and Ryan Day.

Anyway, I really don't think you should diminish supporting cast. Harbaugh has hired over a dozen coaches who went on to become head coaches at the college or NFL level. Aside from Shaw they haven't achieved great success, but the fact he has an eye for leadership others also come to trust in says a lot. And if you don't buy that, my estimation of Harbaugh's coaching really comes down to the scoreboard. His track record at USD, Stanford, San Francisco, and Michigan is beyond stellar.

I have two friends who are phenomenal salespeople. They instantly generate revenue. One joined a firm and generated their fifth largest client that year.  They fired her and their next year's revenue increase was halved, and then halved again the second year after she left.  They lost out on, conservatively, $20 mms. in revenue those two years. Another joined a firm and led them to their best revenue increase across two decades. They let him go.

 Both had personality issues.  Both made people stretch -- uncomfortably -- for success.  Some people are like that.  Many people can't take people with those personality styles.

"Lazy recruiter" may not describe Shaw, exactly, but here's the thing. His cockamamie emphasis on the mythical "Stanford Man" makes an already shallow recruiting pool seem more like puddle. More recently was his oblivious disregard for what was happening with regard to early commits. This dereliction of duty is right there with his delusions about Stanford "recruitiing itself" -- which is altogether consistent with his ridiculous appraisals of games, as in "we were four plays away from victory" in yet another lop-sided loss. Can't wait to hear his whack-a-doodle post-game excuses starting in September. Far more entertaining than actual games.