Three Stanford quotes from Peter King's MMQ article today:
First, Peter King's comment:
At the Heisman weekend in New York, I got a chance to eyeball Christian McCaffrey, the versatile Stanford back, and my first reaction was: He’ll do well with another year or two of the Stanford weight program. At 6-0 and 201 pounds as a true sophomore, it’s no lock he’d come out for the 2017 draft anyway, but the comments I got from his coach and his father were interesting.
On whether college players should be mandated to stay in school for three years:
Stanford coach David Shaw: “I've heard this debate a lot. Andrew Luck wasn’t even ready after three. The difference with Andrew is that Andrew knew it. A lot of guys don’t know it. I tell our players, ‘It’s a different sport. It’s not the next level of your sport, it’s a different sport. In the NFL they are faster, they are stronger, the locker room is different, the coaching is different, the media is different. Your daily life is different.’ Look what happens in Major League Baseball—those really talented 18- and 19-year olds who disappear and you never hear from them again. It happens with a lot of NBA guys. First year, second year out of high school … Their lives are not in order. It’s sink or swim. You need to be as physically and mentally and emotionally developed. Some people just stop [developing] physically. Andrew is the perfect case. You can ask him the difference between him being year three or year four [at Stanford] and how much more ready he was for that world to jump in and not just play, but live.”
Ed McCaffrey, three-time Super Bowl wide receiver and father of Christian: “This is going to shock you … I think the rule personally, should be that you can leave after two years. I’ll throw Leonard Fournette into the mix. You think Leonard Fournette is not physical enough to be in the NFL right now? I mean, look at the guy, he’s ready. But I do believe if you think you can leave after two years and you don’t get drafted, you should have an option to go back and play [in college]. Playing in the NFL was such a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I would encourage players who know that they are going to be drafted in the first or second round to leave early and take advantage of that opportunity. If someone was talking about an actor and they were young, they wouldn’t say, ‘Wait ’til you are older to act.’ I think it’s the same thing with football … Regarding Christian, I understand what you are saying and where you are coming from that he could grow and develop, but every single player I have seen enter the NFL had room to grow and develop. He’s the same size as Jamaal Charles, he’s taller than Barry Sanders, he’s a little heavier than Reggie Bush. He’s not a bigger back like some of the backs you see in the league, but that’s not his game. His game is speed and quickness and finesse.”
Finally, from King again--I think you can probably scratch highly respected Stanford coach David Shaw off the short list of NFL head-coaching candidates in the next month. As he told me Saturday at the Heisman festivities: “I know a lot of guys in the NFL. I know guys at almost every franchise in the NFL, and I can tell you, even the ones who are winning, nobody is having as much fun at his job as I am having at my job.” The NFL’s committee on head-coaching prospects, which has its next meeting Wednesday, will still put Shaw on the list, but will inform inquiring teams (and not every team with an opening seeks advice from this NFL committee of head-coaching authorities, which includes Bill Polian and Tony Dungy) that Shaw is very unlikely to leave Stanford.
First, Peter King's comment:
At the Heisman weekend in New York, I got a chance to eyeball Christian McCaffrey, the versatile Stanford back, and my first reaction was: He’ll do well with another year or two of the Stanford weight program. At 6-0 and 201 pounds as a true sophomore, it’s no lock he’d come out for the 2017 draft anyway, but the comments I got from his coach and his father were interesting.
On whether college players should be mandated to stay in school for three years:
Stanford coach David Shaw: “I've heard this debate a lot. Andrew Luck wasn’t even ready after three. The difference with Andrew is that Andrew knew it. A lot of guys don’t know it. I tell our players, ‘It’s a different sport. It’s not the next level of your sport, it’s a different sport. In the NFL they are faster, they are stronger, the locker room is different, the coaching is different, the media is different. Your daily life is different.’ Look what happens in Major League Baseball—those really talented 18- and 19-year olds who disappear and you never hear from them again. It happens with a lot of NBA guys. First year, second year out of high school … Their lives are not in order. It’s sink or swim. You need to be as physically and mentally and emotionally developed. Some people just stop [developing] physically. Andrew is the perfect case. You can ask him the difference between him being year three or year four [at Stanford] and how much more ready he was for that world to jump in and not just play, but live.”
Ed McCaffrey, three-time Super Bowl wide receiver and father of Christian: “This is going to shock you … I think the rule personally, should be that you can leave after two years. I’ll throw Leonard Fournette into the mix. You think Leonard Fournette is not physical enough to be in the NFL right now? I mean, look at the guy, he’s ready. But I do believe if you think you can leave after two years and you don’t get drafted, you should have an option to go back and play [in college]. Playing in the NFL was such a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I would encourage players who know that they are going to be drafted in the first or second round to leave early and take advantage of that opportunity. If someone was talking about an actor and they were young, they wouldn’t say, ‘Wait ’til you are older to act.’ I think it’s the same thing with football … Regarding Christian, I understand what you are saying and where you are coming from that he could grow and develop, but every single player I have seen enter the NFL had room to grow and develop. He’s the same size as Jamaal Charles, he’s taller than Barry Sanders, he’s a little heavier than Reggie Bush. He’s not a bigger back like some of the backs you see in the league, but that’s not his game. His game is speed and quickness and finesse.”
Finally, from King again--I think you can probably scratch highly respected Stanford coach David Shaw off the short list of NFL head-coaching candidates in the next month. As he told me Saturday at the Heisman festivities: “I know a lot of guys in the NFL. I know guys at almost every franchise in the NFL, and I can tell you, even the ones who are winning, nobody is having as much fun at his job as I am having at my job.” The NFL’s committee on head-coaching prospects, which has its next meeting Wednesday, will still put Shaw on the list, but will inform inquiring teams (and not every team with an opening seeks advice from this NFL committee of head-coaching authorities, which includes Bill Polian and Tony Dungy) that Shaw is very unlikely to leave Stanford.
