Stanford head football coach David Shaw was once widely regarded as among the best in the country and potentially destined for the NFL.
You don’t hear that as much the last two years as Stanford fell from the top-ten to a 9-4 squad last season before regressing to a 4-7 team this year as they enter their final game of 2019.
When meeting the media like he does every Tuesday during the season, Shaw was asked about his next opponent, No. 16 Notre Dame.
As most coaches normally do, he gave a lot of praise to this week’s foe, but saved the most compliments for the Fighting Irish quarterback.
A quarterback that just makes plays, with his legs. I told the team yesterday, I don’t know that there’s many quarterbacks in the country that about half the season he’s led them in passing and rushing. It’s not that there are a whole bunch of designed quarterback runs, it’s just the kid’s got a great feel for football. He pushes up in the pocket and can escape, can buy time with his legs, it’s hard to get your arms around and wrap him up and bring him down. – David Shaw on Ian Book
I’ll be the first to say that Book gets criticized a ton for not being as great as some of the Heisman or national championship contending guys and his performance against Michigan was inexcusable.
However, the young man is still one of the better ones you’ll find in all of college football and with what has gone on at Stanford this year, you can bet Shaw would love to have the stability of Book at his quarterback spot.
Book’s first home-start in 2018 came against then-seventh ranked Stanford last September.
Book shined bright under the lights throwing for 278 yards and four touchdowns while rushing for 47 more yards.
Here’s to hoping he does the same to Stanford on what looks like it’ll be a very sloppy track in Palo Alto.