USC football: Stanford Coach David Shaw excited for Steve Sarkisian

Stanford Coach David Shaw said he was excited for new USC Coach Steve Sarkisian, who was hired Dec. 2 after five seasons at Washington.

“I know this is home for him,” Shaw said Thursday during a Rose Bowl news conference at Disneyland. “It’s a bit of a shift for USC offensively, mentality-wise, but he’s a Trojan. He’s been there, he understands how the place works, he’s been received very well, as he should be.

“He had a lot of success there as an assistant and I know he’s going to have success there as a head coach.”

Sarkisian and Shaw got into a bit of a back and forth this season when Sarkisian implied that Stanford players might have been faking injuries.

Shaw indicated early on after USC fired Lane Kiffin in late September that he was not interested in leaving Stanford.

“People aren’t going to believe this, and they don’t understand it and that’s fine — I don’t need anybody to understand it,” he said Thursday. “I think I have the best college job in America.

“I live in Palo Alto, I’m being paid market value, I work with the most dynamic group of young men that you can find on a football team anywhere.... I walk into work every single day just thankful and grateful that I am where I am.

“A lot of people say other jobs might be more quote, unquote attractive or more football jobs. And I look back and say this is our fourth straight [Bowl Championship Series] game. This is a football job. It’s a phenomenal football job.... I appreciate any attention that I get but at the same time I love where I am right now.”

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