Shaw: Time for Stanford to spring forward

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - The Orange Bowl trophy is displayed inside Stanford's football offices, a powerful, glistening symbol of the rapid resurgence of the program that new coach David Shaw passes every day.

If it was up to him, he'd rather his players put all those memories in the closet for now.

"Those oranges from the Orange Bowl, they rot, they die. It's over," Shaw said Friday. "We've got to put a stop on it at some point and say, 'Who will we be going forward?"'

That question will soon be answered.

The Cardinal begin their first spring practice session Monday, officially kicking off the Shaw Era with a ton of talent and lofty expectations. And any chance of erasing one of the best seasons in school history from the minds of players and fans won't be easy.

Just upstairs from where Shaw held his first roundtable with beat reporters, sitting in the same seat his predecessor, Jim Harbaugh, once used, sat the Orange Bowl trophy from last season's 40-12 victory over Virginia Tech. Everywhere else he turns on campus, he is reminded of that success.

Students across the school sport Orange Bowl championship T-shirts. Football posters cover walls and light posts, and football chatter can be heard in the dining halls at the historically academics-first school.

Not that there aren't reminders on the field.

Andrew Luck returns at quarterback after putting off being the NFL draft's likely No. 1 pick and several starters are back from a 12-1 team that finished fourth in the final AP poll, the school's best ranking since the unbeaten 1940 team finished second.

Certainly, this is no ordinary spring on The Farm.

Shaw's job is to convince his team otherwise.

"We're the same place everybody else is," he said. "Every year is a capsule. It has a start and an end. The next year, every team is different. Your leadership is different. Different guys are stepping into different roles, it will effect schematically what you do. Every year you have to grow, add, delete, change. And that's where we are right now. We need to establish who we are."

That process is just beginning.

There are still some key spots to fill and position battles to work out when the Cardinal hit the practice field. Among the most glaring spots are receiver, offensive lineman and kicker.

All-American center Chase Beeler is gone. So are leading receivers Doug Baldwin and Ryan Whalen and reliable kicker Nate Whitaker. Shaw expects Luck to alleviate some of the transition.

"With Andrew coming back, it's led to some nights where it felt pretty good going to bed," he said.

Shaw is also counting on his reassembled coaching staff to pick up any slack.

Shaw, the former offensive coordinator, said he is hiring Mike Bloomgren - the former New York Jets assistant offensive coordinator - as offensive line coach and running game coordinator and Mike Sanford as running backs coach. He still has to hire a tight ends/tackles coach, the last of his vacancies since Harbaugh left for the San Francisco 49ers and took some of the Stanford staff with him.

The Cardinal are again holding their NCAA-allotted 15 spring practices over two sessions. The first session will include eight practices over two weeks beginning Monday, and the remaining will be held in late March and conclude with the annual spring game April 9 in San Francisco.

"I can't wait to get on the field," Shaw said. "I can't wait to get back to football. Offseason conditioning and winter conditioning drills have been going well and are necessary. But at the same time, there's nothing like getting on the field for those 15 days that we get."