[Austroturf]

11. I don't even know the last time I felt this excited to see what's next for Stanford football. For all the nice things I said about Shaw above, the bottom line with regard to 2023 is that for all his best intentions, past accomplishments, and care for his players he was relentlessly killing the program. We had no hope with him at the helm. Now we have some. The pall has been lifted over the program. I'm so much more excited to follow the program than I was yesterday. What a wonderful early Christmas present. Thank you David Shaw!

Thanks for these insights.  It has been interesting reading the various reactions to Shaw's big announcement.  By and large, the internet has been filled with glowing professional eulogies, which are justified to a large extent.  But I find myself with a more ambivalent view of the man and his tenure and concur with your comments above.  

Having closely and passionately followed every Shaw season since the inaugural one in 2011, I see three eras that I will call The Rose Bowl Era (2011-2015), The Sun Bowl Era (2016-2018) and the Toilet Bowl Era (2019-2022).

For the first of these eras, all praise and recognition are due to David Shaw.  He took Harbaugh's machine, tweaked it a bit to suit his personality and cranked out a series of excellent, memorable seasons for which every Stanford football fan should be grateful.  There were some ups and downs in this era (2014) and a few moments when the program appeared to be headed downward, but Shaw and the team found ways to bounce back and produce 3 Pac-12 Championships, 3 Rose Bowls, 1 Fiesta Bowl and Stanford's best ever ranking to close out a season (#3 after the drubbing of Iowa in the 2016 Rose Bowl -- still, in my view, his best game ever as a coach).  In fact, at the conclusion of that 2016 Rose Bowl, I was never more sold on Shaw as a coach.  But I did not realize at the time that we were already entering the Sun Bowl Era. 

Yes, those were the last roses we would sniff in Shaw's tenure.  I have dubbed this span of three years the Sun Bowl Era because it is book-ended by two Sun Bowl appearances with an Alamo Bowl in the middle.  During these three years, we ceded the top of the Pac-12 to Washington (2016, 2018) and USC (2017).  And though we came painfully close to another Pac-12 championship in 2017 (31-28 loss to the Trojans in the championship game), we were no longer a top ten team and, in fact, ended 2018 unranked at 9-4.  No more New Year's 6 Bowls, just a pair of Sun Bowl squeakers vs. North Carolina (2016) and Pitt (2018) and a frustrating Alamo Bowl loss to TCU (2017).  The 14-13 win vs. Pitt in the 2018 Sun Bowl would be Shaw's final post-season game.  

Then we entered the period I have dubbed the Toilet Bowl Era.  This is when, in my view, Shaw's staffing decisions finally came home to roost with a vengeance.  Pritchard was in his 2nd season as offensive coordinator, and the entire coaching crew was back from the 2018 season, with Lance Anderson now a fixture at DC since 2014.  We were 4-4 after 8 games, then proceeded to lose the final 4 to finish at 4-8, including our first loss to Cal since the 2009 season. The Covid-shortened year and some close victories with Mills in his final season got us to 4-2; but then came two successive 3-9 seasons that we are all too painfully familiar with.  For this era, Shaw deserves immense criticism.  It happened fully on his watch, and he steadfastly refused to make any changes to his regime.  All the glory of the Rose Bowl Era is now tarnished by a program in tatters; and the new HC, whoever it is, will have to pick up the shattered pieces and try to reassemble a functional football program.    

This leaves me wondering whether Shaw resigned because he simply could not bring himself to clean house and part ways with his loyal lieutenants.  We will never know.  But all the plaudits Shaw is justifiably receiving at the announcement of his departure need to be placed in the context of these final four years of failure.  They are also his legacy.

[Austroturf]

11. I don't even know the last time I felt this excited to see what's next for Stanford football. For all the nice things I said about Shaw above, the bottom line with regard to 2023 is that for all his best intentions, past accomplishments, and care for his players he was relentlessly killing the program. We had no hope with him at the helm. Now we have some. The pall has been lifted over the program. I'm so much more excited to follow the program than I was yesterday. What a wonderful early Christmas present. Thank you David Shaw!

Thanks for these insights.  It has been interesting reading the various reactions to Shaw's big announcement.  By and large, the internet has been filled with glowing professional eulogies, which are justified to a large extent.  But I find myself with a more ambivalent view of the man and his tenure and concur with your comments above.  

Having closely and passionately followed every Shaw season since the inaugural one in 2011, I see three eras that I will call The Rose Bowl Era (2011-2015), The Sun Bowl Era (2016-2018) and the Toilet Bowl Era (2019-2022).

For the first of these eras, all praise and recognition are due to David Shaw.  He took Harbaugh's machine, tweaked it a bit to suit his personality and cranked out a series of excellent, memorable seasons for which every Stanford football fan should be grateful.  There were some ups and downs in this era (2014) and a few moments when the program appeared to be headed downward, but Shaw and the team found ways to bounce back and produce 3 Pac-12 Championships, 3 Rose Bowls, 1 Fiesta Bowl and Stanford's best ever ranking to close out a season (#3 after the drubbing of Iowa in the 2016 Rose Bowl -- still, in my view, his best game ever as a coach).  In fact, at the conclusion of that 2016 Rose Bowl, I was never more sold on Shaw as a coach.  But I did not realize at the time that we were already entering the Sun Bowl Era. 

Yes, those were the last roses we would sniff in Shaw's tenure.  I have dubbed this span of three years the Sun Bowl Era because it is book-ended by two Sun Bowl appearances with an Alamo Bowl in the middle.  During these three years, we ceded the top of the Pac-12 to Washington (2016, 2018) and USC (2017).  And though we came painfully close to another Pac-12 championship in 2017 (31-28 loss to the Trojans in the championship game), we were no longer a top ten team and, in fact, ended 2018 unranked at 9-4.  No more New Year's 6 Bowls, just a pair of Sun Bowl squeakers vs. North Carolina (2016) and Pitt (2018) and a frustrating Alamo Bowl loss to TCU (2017).  The 14-13 win vs. Pitt in the 2018 Sun Bowl would be Shaw's final post-season game.  

Then we entered the period I have dubbed the Toilet Bowl Era.  This is when, in my view, Shaw's staffing decisions finally came home to roost with a vengeance.  Pritchard was in his 2nd season as offensive coordinator, and the entire coaching crew was back from the 2018 season, with Lance Anderson now a fixture at DC since 2014.  We were 4-4 after 8 games, then proceeded to lose the final 4 to finish at 4-8, including our first loss to Cal since the 2009 season. The Covid-shortened year and some close victories with Mills in his final season got us to 4-2; but then came two successive 3-9 seasons that we are all too painfully familiar with.  For this era, Shaw deserves immense criticism.  It happened fully on his watch, and he steadfastly refused to make any changes to his regime.  All the glory of the Rose Bowl Era is now tarnished by a program in tatters; and the new HC, whoever it is, will have to pick up the shattered pieces and try to reassemble a functional football program.    

This leaves me wondering whether Shaw resigned because he simply could not bring himself to clean house and part ways with his loyal lieutenants.  We will never know.  But all the plaudits Shaw is justifiably receiving at the announcement of his departure need to be placed in the context of these final four years of failure.  They are also his legacy.