What Stanford Coach David Shaw Said About BYU, Late Kickoff

PROVO, Utah – For only the third time, BYU football will face the Stanford Cardinal. It’s the first meeting for BYU against a Stanford team led by head coach David Shaw.

Shaw has been the head coach of Stanford since 2011. He’s compiled 96 wins during his tenure, but this season has not been one of his better seasons on The Farm. Stanford rolls into the regular season finale against BYU with a 3-8 record.

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Shaw acknowledged “it’s a tough spot right now” for the Cardinal going into a BYU game with no bowl opportunity on the line. But his focus is sending off his senior class with a victory.

The 12th-year head coach addressed the media on Tuesday to preview the matchup and was asked some BYU-centric questions along with his thoughts on the 8 p.m. (PT) kickoff time.

Thoughts on BYU as a team

“Talented football team. They will take shots down the field on you now. These guys will throw it down the field; play-action pass-wise, they have some variance in their offense to try and keep you off balance. Defensively, every week they do something a little bit different. Tweaking their front, going from a four-down to a three-down. Some games it’s a lot of single-high, some games it’s a lot of too high. There’s a lot of variance in what they do defensively, so you have to get into the game and have an idea of how they’re playing you and make some in-game adjustments. Because they’re not going to just stand there, they move, pinch, twist, and give you a variety of coverage looks. Good team well-coached team with good players and good athletes. We’re going to have to be at our best to find a way to send our seniors out with a win.”

Why do Stanford and BYU recruit the same type of prospects?

“Well for us, it’s pretty straightforward. We are recruiting a certain type of young person. That is of course for all of our sports, but in particular we’re talking about football right now. But we’re looking for high-caliber individuals, great students, and we’re looking for very good football players.

Stanford coach David Shaw on battling head-to-head with #BYU on the recruiting trail.#BYUFootball pic.twitter.com/cWIYFZTYlO

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“I’ve said this over the years that I think the state of Utah doesn’t get its respect for the level of play that happens. It’s not just in Salt Lake. It’s around the state. You can find a lot of really good football players that have very good grades and are the caliber of young people that we’re looking for.”

“…Battling head-to-head [in recruiting] with BYU. I think who has a great program got an outstanding head coach. I know multiple people in their administration, including the athletic director (Tom Holmoe). They do things the right way with the right people.  And that’s the way that we see ourselves as well. So naturally, we’re going to end up recruiting some of the same people.”

On the late-night kickoff against BYU

“I usually talk about our TV partners and do it in quotes because partners have discussions. Once our TV makes their picks, they slot us wherever they want. And I think it’s been horrible. I don’t know how many games –five games we’ve come back at 3:30 in the morning–, multiple home games now where we’re walking out of the building at one or two o’clock in the morning. I think it’s bad for our student-athletes. I think it’s bad for our conference. Just the fact that you know, Sundays now, guys just sleep all day just to recover from either traveling late at night or just playing late night. I think it’s something that our conference needs to look at as we enter into conversations with potential other media partners for our next media deal. And changing these start times and playing games in the daytime and playing games in the early evening and not the late night. I don’t think it’s good for anybody.

“Granted, I’m not in those seats. I’m not concerned with the ratings. I’m concerned about the people that I coach. And what it does to them and what it does to their families for travel. I think it’s horrible. Our Commissioner (George Kliavkoff) is in talks with entities how to move going forward. And I think everything I said would be seconded by everybody else in our conference.”

BYU at Stanford

Date: Saturday, November 26

Kickoff: 9 p.m. (MT)

TV: FS1

Radio: KSL NewsRadio (102.7 FM, 1160 AM – Pregame begins at 7 p.m.)

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch and his BYU Football coverage on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.

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