[cardcoug]

Mora, Riley and Shaw were all worthy candidates. I probably would have voted for Riley, myself. UCLA and OSU were both rebuilding, but OSU was coming off 3-9 and I'm sure has less "talent" than UCLA. Plus they won the head-to-head. Most Stanford fans (and pundits) were expecting 8-4 or 9-3.

I agree with this, but I think something unique to Shaw is how he took what was supposed to be a rebuilding year and turned it into a rebuilding 7 weeks. The early season cardinal was a 7-5 team type team, and the team playing right now would probably be 12-0. He did an excellent job developing young talent, especially on the Oline and in the secondary. As a result, what we dreamt as a brobdingnagian success story for next year has already happened, and we're getting the "best team right now" line from pundits.

[cardcoug]

Mora, Riley and Shaw were all worthy candidates. I probably would have voted for Riley, myself. UCLA and OSU were both rebuilding, but OSU was coming off 3-9 and I'm sure has less "talent" than UCLA. Plus they won the head-to-head. Most Stanford fans (and pundits) were expecting 8-4 or 9-3.

I agree with this, but I think something unique to Shaw is how he took what was supposed to be a rebuilding year and turned it into a rebuilding 7 weeks. The early season cardinal was a 7-5 team type team, and the team playing right now would probably be 12-0. He did an excellent job developing young talent, especially on the Oline and in the secondary. As a result, what we dreamt as a brobdingnagian success story for next year has already happened, and we're getting the "best team right now" line from pundits.