David Shaw recognizes greatness when he sees it, which is why the Stanford coach is excited to have Chip Kelly back in the Pac-12 as UCLA’s new coach.

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Stanford coach David Shaw on working with Raiders’ Jon Gruden, Saints’ Sean Payton

How Gruden and Saints’ Payton sharpened their football minds in Philly’s rat-infested Veterans Stadium “I love his personality, I love the way he coaches, I love competing against him,” Shaw said of the former Oregon coach.

Shaw has always had nothing but respect for Kelly, especially after the first time they coached against one another and Kelly’s Ducks handed the Cardinal a humbling 53-30 loss in 2011. It was Stanford’s first loss of the season and Shaw’s first-hand look at the Ducks only made him a more fervent Chip Kelly believer.

“The idea that you could be a hurry-up, fast offense but still be a run-oriented, physical offense, what he did really changed the course of this conference and made everybody better,” Shaw said. “He shook up this conference, woke everybody up and made you go back and say, `OK, we have to look at everything we’re doing.’ ”

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Shaw learned a little something from that first beating by Kelly’s Ducks, though. Shaw and the Cardinal got some revenge the following season on Kelly by pinning a 17-14 loss on the Ducks, which help catapult Stanford to an eventual Rose Bowl-winning season in 2012.

It was the last time Shaw stared across the field at Kelly, whom the Stanford coach isn’t too proud to admit he’s stolen from plenty. Shaw has “borrowed” Kelly’s offensive schemes he’s run with Oregon and in the NFL with the 49ers and Eagles.

“I think most coaches will say the best coaches on the planet are great thieves,” Shaw said in an ESPN interview last year. “We’ve stolen ideas from everybody. You know, I’ve stolen more from Chip Kelly than anybody else because I think Chip is brilliant. I think there’s things he does in his offense that I think are phenomenal, so there are aspects of our game that when you watch our game, you might go, ooh, wow, that looks like something Oregon did.”

The Cardinal’s practice plan is also eerily similar to what Kelly instituted at his head coaching stops. And that’s no coincidence, either.

“This past year I had long conversations with Chip Kelly,” Shaw told ESPN. “We changed our entire practice schedule for the week … I talked to Chip and I’m like, ‘You know what, we’re just going to do it. We’re going to change it. This is a better way of doing it.’ It was great for us.”

Jeff Faraudo contributed to this report.