He already had knocked off the nation's third-ranked team, and likewise had quoted rock-n-roll legends The Rolling Stones.
Stanford coach David Shaw Saturday then stopped just short of openly criticizing the officials in the Cardinal's 31-24 overtime-win.
“I told the guys in the locker room, you don't always get what you want but like The Rolling Stones say, man, sometimes you get what you need,” Shaw said. “I think we needed that. We needed to be ahead and fight through adversity and find a way to win against a really good football team.”
Asked what changed for his team after it had scored 17 first-half points and then did not score again until the game's final play in regulation, an untimed snap, Shaw brought up the game's officiating.
“I do believe the game was officiated well,” Shaw said. “There are some conversations I think we need to have. Speaking as the head coach at Stanford but also as the guy who leads the Rules Committee for the NCAA. The definition of disconcerting signals, what constitutes that foul, those are the conversations that we're trying to have. We've never jumped offsides so much in a game. That I think needs to be talked about. But it will be talked about behind closed doors, so don't expect me to give any answers. But that's what I was animated about on the sidelines a couple times. I think we have to clarify that rule.”
Both Oregon and Stanford were penalized 10 times apiece, though the Ducks' flags covered 99 yards and the Cardinal's 59.
Still, Shaw felt that the Ducks' defense had barked out calls that impacted Cardinal quarterback Tanner McKee's game management.
“Rewind to my comments a few minutes ago; I'm saying just enough not to get fined or get in trouble, right?,” Shaw said. “The defense is shouting signals while the quarterback is in his cadence, that's what we need to talk about. I could be dead wrong, maybe those things are not going to get called. If they're not going to get called, everybody in our league, everybody in college football should do it. Every single snap. That's tough. That's tough. We tell our guys not to jump. We jumped. We jumped when they made their calls.”