[Snorlax94]

Since I am a proponent of “never replace your coach until you are absolutely certain you can find someone who can do a better job than the incumbent”, the outstanding question has to be - who is the person who meets that criteria?  

In this era, are there candidates who could do a better job than Shaw AND (most importantly) would want to coach at Stanford (given all the PERCEIVED barriers to success)?  

The world of college athletics is in turmoil and a number of schools are going to have to decide whether to be a serious player or just a player.  Once Stanford makes that decision, I think the answer to the question in paragraph two will become evident.

I used to be worried about this, but I can think of about 6 million reasons why Stanford would be able to find a good new coach.

The Stanford football job is one of the top 15 highest-profile college football jobs around, and just a few years ago, other Pac 12 coaches were complaining about the recruiting edge Stanford has. It's not for everyone, but for coaches who can embrace the inherent advantages and disadvantages, it's an attractive job. Plus, you wouldn't worry about financial stability the way you might worry about it at places like Cal.

Before this season, one might argue it'd be hard for a Pac-12 team to find a new head coach because it doesn't have as much revenue as the SEC and Big 10, but, Washington, Oregon, and USC all seemed to do OK finding new coaches. A few years ago BYU seemed to struggle in their search for a new coach -- and that place also has unique constraints and isn't even in a Power 5 conference -- and they seemed to do well.

I think Stanford could find another great coach, but it'd take the right AD to find that coach. Which takes us back to the AD problem...

[Snorlax94]

Since I am a proponent of “never replace your coach until you are absolutely certain you can find someone who can do a better job than the incumbent”, the outstanding question has to be - who is the person who meets that criteria?  

In this era, are there candidates who could do a better job than Shaw AND (most importantly) would want to coach at Stanford (given all the PERCEIVED barriers to success)?  

The world of college athletics is in turmoil and a number of schools are going to have to decide whether to be a serious player or just a player.  Once Stanford makes that decision, I think the answer to the question in paragraph two will become evident.

I used to be worried about this, but I can think of about 6 million reasons why Stanford would be able to find a good new coach.

The Stanford football job is one of the top 15 highest-profile college football jobs around, and just a few years ago, other Pac 12 coaches were complaining about the recruiting edge Stanford has. It's not for everyone, but for coaches who can embrace the inherent advantages and disadvantages, it's an attractive job. Plus, you wouldn't worry about financial stability the way you might worry about it at places like Cal.

Before this season, one might argue it'd be hard for a Pac-12 team to find a new head coach because it doesn't have as much revenue as the SEC and Big 10, but, Washington, Oregon, and USC all seemed to do OK finding new coaches. A few years ago BYU seemed to struggle in their search for a new coach -- and that place also has unique constraints and isn't even in a Power 5 conference -- and they seemed to do well.

I think Stanford could find another great coach, but it'd take the right AD to find that coach. Which takes us back to the AD problem...