- 5 -- Win or be fired
- 4 -- Start improving now
- 3 -- Pressure is mounting
- 2 -- All good ... for now
- 1 -- Safe and secure
- 0 -- Untouchable
| David Shaw | 3 | Shaw is one of the finest coaches and men in the profession. If a CEO of college football is needed, he'd be perfect. He's also Stanford's winningest coach with three Pac-12 titles and four New Year's Day bowls. Heck, he's a four-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year. However, Shaw hasn't had a winning full season since 2018. The Cardinal have lost 25 of 39 games and sit one loss away from consecutive losing seasons for the first time since 2007-08. Shaw's once-intimidating run-based offense seems out of step. The transfer portal and NIL have impacted the program. Admission standards keep the Cardinal from jumping in with both feet. If it's his time, Shaw will go out on his own terms. He has earned that. Preseason rating: 1 |
This adds onto the ESPN+ article discussion, and indeed there is significant overlap between the teams/coaches mentioned in that article and this one, but notable that publicity is continuing to stir.
I hate the bolded sentence so so so much. That's not how this works. However...
I love the italicized phrase right afterwards and how the preseason rating has changed. From "1 -- Safe and secure" to "3 -- Pressure is mounting" honestly sounds about right from a not-on-this-board wider audience's perspective.
