Stanford coach David Shaw talks Oregon opener, family, and adjusting on the fly

Stanford University coach David Shaw joined me on Thursday for an in-depth conversation about football, family and his deep belief in players.

Listen to the full interview with David Shaw here.

Stanford opens at Autzen Stadium on Saturday against Oregon.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that haven’t played a lot of football,” Shaw said. “As confident as we are in this, as hard as they’ve worked and as well as they’ve practiced, there’s still some inexperience. We’re going into a hostile environment and cool temperature against a team that’s going to come out with a lot of confidence and a lot of swagger because they’ve earned it, even though they have just as many young guys. A lot of those guys were in the Pac-12 championship game and were playing in the Rose Bowl.

“It going to be fun. It’s going to be exciting. It’s going to be weird, and I can’t wait.”

Shaw on no fans in the stadiums this season and how that might affect games:

“I’m curious. I think one positive for us is that this year we play at probably the two loudest stadiums in our conference — Oregon and Washington. So I’m an old receiver. I always liked being split out there as a receiver and being able to hear my quarterback… I’m fascinated to see how it goes.”

On scouting Oregon and looking for intel on the Ducks:

“I’ve been with coaches who try so hard to find some intel. And you try so hard to read through the quotes and look to the interviews, none of that ever matters. None of that stuff ever helps. You have to take into account that we know this is a talented football team. Their defense is difficult, right? They’ve got really good personnel, but they know how to make it hard on you. Offensively, not exactly sure what they’re going to be doing, but we know about their running back, we know about their speed at receiver, we know they’ve got a couple of options at quarterback… all we can focus on, really, is ourselves.”

On playing the first game:

“You’ve got to go out there and play it straight. Just do what you believe in. Play to your strengths and then make adjustments on the fly.”

Listen to the full podcast with Shaw here:

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