STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Stanford coach David Shaw resigned Saturday night after ending his 12th season at his alma mater with a 36-25 loss to BYU that cut the Cardinal to 3-9.
Shaw, 50, led Stanford to five double-digit seasons, with three Pac-12 titles and Rose Bowl appearances in his first six years as head coach. He finished as the winningest coach in program history with a 96–54 record and was considered one of the most respected coaches in the country.
Shaw arrived unusually late to his post-game press conference and said his decision had only come in recent days.
“It’s been great. It’s been a great run,” he said. But it’s time for me to step aside. It’s time for the next group to come in.”
The decline in recent years has been drastic. The Cardinal has been between the ages of 14 and 28 for the past four seasons as the program struggled to keep up in a rapidly changing college football landscape with players transitioning more freely and monetizing for name, image and likeness.
Stanford is 3-16 in Pac-12 play over the past two seasons, including consecutive losses to rival California.
“We’re not that far,” Shaw said.
A California native and early 1990s receiver for Stanford, Shaw replaced Jim Harbaugh as head coach in 2011. He was offensive coordinator for Harbaugh from 2007-10.
Shaw spent nine seasons as an NFL assistant before joining Harbaugh’s staff at the University of San Diego and then following him to Stanford.
He was part of a remarkable turnaround in the program under Harbaugh and then under his leadership Stanford became the premier program in the Pac-12 with a physical style called Intellectual Brutality.
When the program ended, Shaw remained steadfastly loyal to his assistant coaches. The staff has seen few changes recently, with Shaw repeatedly saying he felt firing assistants shifted the blame for the team’s failures from himself to others.
Stanford is a private school that doesn’t disclose contract terms with its coaches, so it’s unclear how many years Shaw had left on his deal.
He said he had no plans for another job.
“I’m not burned out by any imagination,” Shaw said. “I’m a little anti-employment right now.”
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