College Football: 25 greatest head coaches of the 21st century

Best college football coaches of 21st century: 20. David Shaw

• Stanford Cardinal (2011-Present)

Stanford has been built to succeed for quite some time, and David Shaw was a big piece of that puzzle. He was there on Jim Harbaugh’s staff when he was head coach. As an assistant, Shaw led Stanford with the help of Andrew Luck to plenty of wins before he even became the head coach.

In his eight seasons as head coach, his worst record was 8-5 back in 2014. He has won 76 percent of his games, and his offenses have been incredibly productive. Although he hasn’t had a stellar quarterback like Andrew Luck, the Cardinal still do a lot in the running game. From Bryce Love to Christian McCaffrey, the running game is always one of the best in college football.

It’s hard to compete for titles at Stanford for many reasons. When you’re in the Pac-12, you basically have to go undefeated to have a chance at making the College Football Playoff. Stanford also has limitations with recruiting. Being one of the top colleges in the country makes it harder for programs to recruit athletes. Despite this, Shaw has been able to develop talent and stay relevant.

With NFL ties, it has always been a question whether David Shaw would ever leave Stanford or not for the pros. However, he seems happy with the Cardinal. Coaching at your alma mater is a rare opportunity, and I don’t see him leaving it for any reason for a while.

After two straight seasons with only nine wins, there are hopes that Shaw can turn this program back around to be like it was when he first took over. I think Shaw is far from the hot seat, but expectations are certainly higher than what he has done recently. That being said, the expectations are higher because of what he has done as head coach.