Stanford Cardinal football head coach David Shaw has some huge expectations being placed on him this year, and it figures that he'll be getting a lot of interest from major media outlets in the buildup to this season. One of the deans of football, John Madden, got a chance to talk with Shaw on the radio this morning. You can listen to the interview in its entirety by clicking here.
After the jump, we point out some of the salient points from the Shaw interview.
- Madden asked Shaw about whether the perceptions at Stanford has changed. In the past, the Cardinal had gotten the best academic football players who weren't up to par with the rest of the Pac-12; now they were getting the best from both worlds and playing tough football contrary.
Shaw responded about how Jim Harbaugh did a good job recruiting coast-to-coast and finding good and tough football players, particularly offensive linemen, which is where Stanford has bolstered up to put their teams on the winning path.
- One of the radio hosts (not familiar with their names) talked about how national recruiting for Stanford isn't as hard as it seems because the pool for players was much more limited by the academic standards set in Palo Alto.
Shaw replied that finding the kids isn't hard, and the pool isn't 200-300 kids but 50, and Stanford has to land 20 of them. It does mean the Cardinal have to hit their recruiting targets ad nauseum. - Madden expressed disappointment at how Stanford's Stadium was always empty on gamedays, and talked about how Stanford Stadium should be filled to the brim to watch this great team play.
Shaw said, "You're hired."
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