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Carter Shaw never got to play for his dad at Stanford, only impress him at UCLA
Lingering on the field after the game ended, everything that just unfolded swirling in his head, UCLA wide receiver Carter Shaw received instant analysis from a football savant and one of the top coaches in Pac-12 history.
You know, his dad.
David Shaw told his son to focus on what he did well against Louisiana State, the highlight reverse that he ran and the routes that he won against big-time cornerbacks, even if only one pass that fell incomplete came his way.
It was another confidence boost for the redshirt freshman who’s continuing to absorb fatherly advice while forging his own identity. Sometimes, a reminder of why he’s sticking with this game as a preferred walk-on just fighting for opportunities is all Carter needs.
His dad delivered it as part of his pregame message last weekend, helping his son soothe his unsettled mind.
“He said not to get too invested in the results and the pressure but to know why you love this game,” Carter said, “not for the scholarship money, not for the fame or whatever you get from it, but because you’ve been playing it since you were a kid and it’s what you love.”
For most of his childhood, Carter wanted to play for his father, not just hear from him.
The boy marinated in every moment he spent around heroes Christian McCaffrey and Richard Sherman while attending Stanford practices and games with his father, the longtime Cardinal coach.
His favorite memories were the three trips Stanford made to the Rose Bowl, the Cardinal beating Wisconsin and Iowa while losing to Michigan State. Playing in that stadium was something Carter longed to do himself one day. With his father on the way to becoming the winningest coach in school history, it seemed inevitable that any future trip to Pasadena would come as part of a package deal.
In sixth grade, a teacher assigned Carter to write a letter to himself about his aspirations as a sort of time capsule to be opened as a high school senior. There was nothing surprising in his words: He wanted to play for his father at Stanford.
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While David never coached Carter’s teams growing up, the pair would spend hours on football fields together. David provided tips while watching Carter run routes and taught him how to study game footage and understand what defensive backs were thinking as they tried to disrupt his rhythm.
Everything seemed to be coming together when Carter starred at receiver and defensive back at Sacred Heart Prep, about a 10-minute drive from Stanford. He also was a gifted sprinter who ran the 100 meters in 10.67 seconds and qualified for the state meet in the 200 and the 400-meter relay.
Speculation about Carter’s plans might have cost him in recruiting. His only scholarship offer came from San José State, other schools pitching him on the idea of coming as a preferred walk-on and Yale also pursuing him to play in the Ivy League.
“He was probably under-recruited and I think my position at Stanford may have had something to do with that,” David said. “I think people just assumed that he was going to come play for me.”
The Shaws are a football family.
Willie Shaw, Carter’s grandfather, was an All-Western Athletic Conference cornerback at New Mexico who went on to coach at the college and NFL levels for more than 30 years. Willie’s brother, Nate, was an All-Pac-10 defensive back at USC who spent two seasons with the Rams before coaching at Oregon State and his alma mater.
David followed his father around the country before settling into the Bay Area when Willie was Stanford’s defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator. Recruited to play wide receiver under Cardinal coach Dennis Green, David got to play with his father on staff for two years before Willie followed Green to the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings.
David caught 57 passes for 664 yards and five touchdowns during his four college seasons. He also dabbled in other sports, grabbing one rebound in a game for Stanford’s basketball team and running the 400 in one track meet.
Unlike his parents, who told him that if he wanted to play sports he would have to give it his all, David never had to prod Carter.
“He’s so competitive,” David said. “Like a lot of people who are successful he’s hard on himself and he pushes himself, so with him more than anything I was just trying to give him whatever guidance he asked for. I didn’t want to be a domineering football-coach dad that always tells him what to do and how to do it.”
Watching Carter play, David said, doesn’t remind him of himself.
“I wish I was as fast as he was, you know?” David said. “I mean, I ran track and played basketball in high school, but I didn’t run a 10.67, I couldn’t do the dunks that he could do — I could never windmill or do a 360. He’s so much of a taller, more explosive athlete than I ever was.”
By late in his high school career, having grown to 6 feet 2, Carter came to a startling realization: He wanted to escape the shadow of his last name. Even before his father decided to resign from Stanford at the end of the 2022 season, Carter decided he wanted to build his own legacy. He would become a Bruin rather than a Cardinal copy.
“He wanted to forge his own path and that excited me more than the opportunity of being on the same team,” David said, “because now he just gets to go be Carter Shaw and everything he gets, it’s obvious that he’s earned, his dad’s not in the head coach’s office pulling strings for him.”
After he committed to UCLA, Carter opened the letter from sixth grade and showed it to his dad. They shared a laugh about how things turned out.
Carter did want to mimic his father in one way, by wearing his No. 84 jersey at UCLA.
But the number had been retired as a tribute to legendary linebacker Jerry Robinson, forcing Carter to go with No. 14.
He played sparingly as a true freshman, though coach Chip Kelly made sure to honor his family ties by getting him into one Pac-12 game — at Stanford. With his extended family watching, Carter was on the field for a couple of offensive plays and helped cover a punt.
“That was a surreal experience,” Carter said, “because I went to that stadium damn near every weekend growing up and then getting to go there and play there and see staff members that worked there, see old players that I know, family members, friends and then going out and getting in the game and winning, that was probably one of my favorite moments ever.”
Known for being so stoic that one Stanford fan made a T-shirt showing him with the same expressionless face alongside the words “Happy, sad, excited, disappointed and angry,” David felt overcome watching his son.
“It was emotional for our whole family,” David said. “It was a special, special day.”
More highlights were on the way. Carter snagged a 27-yard pass on a drag route against Hawaii in the season opener. Three weeks later, he took a handoff from quarterback Ethan Garbers and slipped two tackles on a nine-yard reverse against LSU, wowing family and teammates alike.
“He made that one cut,” UCLA tight end Jack Pedersen said, “and I told him on the sideline, I was like, ‘If I try to make that cut, my knees would be one way and my body would be the other direction.’ ”
David watched the play from the Tiger Stadium sideline, where he wore a Denver Broncos polo shirt in a nod to his current job as the team’s senior personnel executive. (He said he’s closed the door on college coaching but remains open to staying in personnel or taking a job as an NFL coach.)
When the game ended, father and son reunited on the field for a hug. Warm words were spoken. A bond was strengthened. A father who never got to coach his son was heartened.
“He showed his quickness and explosion,” David said, “and as a dad it was just great to see him go out there and do what he loves.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
