ALLEN PARK, Mich. — David Shaw hopes he doesn’t have to speak to the media too much as Detroit Lions passing game coordinator. But Shaw put everything on the table in his first meeting with reporters since landing on the team’s staff.

Shaw discussed what it means to be back in the NFL, where he always saw himself, and how there is a level of nostalgia in that happening here in Detroit.

The former longtime Stanford head coach has notable connections to the area and coaching staff. Shaw’s father, Willie Shaw, was the Lions defensive backs coach from 1985 to 1988. Those were Shaw’s high school years, when he went to Rochester Adams High before later starring at Union City’s James Logan.

Shaw noted how those years in Detroit were truly formative, spending time around the team and getting to watch his father tackle his first NFL coaching job.

And while there is the nostalgia factor, Shaw also gets to work with one of his closest friends in new Lions offensive coordinator John Morton. Morton and Shaw came up in the NFL ranks together under Jon Gruden and have remained close since those days in Oakland.

“He and I have kind of taken it in different directions, but have a lot of the same base, so it’s been fun coming back with Johnny, seeing where we’ve been different, finding a lot of commonality, and really excited about the way he’s directing this offense,” Shaw said. “I’m very fortunate to play a part. I can’t say this enough, being able to learn from Johnny. But also being able to learn from the coaches that are here and the philosophy and what they’ve put in here, Johnny’s been saying it, and I agree 100%, we’re not here to disturb anything, any positives that have been going on here.

“But we want to add to it. One of those things I believe in, it was on our wall back when I was at Stanford, every single day, you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse. You’re never staying the same.”

Shaw’s last NFL position came in 2005 when he was the Baltimore Ravens wide receivers coach. He landed at the University of San Diego, connected with Jim Harbaugh there, then followed him to Stanford as offensive coordinator before taking over for 12 seasons.

Even though it’s been two decades since Shaw coached in the NFL, he always viewed himself as an NFL coach. It’s what he studied in the offseasons at Stanford when not recruiting, and it was the basis for his offensive and defensive schemes while leading the school.

Shaw led Stanford to a 96-54 record, including two victories on three trips to the Rose Bowl. His teams finished in the top 10 four times and ranked inside the final top 25 on six occasions.

“I give a lot of that credit to Jon Gruden. He trained me as an NFL coach,” Shaw said. “So that was always my mentality, so if you ever watched us play, we looked starkly different than most college offenses. We were fortunate enough to get Vic Fangio to come spend a year with us. So, offensively and defensively, pretty much my entire time at Stanford, we were a West Coast-based NFL offense and a Vic Fangio-based NFL defense.

“So, I didn’t study a lot of college film in the offseason. I studied NFL film, always knowing that I wanted to come back to the NFL. I just didn’t want (it) to take so long.”

Shaw said despite that feeling, he never took an NFL interview during his 12 seasons at Stanford. He was turning down three interviews per year over that first decade, with a ton of interest in him making the jump to a head coach at the next level.

He said that was one of the lessons learned as a coach’s kid, and influenced two of the most important principles he holds close to his heart. The first is that, “When you have a job, get the most out of that job,” without peeking over the fence.

“I always wanted to go back to the NFL, but so much of it is about timing. I loved what I was doing. I loved where I was doing it. I loved who I was doing it with,” Shaw said. “And over a decade, we were a top-10 winning team, which not only Stanford, but you know, academically high-ranking team has ever had a run like that. I wanted to finish that run.

“The other principle I have is not taking a job thinking about getting another job. Right? I don’t think of this profession as stepping stones to other things. When I was going to take a job, I’m taking that job. So, I’m not taking this job to see if I can build enough equity to get a head-coaching job. I took this job to take this job. I want to be here. I’m fired up to be here. If something else comes at me, that’s great; that’s not why I took this job. I took this job because of who is here and what’s been built here.”