4. David Shaw, Stanford
Last year, Stanford won at least nine games for the fourth consecutive season, yet last season felt like a down year. When Stanford wins nine games and it felt like they had a down year, that lets you know the job David Shaw’s done at Stanford.
Unlike most schools that have their five-year resume, they aren’t the most important happening going on in Palo Alto. You might bump into Condoleezza Rice, Rachel Maddow or some other famous Cardinal alum.
While many coeds at other campuses are filling up the student sections at their home stadiums on a Friday night or Saturday afternoon, most Stanford students are trying to cause a rift in the space time, or cure cancer. There’s also the academic requirements to get into Stanford. It doesn’t matter how great a player you are, if you can’t play football at Stanford if you don’t qualify academically.
Shaw doesn’t get a lot of attention because he isn’t a self-promoter. Sustaining success is as difficult a job as building a program, or restoring one to its former glory. It’s even more difficult when you are taking over a program that hadn’t had sustained success — ask Ron Prince.
Shaw has actually surpassed what Jim Harbaugh did at Stanford. He has won at least 10 games five times and at least nine games in seven of his eight seasons on the farm. Stanford has won three conference championships and has been to three Rose Bowls, winning two of them. All of this at a place that revels in the success of their non-revenue sports like baseball and swimming.
The Stanford head coach has given the Cardinal a formula (he was offensive coordinator under Harbaugh) and identity on both sides of the ball and it has rendered fantastic success.