David Shaw
Followed Jim Harbaugh. David Shaw raised Stanford from Power Program III to Power Program I.
Career arc
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached Power Program in his 1st career season — faster than 57% of the 395 FBS coaches who have ever reached Power Program (rank #1 of 395 by seasons-to-arrival).
Style position and drift
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
15–7 against his rivals. Just 1–5 against Kyle Whittingham.
His own effect, isolated
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Coaching career
1st-best Stanford tenure of 20 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and underperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Jim Harbaugh (2007–2010) · succeeded by Troy Taylor (2023–2024).
| Season | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||||||||||
| Record | 11–2 | 12–2 | 11–3 | 8–5 | 12–2 | 10–3 | 9–5 | 9–4 | 4–8 | 4–2 | 3–9 | 3–9 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | W bowl | W bowl | W CFP | L bowl | W CFP | — | — | — | — | |
| Recruiting rank | — | — | — | #13 | #24 | #16 | #14 | #40 | #21 | #21 | #51 | #19 | |
| Style — pass rate | |||||||||||||
| Pass rate | — | — | — | 44.4 | 34.3 | 36.8 | 43.1 | 52.4 | 55.9 | 53.1 | 53.4 | 54.4 | |
| Coordinators | |||||||||||||
| OC | — | — | — | Mike Bloomgren | Mike Bloomgren | Mike Bloomgren | Mike Bloomgren | Tavita Pritchard | Tavita Pritchard | Tavita Pritchard | Tavita Pritchard | Tavita Pritchard | |
| DC | — | — | — | Lance Anderson | Lance Anderson | Lance Anderson | Lance Anderson | Lance Anderson | Lance Anderson | Lance Anderson | Lance Anderson | Lance Anderson | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||||||||||
| Offense | — | — | — | 71 | 93 | 56 | 80 | 70 | 48 | 87 | 15 | 20 | |
| Defense | — | — | — | 95 | 38 | 64 | 27 | 48 | 24 | 7 | 7 | 16 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | |||||||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | — | — | 37.3 | 28.2 | 33.4 | 32.3 | 48.0 | 50.6 | 45.9 | 53.8 | 51.2 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | — | — | 43.6 | 30.1 | 30.9 | 43.1 | 42.9 | 46.6 | 37.9 | 48.2 | 46.8 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | — | — | 22.2 | 29.7 | 14.0 | 22.7 | 22.9 | 7.9 | 16.7 | 28.6 | 22.2 | |
Barely touches the portal — recruits and develops his own.
52 NFL Draft picks: Sione Fua (2011), Owen Marecic (2011), Richard Sherman (2011), Ryan Whalen (2011), Andrew Luck (2012), David DeCastro (2012), Coby Fleener (2012), Jonathan Martin (2012) + 44 more
1 player-season honored (All-America / national award): Joshua Karty (2022)