Throughout the course of this unconventional season and trying to find creative solutions to play college football during a worldwide pandemic, a few programs have had to deal with more than their share of adversity.
One of those programs is Stanford, who recently had to move their entire team, staff, and essentially their entire football facility on the road to Seattle just to be able to continue to play after Santa Clara County announced last week a ban on contact sports through December 21st.
In order to play their final two games, against Washington and Oregon State, respectively, David Shaw had to get a pulse for his entire program - ranging from the medical professionals, strength staff, athletic trainers, his staff, and his team to see if 1) the decision to take the entire facility on the road would be feasible and safe and 2) if they were all on board. Ultimately, everyone was on board and Stanford hit the road for Seattle and will hit travel to Corvallis the next week to prepare for Oregon State.
Shaw talked about that thought process, and the conversations he had with those within the program in their presser today. When asked about how frustrated he must be with everything going on, and if he feels like his team has been put at a disadvantage in order to get their final two games of the season in, Shaw was transparent and provided an interesting answer.
It's an answer that can really serve as an example of how poised coaches look at these challenging times.
"I am pretty transparent in this - frustration just doesn't do anything for me. It just doesn't do anything for me."
"My big thing is; What are our parameters? What can we do? What can't we do? Now let's make some decisions and go. I have never been one to get mired in the could have, would have, should have, and wish we had. That doesn't do anything for me."
"I've got student athletes, I've got staff, I've got a lot of alumni and people that really love what we're doing and how we're doing it and I can't waste time worrying about things that I have no control over, and honestly don't care about."
"I'm not concerned with what anybody else has. I'm only concerned with what we have, who we have, and what we can do for our student athletes to go out there and play the sport that they love."
"That's where my focus is. Yes, there are moment of difficulty, but great. Life throws difficult things at us all the time. Sometimes the best thing that I can do, really, is to give an example to our student athletes of how to handle difficulty."
"One of the things that I just don't believe in having is regret, and I think when you spend too much time worrying about things that you can't control and you let things spiral, then you'll look back and think, 'Man, I wish I had handled that better.' I can't do that. I can't be that, and I can't be an example to our young people that way."
See the full answer from Shaw in the clip.