Stanford football coach candidates: who could replace Troy Taylor?

It was not a surprise that Tuesday Stanford fired coach Troy Taylor’s headIn the wake of the investigations on the complaints by the employees of the Department of Athletics for hostile behavior. Stanford General Manager Andrew Luck said that a research by the next coach has started, but an acting coach can be appointed for the 2025 season.

The timing here is complicated for a program that came out of four 3-9 consecutive seasons, with the last two that arrive under Taylor. Stanford has not won more than four games in a season in the previous six years. The cardinal will also begin spring football and have to understand quickly what they will do offensively since Taylor was the caller. This is not a minimum detail. Taylor acted as Stanford’s offensive coordinator and nobody in the staff has nothing close to that title.

The two most obvious options to serve as head coach would be Bobby April IIIwhich has the title of defensive coordinator, or Andy Thompsonthat Taylor took this winter as Co-DC.

April, a former assistant of the Philadelphia Eagles, of New York Jets and Buffalo Bills, aroused a significant improvement with the cardinal on that side of the ball. In 2022, the year before April he was hired, Stanford ranked n. 127 In hasty defense. They improved at 94 ° in 2023 and 41 ° in 2024.

Thompson, 44, has spent the last six seasons in Sacramento State: four as a defensive coordinator under Taylor and the last two as head coach after Taylor took Stanford’s work. Thompson went 11-14 as head coach of Sac State, going 8-5 in 2023 and 3-9 in 2024.

The pool of research does not seem profound if Stanford reaches outside the program. In addition to the simple times of this move, Stanford has many unique challenges right now. It is in the ECC because the PAC-12 went to pieces and the school had no other practicable conference options.

Former manager of Dallas Cowboys Jason Garrett was a finalist, together with Taylor, the last time the Cardinal tried to hire a coach. Garrett, who went 85-67 in almost a decade in Dallas, decided to remain with NBC sports as an analyst. Princeton’s former quarterback knows some of the challenges of the operation in a high academic football program. He was also in the mix for Duke Heading’s vacant place a few years ago.

Two potential NFL options with deep ties in Stanford seem both long shots.

Cincinnati Bengals Receiver Coach Troy Walters He was a great player in Stanford and won the Biletnikoff Award. He has a lot of support among Stanford’s old players, but we have heard that he is very happy where he is and also knows many of the challenges in which he will enter as head of the cardinal coach. In addition, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins coaching with Joe Burrow at QB is a rather ideal configuration.

Commanders of Washington Coach to taste Tavita Pripchard38, was the Cardinal Quarterback when Jim Harbaugh started to transform Stanford from the worst power conference program into a real strength. Pritchard and luck spent a lot of time in the Stanford quarterback room together as teammates. Pritchard later spent five seasons as Stanford OC. The offense became stale as a backslid of the program, but in all honesty for him it was David Shaw who called the blows. Pritchard is also well thought out within Stanford, but like Walters, he is also in a very sweet situation: he manages to work with one of the fastest nascent stars of the NFL to Jayden Daniels for a franchise that is really recovering.

Two seated coaches who are very well respected to keep an eye on both have links from the Academy of Service. One is working in Northern California right now The coach of the State of San Jose Ken Niumatalolo. The 59 -year -old is loved in football clubs. He just went 7-6 to San Jose State in his first season there. Niumatalolo, native of Hawaii, did an excellent job in the navy before, going 116-89 and was three times coach of the AAC year during the management of the triple option. With the Spartans, the Niumatalolo – who has strong ties throughout the western coast – showed how he could review his offensive scheme and still do opponents. San Jose State led the mountain to the west in the passage of a large margin in the first season of Niumatalolo and ranked fifth in the nation.

Jeff Miss of the Army He is another proven winner. He is coming out of a season for 12-2 in which the Black Knights went 8-0 in the AC after being expected to end fifth in their first season in the championship. He did a fantastic job there, going 82-57 to the army. The previous five coaches dating back to 2000 at the army 40-166 were combined. Monken’s career record is even more impressive: 120-73. If Stanford came to call, we heard that Monken would be interested.

(Top photo of Ken Niumatalolo: Eakin Howard / Image Images)