2. David Shaw, Stanford
Shaw’s 34-7 record since taking over for Jim Harbaugh is pretty difficult to argue against. If you’re nit-picking, the Cardinal have lost two of their three BCS bowl appearances since Shaw was promoted. All three were one-score games, though, so how critical can you be?
But this specific exercise is about the playoff, not necessarily getting to it. So we’ll hear this coach out on Shaw.
“He’s stubborn,” he said. “He will go with something until it hurts him. They want to play their style no matter what, even if it isn’t working or it has stopped working. You’ve got to adapt. Harbaugh adapted. David hasn’t shown he will do that.”
Shaw is 41 years old and has won Pac-12 titles in two of his three seasons. He’s doing OK and still has time to learn.