STANFORD – David Shaw’s press conference began the same way it always had after losses. He took accountability for the result, spoke about how proud he was of his team’s effort and gave credit to the opposition for making more plays.

But after two minutes, he cleared his throat. And in his typical understated way, he made a massive announcement.

“Just informed the team that I just coached my last game at Stanford,” Shaw said. “It’s been a great 16 years.”

Questions about his future had been circulating for weeks. But Shaw refused to address the topic before the season ended, not wanting to take the focus away from the Big Game, or take attention away from his seniors on Senior Day.

But as Saturday night turned to Sunday morning following a 35-26 season-ending loss to BYU, there were signs something was up. Shaw’s postgame news conference didn’t start until 12:30 a.m., more than an hour after the game.

And Shaw’s extended family was there to meet Shaw outside of the locker room, despite the cold and windy conditions.

Shaw later said he delayed speaking to the media because he had to hug the entire football team, one at a time.

Many of those players sent messages of appreciation on Twitter during the announcement.

“A true leader, role model, man, and one hell of a human being,” senior receiver Elijah Higgins wrote. “Forever grateful for the support, wisdom, love, and trust you showed me and everyone around. Taught me more than you’ll ever know.”

Former players from across the country reacted as they woke up the next morning.

“Proud of him and grateful for everything he gave me personally and the program,” All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman wrote. “Enjoy your next phase.”

That next phase is still unclear – the 50-year-old Shaw said he had no immediate plans.

Athletic director Bernard Muir will hold a news conference Monday to address the process of replacing the winningest coach in Stanford football history. But some names have already risen to the forefront.

Chris Peterson, who went 55-26 at Washington from 2014-19 before stepping down, was reportedly a candidate for the Stanford job that went to Shaw.

There are also coaches with connections to The Farm, including former Stanford assistants like Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman and Rice coach Mike Bloomgren.

And then there are coaches with experience at schools with tougher-than-most academic requirements, like Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson, former Stanford assistant Derek Mason (Vanderbilt) and former BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall (Virginia), and former players like Cincinnati Bengals wide receivers coach Troy Walters, who was an All-American receiver at Stanford.

It’s been a steady decline from Orange Bowls and Heisman finalists to the bottom of the Pac-12. But Shaw insisted that, despite back-to-back 3-9 seasons, Stanford is in a better position than its record indicates.

It’s possible a change at the top will cause immediate improvement. Two of the teams who appear to control their own destiny for playoff spots, undefeated TCU and one-loss USC, changed coaches last offseason. So did Washington, who like USC was 4-8 last season, and LSU, which won what is considered the toughest division in college football, the SEC West.

Of course, those schools also made use of the biggest changes in college football recently – the transfer portal and NIL payments. Stanford hasn’t adjusted its strict academic requirements to take advantage of the portal yet, but Shaw said that he’s had discussions with Muir, president Marc Tessier-Lavigne and dean of admissions Rick Shaw about adjusting its standards, with the realization that teams have to be active in the transfer portal in order to be competitive.

“As slowly as Stanford has changed, we’re trying to do it the right way,” Shaw said. “The combination of NIL and then the illegal pay for play that people are calling NIL and the transfer portal is a really, really interesting combination that everyone is dealing with.”

Stanford only started allowing early enrollees in 2021, years after other top programs used that to entice top prospects to come to join their teams.

Those discussions will now take place without Shaw, a receiver for Stanford in the early 1990s who came back to his alma mater to be the offensive coordinator under Jim Harbaugh and then raised it to unprecedented heights four years later when Harbaugh left for Michigan.

The only four-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year, Shaw went to three Rose Bowl Games and won at least 11 games four times in his 12 seasons. His 65 conference wins are tied for the fifth-most in Pac-12 history, and he finished with a winning record (29-28) against AP Top 25 teams. He surpassed the legendary Pop Warner (71 wins) in 2017 to be the program’s all-time winningest coach.

But after finishing in the Top 10 in four of his first five seasons and winning at least nine games in seven of his first eight seasons, the Cardinal went 14-28 in the past four years – the team’s first losing seasons since Harbaugh first arrived.

Now it will be up to another coach to engineer a turnaround.

“We’re not that far away,” Shaw said in that final press conference as Stanford coach. “I’m still saying we. We are not that far away.

“There are a lot of people that think this program is down. That’s what our record says. But I look at the components. I look at the people here, the support that I’m hearing coming from our athletic director, from our university president, the people that are behind the scenes. We’re not that far away. But once again, a week ago, 10 days ago, I was gung-ho to be the person to lead us there, and over the last few days I realized it was time. It was time for me to step aside, time for the next group to come in, and hopefully whoever they hire next wins more games than I do. That would be awesome. I would love that.”