Stanford Football: Art Shell, Don Nelson, . . . Jack Elway?
Fans of the fir might not find this surprising, but SFist has learned through a source connected with the Stanford Athletics Department that head football coach Walt Harris will not be back next year. Not if the team runs the table, not if they win a bowl game. Not in a boat, not with a goat. No way, no how.
The news here is not that Harris will be gone at the end of the season -- that much is fairly obvious -- the news is that the decision has already been made. From here on out, the coach, the school, and sadly, the team are just playing out the string . . . for nine more games.
Apparently, even before this nightmare season started, Harris was on the hot seat with Administration for his comments about entrance requirements and other school policies.
Ruffling the feathers of big shots at a blue blood U. like Stanford is rarely good for job security in any circumstance, but it is especially unwise in the midst of an ugly, ugly 0-3 start that includes losses to such powerful programs as San Jose State and Navy (Coming into the game against Stanford this past weekend, Navy quarterback Brian Hampton was 2-9 for 6 yards in two games). At this point, the Cardinal are giving da Raaay-durs a battle for rock bottom. Coming off the past weekend's pasting at the hands of the Midshipmen in the inaugural game at the new Farm House, Stanford had a Sagarin Rating of 103, ahead of San Jose State, but behind, uh, Bowling Green, not to mention several Division I-AA teams. Ouch.
Image removed at the request of TheBootleg.com.
The aforementioned source did not provide any insight into whether the friction between Harris and Administration has contributed to the team's abysmal start, but our piercing analysis is, it ain't helping.
In fact, the Cardinal could very well go winless this year. Maybe they can sneak up on Washington State this weekend or possibly catch Arizona with a North Beach hangover in a few weeks, but other than that, the pickin's are slim. And if the coach-Administration feud continues to burn, this is the kind of season that can destroy a program for years, if not forever. Winless record and a lame duck coach, we can just imagine how good next year's recruiting class is going to be, and the one after that . . .
With the vaunted band on double-secret probation and the football team in tatters, Stanford alum have only a shiny new stadium with which to comfort themselves. Following this year's trend in Bay Area coaching, maybe Stanford should see if Bill Walsh can be re-pressed into program-saving duty, again.