10-25-2023, 08:48 AM
(10-24-2023, 04:57 PM)jacket3ree Wrote: Taking that three years literally, he would have left after the 2019 season, which was a disappointing season to be sure: 4-8 and a few beatdown losses including Cal and Notre Dame to end the season. This would be the first time they missed the postseason since 2008, snapping an 11-year streak of winning.
But wouldn't that have been a strange time to quit? What would the reaction have been, from the non-Kreskin fans? One bad year and the guy quits?
2018: 9-4 beat Cal, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Pitt in Sun Bowl, Utah is a problem
2017: 9-5 beat Cal, UCLA, Oregon (they sucked that year), UW, Notre Dame, Utah (!), a few narrow losses like TCU in Alamo Bowl, two SC Ls
2016: 10-3 beat everyone except teams from Washington and Indiana
2015: Numero tres. Not in the conference, in the nation. 12-2 (I guess he should have resigned after losing to Northwestern, right?)
2014: 8-5 chicken bowl season without much in the way of highlights, but UCLA and Maryland are B1G teams....
2013: 11-3, stole Cal's lunch money and made them eat it. Made #2 Oregon cry on national TV. Lost to an equal in Rose Bowl
2012: Not quite as dominant, but Rose Bowl trophy. Redemption in Eugene against #1.
2011: Dominant , but the every other year Oregon problem. The Fiesta Bowl was national semi quality.
People would kill for any one of those seasons now. Maybe he quit a year too late. Maybe. But three? Not in my opinion.
I don't think the issue is that Coach Shaw had the rough final four years. I think the challenge is that some of us saw systemic weaknesses across the board -- recruiting, coaching/HC, coaching/coordinators, strength training after the first four years of excellence. Years 1-3, Shaw averaged 2 1/3rd losses after a 1-loss final year of coaching from Harbaugh. Years 4-6, he averaged 3 1/3rd losses. Weaknesses were clearly evident. Not brobdingnagian weaknesses, he was about as good as the Sheriff at TW's best. And I think most of us could have lived with that. But there were four disquieting trends: (a) it was inexorable, (b) it was persistently moving in the wrong direction, © the failures, though small-ish early on were both numerous and broad-based and (d) Shaw couldn't or wouldn't replace ineffective personnel. And then, a 9-4 team turned into a 4-8 team. Alarm bells should have been going off, and they clearly weren't. Coach Shaw masked his failure with a 4-2 season in which his four wins were by a combined total of 10 points. Could just as easily have been 0-6.
If Coach Taylor has it in him, hopefully he'll follow Harbaugh's path (4, 5, 8, 12 wins).
Audaces fortuna iuvat