Stanford’s Shaw has seen CU football program evolve
In David Shaw’s first season as the head football coach at Stanford, his team faced a Pac- 12 Conference newcomer early in the season.
Shaw’s Cardinal had no trouble with the Colorado Buffaloes, rolling to a 48- 7 victory. The next year was similar, with a 48- 0 Stanford win. A 2015 matchup resulted in a 42- 10 win for Shaw’s team.
Now in his 10th season at Stanford, Shaw is preparing to lead his Cardinal ( 0- 1) against the Buffaloes ( 1- 0) once again, on Saturday.
Despite CU having four head coaches in the time that Shaw’s been there, he sees a much different program than the one Stanford — and just about everyone else in the Pac- 12 — toyed with nearly a decade ago.
“Our process of building this program here ( at Stanford) and really any place … it started out with coach ( Jim) Harbaugh getting tough players,” Shaw said. “You get guys who don’t care how many stars they are ( in recruiting rankings). If they’re two stars or five stars, they’ve got to be tough guys.”
Shaw has seen CU slowly build that way, to the point that the Buffs have won the last two meetings with the Cardinal, 10- 5 in 2016 and 1613 last year. The toughness started showing up in those early routs, though.
“You’ve seen over the years the teams ( at CU), they’ll fight you, even when you beat them,” Shaw said. “They fight you, and those are great signs. Then you learn how to win, as you’re getting in these close games. That’s what’s happened there in the last couple of years is these guys have won some really tight, close games and won some really hotly contested games.”
Shaw expects another tough battle this week, especially after watching the Buffs take down UCLA, 4842, in Karl Dorrell’s debut as head coach.
This will be the first matchup between Shaw and Dorrell and while they don’t know each well, they have mutual respect.
“Since the first day I heard his name over a decade ago, I’ve never heard anybody say anything negative about him,” Shaw said. “Tough, smart, hardworking guy, trustworthy guy. Great staff guy when he was an assistant and a great guy to work for as a head coach. He and I have always had good communication whenever we’ve talked.
“I have no issues with anybody who works in this profession and cares about the young men that they coach. That’s very evident with Karl, how he operates what he does, the guys that play for him. It says a lot about who you are and tells me a lot about the kind of person he is.”
Likewise, Dorrell has been impressed with Shaw’s track record at Stanford.
Although the Cardinal dipped to 4- 8 last year and take a five- game losing streak into Saturday’s matchup, Shaw is 86- 35 with eight bowl appearances, three Pac- 12 titles and more conference championship game appearances ( four) than any other program.
“That’s the reason why he’s one of our longest- tenured coaches, other than ( Utah’s) Kyle Whittingham,” Dorrell said. “