Forget the books. The Post says Stanford’s brawn will carry the Cardinal to a national title. By LENN ROBBINS Last Updated: 4:23 AM, August 25, 2013 Posted: 1:37 AM, August 25, 2013 “Coaching in the Pac-12 is a real challenge because of all the different styles. Oregon is snapping plays every second. Arizona spreads you out. USC runs a pro system. And Stanford, Stanford just beats you up.’’ — Rick Neuheisel, former UCLA coach David Shaw had a chance to come up with a nickname for the cruise ship he says he steering. He could have gone with something fearless, such as “Intrepid,” or bold, such as “Icebreaker,” or something SWAT, such as “Battering Ram.” But no, Shaw, as soft-spoken, deep-thinking and even-keeled a college football coach as you will find, settled on “Perception.” Getty Images CALIFORNIA COOL: David Shaw, entering his third season as Stanford’s head coach, is 23-4 and coming off a Rose Bowl victory. Perception. OK. Let’s think about Stanford’s football perception: The occasional great quarterback — John Brodie, Jim Plunkett, John Elway, Andrew Luck — leading a bunch of smart guys that play good fundamental football. Guess what? This is no longer your father’s Stanford football team — it’s your grandfather’s and that’s a good thing. The Stanford team that takes the field these days, the one fashioned by square-jawed 49ers coach, Jim Harbaugh, is the most physically punishing team west of Alabama. Stanford doesn’t spread the field. It squeezes it. It lines up, sometimes with three tight ends and a fullback, and comes off the ball like a rodeo bull out of the chute. Defensively, the Cardinal might as well have Brian Urlacher’s name on the back of every jersey. “Dominating!” Harbaugh bellowed at his players after a 41-0 beatdown at Washington in 2010. “We kicked their ass every which way! One hell of a job on both sides of the line! Dominant, dominant!” The Post believes Shaw, who was Harbaugh’s offensive coordinator, will lead Stanford — which returns 19-of-24 starters from a team that went 11-2 last season, losing the two games by a total of 11 points — to a win over Ohio State in the national championship game. Yes, Stanford, whose mascot is a tree, finally will end the run of seven straight SEC national championships. In the process, Shaw said he believes his program can help change college football, if not the world. “It drives me crazy when I hear a coach say, ‘My job is to win games,’ ’’ Shaw said at a TEDx non-profit event. “I disagree. Our jobs is to teach young people how to do things that make them successful.’’ This is the kind of talk that can be polarizing, but it is needed these days in college football. Unlike Notre Dame, which likes to flaunt its strenuous academics, Stanford is much more laid back, yet no less successful. It is the first school to have played in a BCS bowl game and have a 100 percent graduation rate among football players in the same season. It is the only school to have two first-round NFL Draft choices (Luck; OL David DeCastro) that majored in engineering.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 21:06:20 +0000
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