Sebastabear said:
David Shaw may be the least creative coach in college football. He runs the exact same plays over and over. Everyone in the stadium knows what's coming. Yet he normally has the athletes to make it work. In days of yore it was three yard runs up the middle with a world class o-line. 2017 and 2018 version is the post plays to the Godzilla sized tight ends. Works very well in the end zone where they just box you out. Over and over again.
How to defend? Pressure and stunts clearly could work. But there must be other options. If anyone can figure this out it's DeRuyter and Wilcox. Given they know exactly what to expect from Shaw I firmly believe they will.
I have to agree. If Shaw has a strong, deep offensive line, a speedy, shifty RB and a plowing FB, a few good TEs, and an efficient QB, his offense works fine and sometimes great. The problem is he's in over his head otherwise. In those years when he doesn't have all these pieces in place, Shaw can't see fit to adapt to personnel or to what the defense is throwing at him. His in-game coaching also suffers when there's a short clock. He didn't know to minimize subbing agst. Udub in the final minute, for instance, which the dawgs took advantage of by eating up the clock with their own substitutions. There have been other times when he's misused timeouts in pretty obvious situations. He does not have the range of knowledge required of a good OC to understand how best to take advantage of personnel so as to keep the defense on its heels and create good offensive flow/rhythm. Do remember that Harballs demoted Shaw from OC during his tenure on the Farm.
The problem Stanford has is that our all-time winningest head coach is a stubborn MF who often refuses to acknowledge the problem staring all of us in the face. (In case you missed his presser after Udub, Shaw claimed he subbed out players at the end due to injuries. Trump himself couldn't have served up a balder lie.) To make matters worse, the current AD is not the type to even conceive of the need to pressure Shaw to delegate the offense to a proven OC (and, no, Tavita Pritchard, bless him, is not a proven OC). The state of Stanford recruiting -- and in particular Shaw's strange recruiting tactics -- is another factor in all this, but I'll spare you that for now.
For a few weeks now I've had this feeling that your Bears will end the BG streak this season. On the one hand, I see our defense doing relatively well against your offense, but I also see your stout D stifling Shaw. More than anything, I see your coaches game-planning better than ours, and your team smelling blood and playing with its hair on fire before a home crowd. For me that tips the scales in your favor. Hope I'm wrong.
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