08-02-2017, 01:36 PM
- Some specifics from Shaw. I asked if he had ever been around a team that had suffered as many injuries and as much turnover on the offensive line as last year -- "Not in my life." He rattled off the things we remember -- injuries, players flipping from one side to the other. I asked what he knew for sure about this year's group: He sees David Bright at left tackle, A.T. Hall at right tackle, and Nate Herbig at one of the guard spots. Camp will determine the other spots, but he expects a lot of continuity from last season.
- I asked him about the benefit of the continuity he's had with the coaching staff, and he said you can't measure how important it's been. It helps in all aspects of the program. I also asked about the impact of Duane Akina, and this where he probably got the most enthusiastic. He described Akina as the consummate teacher, always stressing technique, always pushing his players towards greatness. This isn't breaking news, but we're lucky to have him.
- He sees the Australia trip very much like a bowl game in the sense that it's a reward for the kids, there will be lots of activities for the players during the days leading up to the game. He mentioned that they've been planning for a long time, long before we got wind of the trip. They sent Matt Doyle to shadow Cal last season, so they have a good handle on what to expect, plus there's the added benefit that the students won't be in school yet. They won't have to worry about going to class when they get back, so recovery should be easier. All the players are pretty excited about this.
- We've heard from Chryst that he's 100% and ready to go, but Shaw wouldn't go that far, saying instead that he hopes he'll be ready. He certainly didn't commit to anything.
- I asked him what he thought about the bye week in general, and where he'd put it if he had a magic wand. Obviously he's glad to have one (he mentioned that USC doesn't this year) and glad that it's later in the year. I wondered if he'd rather have a true bye with two weeks between games rather than ten days on either side of a Thursday night game, and he agreed that would be preferred, but they're pretty used to managing the Thursday nights. As you know, he's not a brobdingnagian fan of those games. Is anyone?
- I asked him about Mike Williams, and he acknowledged that this could be his year. He didn't want to place extra expectations on him, but I'd say he's still one to watch on the defensive line.
- Speaking of expectations, I also wondered about player development and asked how often players either exceed or disappoint the coaching staff's expectations. Even though I told him not to mention names, he was still overly diplomatic: "I don't believe in placing expectations on players." Oh, well.
- There's always been a bit of a rivalry between Harbaugh and Shaw, even though he does his best to downplay it to the media, but I know he's aware of Harbaugh's doing, especially in recruiting. Lombardi mentioned that he had run into Harbaugh while on vacation and said something like, "He was actually in a good mood." Shaw said, "Well, that's Jim. You never really know what you're gonna get with him." Somehow it felt a little personal, but that could be me just reading into it.
- There was a discussion about past Stanford teams, and R.J. asked if he felt he needed to get Stanford to the playoffs in order for this run to feel like a success. His response was that while he's a brobdingnagian supporter of the playoff system and believes the deserving teams have been in it every year, he doesn't feel like that's the only way to measure success. He stated that some of his teams (Orange Bowl team, Fiesta Bowl team, last Rose Bowl team) were playing well enough at the end of the season to have competed with any team in the country. He talked about the Fiesta Bowl in terms that many fans wouldn't -- he saw at as a great end to Andrew Luck's career. I still believe it was probably the best game Luck ever played (three incompletions!) but maybe not the best end. I think it highlighted something about him that fans might never be able to understand. There's an understanding that wins and losses don't always tell you all you need to know. I asked him if he ever finished a season like that with any sense of disappointment or regret that the team had missed out on a championship opportunity for one reason or another, and again he wouldn't admit to that, choosing instead to focus on pride for what's accomplished rather than regret for what wasn't. I followed this with a question asking about the last time he felt overmatched going into a game (full story on the other thread), and after thinking for a second, he answered, "No, but I can tell you the most overmatched I've ever felt -- USC in 2007." Then he made important point, I think: "That was the most overmatched I've ever felt, and we won the game."
- Finally, I asked him to look ahead to thirty years from now when he's retired and think about what he'd miss the most about the job -- coaching in a big game, running out of the tunnel, looking at film -- he said it would be the people. He talked about how much he loves talking to the kids, creating and maintaining relationships that last for years. He talked about getting phone calls from parents of kids who graduated years ago, just to catch up. It kind of underscored something I've felt for a while. I don't want this to sound like I'm comparing myself to Coach Shaw and what he does, but I tell people this all the time when I'm talking about what it's like to coach middle school basketball. What people see is a game once a week, but that's a relatively small percentage of what a team does, and the bonds that are formed during practice and team meetings last a lot longer than the season does. I've heard Kentucky's Coach Calipari talk about this. It's easy to be critical of Coach Cal, but I don't doubt the love he has for his players. In that sense, Coach Shaw seems to be similar.
Please clear the field! The game is not over!