As football recruiting becomes more and more like basketball recruiting, seemingly by the day, 7-on-7 has been at the heart of the revolution. In many ways, 7-on-7 is its own sport within a sport, with state-wide and national tournaments there for those so inclined to compete in them.
Speaking at a Nike coaches clinic over the weekend, Stanford head coach David Shaw spoke out against the rise of 7-on-7. Which, when you stop to think about it, makes sense. There may not be a coach in college football that has less use for 7-on-7 than the head man of the bully-ball Cardinal.
Shaw's opposition to 7-on-7 fall perfectly in line with his thoughts on physical practices from last week:
“No. It’s impossible. It is impossible,” he said on the prospect of building a physical team without physical practices
“I think we were very conscious in that and in trying to make sure this game is played as safely as possible, but doggone it, this is a contact sport and if people are paying their money, they want to see great football and great football involves big time linebackers going and hitting guys and attacking guys and running backs that know how to avoid that, and when they do get tackled, how they drag a guy three or four more yards.”
“I’d hate to take the football, out of football."
And 7-on-7, in Shaw's mind, is football without, you know, the football.