Lakshman: Shaw proves to be strong commander of Cardinal fleet

Every night during football season, I got sucked into the habit — for better or for worse — of reading the latest edition of the Stanford Athletics game notes before going to bed. It’s really compelling stuff.

Unfortunately, though, it soon got to the point where I couldn’t sleep without getting my nightly hit of Stanford football trivia. Where else can you learn that freshman wide receiver Trenton Irwin is an avid fisherman? Or that sophomore linebacker Jordan Perez’s legal first name is not Jordan and legal last name is not Perez?

In these hallowed pages of 10-point font, one can learn that the Cardinal have not scored a touchdown on a fake field goal since Bo McNally, as the holder, did so in 2008 (looking at you, Dallas Lloyd). Moreover, did you know that the fourth-largest margin of victory in school history came in a 59-0 trouncing of the USS Boston in 1919? Though, to be fair, it must have been awfully hard for a boat to open up the playbook.

Amongst this gold mine of facts, however, the one that has struck me the most come season’s end was a tidbit I first came across in September, prior to the opener at Northwestern.

“Stanford’s entire full-time coaching staff from the 2014 season returned for the 2015 campaign. It’s the first time since 1999-2000 under Tyrone Willingham that Stanford’s staff remained intact.”

When I first read that bullet point on the coaching staff, the snarky side of me immediately wanted to conclude: “Well, after that 2014 season, where would any of them go?” But such a reaction is missing the bigger picture, the truly revelatory story at play: the stability of this golden age of Stanford football.

Obviously, given what we know now about how the 2015 season played out, it’s easy to conclude retroactively that David Shaw retaining his entire full-time staff was a major victory for the program, but that should have been more evident at the time. It was another signal that Stanford was no longer a pit stop on the highway up the coaching ladder.

Clearly there were some serious question marks heading into this season — as there are with every single team — but if Stanford was still a stop-gap towards bigger and better things, wouldn’t it have made sense to abandon ship at the first sight of water leaking onto the deck?

These thoughts do not describe a hypothetical situation, either. Stanford coaches were linked to several openings. After the 2014 season, defensive coordinator Lance Anderson and strength and conditioning coach Shannon Turley were both wooed by Jim Harbaugh to join his staff in Ann Arbor while offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren and running backs coach Lance Taylor reportedly drew interest from Mark Richt and the University of Georgia. Anderson was again in contact with Michigan after this season, but affirmed that he would not leave Stanford for another coordinator position.

All of them stayed put, turning down offers from top-of-the-food-chain programs that supposedly prey on schools like Stanford as nature intended. It was the ultimate sign, as Bloomgren noted on Twitter after dust settled last year, that Stanford has become a place building towards something long-term.

People don’t leave Stanford University or David Shaw for lateral moves. If they leave, its for clear advancement: Coordinator or HC jobs!

— Mike Bloomgren (@mbloom11) February 16, 2015

 

Ultimately, the Cardinal’s good fortune in the coaching department, a pillar as foundational as any in the construction of a dynasty, rests with head man David Shaw. In maintaining the belief that Stanford is an elite football destination, repeatedly turning down overtures from other schools and the NFL in the process, Shaw has brought in a top-notch brain trust and instilled the belief in the program that you do not need to go elsewhere to win championships or make a lateral move for career advancement.

Since ascending to the head coaching position, Shaw has hired Bloomgren, promoted Anderson, brought in the reigning running backs coach of the year in Taylor and grabbed Duane Akina from Texas, amongst other major decisions. Despite a lot of criticism, especially during last season, each move has materialized into what has to be classified as a home run. For a staff that doesn’t need any external validation, 2015 was a major nail in the coffin of the armchair coach.   As former center and team captain Sam Schwartzstein noted after the Pac-12 Championship Game, the stability of Shaw at the top has changed the game for Stanford football.

No coach has been a winner and wanted to stay at Stanford. I’m sorry old time Stanford fans but you were a launch pad for coaches

— Sam Schwartzstein (@SamHaammer) December 6, 2015

Stanford was a means to an end for the coaches that came through. They got a win struck while the iron was hot and left

— Sam Schwartzstein (@SamHaammer) December 6, 2015

For now, it looks like Stanford will return in 2016 with the majority of its staff again intact, which would again be a momentous gain for the program. If this past season has shown us anything, it’s that continuity matters — and the Cardinal will be bringing a lot of it into next season. It’s a lot easier to build a house — and the football program, much like the rest of campus, is still very much under construction in attempting to reach its potential — when the blueprints, the contractors and, ultimately, the vision carry over from year to year.

There will inevitably come a time when Bloomgren and Anderson will leave for head coaching jobs and top assistants will receive promotions elsewhere. We may even see the day when the perfect situation beckons Shaw to heed the siren’s call of the NFL.

For the time being, though, let’s take a moment to step back and reflect on the extremely fine display of coaching across the board we saw this season from a staff that, like the players, has been together through the ups and occasional downs, rejecting the traditional hierarchy of college football in the process.

Send Vihan Lakshman your thoughts on whom “Jordan Perez” might actually be (an international spy? a witness in witness protection program?) at vihan ‘at’ stanford.edu.