David Shaw Reveals Perfect Motivation For The Cardinal To Beat BYU Despite Bowl

The Stanford Cardinal haven’t been to a bowl game since 2018. That streak will continue this year, with Stanford football not being bowl-eligible again. And with just one more game remaining on their schedule before plunging into vacation, Cardinal head coach David Shaw still sees motivation in his team to win its assignment this coming weekend against the BYU Cougars at home (h/t Benjamin Criddle of ESPN).

“It’s a tough spot not preparing for a bowl game and coming up short against our rival… The focus of our staff and athletes this week is to prepare to send our seniors off with a victory.”

Stanford football is just 1-8 in Pac-12 play this season and only has three wins overall against eight losses. The Cardinal are last in the Pac-12, but they also have a chance to climb up a spot higher with a win against the Cougars on Saturday in front of their fans at Stanford Stadium. (The Colorado Buffaloes are above the Cardinal with a 1-7 in Pac-12 play but have a game this coming Saturday as well against the No. 10 Utah Utes.)

The Cardinal are on a four-game losing skid, which extremely hurt their chances to get to the required six wins to be bowl eligible. Prior to that skid, Stanford football beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in South Bend and the Arizona State Sun Devils back-to-back at home.

The last time the Cardinal played in the postseason was in 2018 when they won the Sun Bowl against the Pittsburgh Panthers.