Stanford Football Lands UCLA WR in Transfer Portal

Carter Shaw is coming to Stanford.

November 30, 2012; Stanford, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal head coach David Shaw (center) poses for a photo with his children Carter Shaw (left) and Keegan Shaw (right) after the Pac-12 Championship game against the UCLA Bruins at Stanford Stadium. The Cardinal defeated the Bruins 27-24. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Stanford football keeps making moves. On Tuesday, Jan. 27, the Cardinal announced that they have signed former UCLA wide receiver, Carter Shaw, from the transfer portal to bolster their wide receiver core.

Shaw, the son of former Stanford head coach David Shaw, joins the program that his father led for 12 seasons, and he will look to not only add a spark at wide receiver, but become a No. 1 wide receiver for the Cardinal in the Tavita Pritchard era.

Spending the first three seasons of his college career at UCLA, the 6-foot-3, 195 pound Shaw entered the transfer portal due to a combination of factors and finds himself on The Farm with two years left of eligibility.

Receiving only two formal offers out of high school, Shaw was recruited by Stanford, but after his father stepped down as the head coach, it changed his plans and he opted to take his talents down to Southern California.

Now, Shaw joins a Stanford receiver room that will look vastly different in 2026 but he will come in with a strong chance to compete for a starting role. Hiring a new head coach in Tavita Pritchard, the Cardinal are in a new era. While they will be starting from scratch, the hunger to be competitive in a tough ACC has never been stronger.

At UCLA, Shaw was never able to fully establish himself, playing three games on special teams as a true freshman before redshirting and spending the next two seasons mainly on special teams as well. Shaw's best season came in 2024 where in six games, he caught two passes for 45 yards with a long of 27.

These ended up being the only offensive stats of his career to date. On special teams, Shaw made a total of three tackles over the course of three seasons.

A standout athlete at Sacred Heart Prepartory in Atherton, California, Shaw played both wide receiver and defensive back, helping lead his school to a CIF Division 5-A state title as a junior in 2021.

For the season, he finished with six catches for 181 yards and three touchdowns on offense, while making 49 tackles on defense. In his final high school season, Shaw played a bigger role on offense, catching 26 passes for 477 yards and seven touchdowns while making 33 tackles on defense.

Stanford's offense will look a lot different in 2026 at multiple positions, not just receiver. Losing quarterbacks Elijah Brown to the transfer portal and Ben Gulbranson to graduation, the Cardinal will presumably enter the season with former Michigan standout, Davis Warren, as its starter, at least to begin the season.

In the meantime, the offensive line has some new additions to hopefully revamp a struggling group from the past two years. If the Cardinal can find a rhythm on offense, expect them to surprise many this fall.