11-04-2025, 06:40 AM
Ok, tired of tweaking and eager to put it out in the universe and hear what Stanford fans think:
1) Matt’s Id’s Primal Scream: James Franklin! Nick Saban! Chip Kelly! Urban Meyer! Part of me really does believe that our death spiral is challenging enough and the landscape shifting enough that we really need a seismic splash to grab eyeballs and force our way into a new zip code in the attention economy. I think it would be a disservice to not at least see if Frankin, who has one of the best turnaround resume items in the sport with what he did at Vanderbilt and would be coming into the gig absolutely pissed off to prove his greatness, might have any interest. Saban’s splash would put all other splashes to shame and would supercharge the program like nothing else, and since I consider him a superior coach to Walsh or Belichick I don’t worry as much about the Walsh II type risk. Kelly is probably done as a head coach and I know isn’t everybody’s cup of tea but he would likely be a narrative boost and instant offense; the concern I’d have with several of the biggest splashes – CEO/alpha energy that could be a disastrous clash with Luck’s leadership role – might not apply to Kelly if he’s content with Luck doing most of the representational, fundraising, and recruiting work. In this category I am mainly just making the point that there may be nothing else we could do to resuscitate the patient quite like a jolt like this, not that any of these are realistic. Although Franklin may be different. We know he’s determined to come back to a Power Four job right away and if Luck thinks they could coexist….you never know.
2) Chris Klieman (Kansas State): This is a wish list so I’m going to include the guy who seems like arguably the most perfect Stanford candidate, but I don’t have any reason to think we’d have a prayer of prying him. Four FCS championships at North Dakota State and five 8+ win seasons at Kansas State is a mouth-watering resume, especially the latter showing sustainable relevance at a program where that’s not a given. And how he’s done it is through the simplicity, toughness, and physicality I crave. As a bonus he cares about academics and culture. As with the other Kansas guy I pine for below, the last three year trajectory has been at least somewhat concerning. But maybe that could create a desire to freshen things up in new scenery? Crazier things have happened, but it would be pretty crazy.
3) Lance Leipold (Kansas): When I hear Luck talk about what he wants in a coach it seems to be describing Leipold to an uncanny degree. Across Leipold’s stellar multi-school career (six Division III national championships at Wisconsin-Whitewater, phenomenal rebuilding of Buffalo, admirable bringing of Kansas to respectability despite high degree of difficulty), he has been the consummate teacher and developer, humble yet supremely confident in self, and sustainably focused on process and repetition. He’s everything we’d want, and might be a more logical fit to pair with Luck than bigger names. We’d have to pay a significant buyout as we would with any Power Four coach in good standing and I would have at least some worry that the Kansas trajectory the last few years has been going in the wrong direction and the Kansas success may have a lot to do with happening to have a good QB, but I’m a really big fan. My wife would be pissed though.
4) Dave Doeren (NC State): I wouldn’t let him go if I were his employer but you never know. Sometimes people get tired of too much of a good but not great thing and do something they regret. Or maybe we could make an aggressive financial play for him or another good Power Four coach. I used to think Doeren and NC State were boring but now that he’s had so much staying power and we play in their conference I appreciate him as so freaking rock solid. Just the absolute epitome of consistency (this will be his 11th bowl in the last 12 years and he could make it the 10th 7+ win season in that stretch).
5) Jedd Fisch (Washington): Similar story here where I think Washington would be foolish to let him go but if the rumors are going to persist I’d be interested in making a run at it. I think he’s a really good coach and his teacher energy vibes strike me as one of the best fits in the nation for what Luck says he is looking for in a coach. My one concern is that I would prefer a coach whose identity is good hard-nosed blocking and Fisch’s teams have merely been effective, not dominant, up front. This probably only makes sense if it’s mutual and Washington wants to move on.
6) Matt Campbell (Iowa State): Campbell has been one of my dreams going back over a decade to his Toledo years and he continues to show he can have Iowa State competing at a level beyond what that program deserves. If the NFL and big-time college programs couldn’t get him all these years I’d be shocked if we could, plus the buyout for a coach in good standing would be tough, but fundamentally I don’t feel like I know for certain the level we’ll be operating at with this coaching hire and don’t want to self-censor on coaches I like. Campbell’s teams’ blocking hasn’t been as good as one would think given his OL background but I still like his teams’ identity and like him a lot as somebody who can win at a program without many advantages.
7) Bob Chesney (James Madison): Excellent multi-stop success that is often a hallmark of the most underrated coaches in the sport (23-9 at Salve Regina, 44-16 at Assumption with three ranked Division II playoff teams, 44-21 at Holy Cross with four ranked FCS teams in a row, and now succeeding at FBS James Madison including 9 wins last year and a team this year slightly better than the already high baseline he inherited from Cignetti). Very good culture fit for Stanford, though we would be banking on competence more than the sexiness, boat-rocking, and intensity I think it's possible we need to jolt ourselves out of this. No Power Four experience in any capacity is scary. It also should be noted that the James Madison Cignetti created was spectacular, so it’s not like the current success was building. But the multi-stop success alleviates the concern he can’t build, and I think this is a wonderful fit for the teacher energy Luck will probably want.
8) Ryan Silverfield (Memphis): Successful Group of Five coach who shoots up my list because his model – following a varied career involving sizable stretches in high school, NFL, and college – focuses on player development and, specifically, his teams are elite at offensive line play. He’s had two top 25 teams at Memphis and this year looks like it might be a third. Wish he had more time working under good college coaches (the highlight being several years with Mike Norvell and one year with Matt Campbell) but I am really head over heels in love with what Memphis has done under him in terms of blocking dominance. I don’t think he’s a great fit or a terrible fit for Stanford as an institution. Only having done it as head coach at one school is a red flag, especially since Memphis was great when he got there, but I would gladly take at this point what Fuente and Norvell gave Virginia Tech and Florida State.
9) Scott Satterfield (Cincinnati): He fits a profile I have found to work time and time again in difficult turnaround situations, which is a multi-stop proven solid guy who was at least credible as a Power Four coach, which Satterfield has been at Louisville and now Cincinnati following his more obvious success at Appalachian State. Not sexy and would be an odd geographic fit for us but a good coach (especially appealing that his teams have tended to block really well) we could do a lot worse than.
10) Jon Sumrall (Tulane): Attractive as somebody who has succeeded at two FBS programs – two of the three best years in Troy’s 24 years in FBS and now two good teams in a row at Tulane, albeit after inheriting a very good program – and has fiery, energetic traits that are attractive for a rebuild. Seems obvious that he would wait for an SEC opportunity so not worth getting our hopes up too much.
11) Todd Monken (Baltimore Ravens OC): Could be really attractive for a brain trust inclined toward the NFL, as he has been a good coordinator in the Harbaugh orbit and also has excellent college and recruiting bona fides as the coordinator of back-to-back national champion Georgia teams. For my analytical purposes, the trajectory he managed as head coach at Southern Miss was exciting proof of concept that he was equipped to be a really good college head coach, even before the resume items he’s now famous for. Working for Harbaugh, Kirby Smart, and Mike Gundy scores well on the mentor/exemplar scale. Only having the three years as a head coach before volunteering off that carousel and not hopping back on raises some questions.
12) Dave Clawson (unemployed): The former Wake Forest coach, who was great there before the transfer portal and NIL sucked the life out of him and he bowed out at least somewhat gracefully on a faster and more self-aware timeline than what we saw with Shaw, is one of my absolute archetypes of multi-school program-building success at places that aren’t easy to succeed, He would be catnip to Stanford administrators as somebody who cares about the right things and does things the right way. His track record at Wake, Bowling Green, Richmond, and Fordham is great. But obviously having eventually flamed out in the ACC is a red flag, and Stanford fans may not be eager to see the slow mesh make its return. When I think of something we could do that is a realistic pick to get a Stanford-aligned, sustainable over-achiever who could mesh (ugh, sorry) with Luck in a division of responsibilities, this is way high up on my list.
1) Matt’s Id’s Primal Scream: James Franklin! Nick Saban! Chip Kelly! Urban Meyer! Part of me really does believe that our death spiral is challenging enough and the landscape shifting enough that we really need a seismic splash to grab eyeballs and force our way into a new zip code in the attention economy. I think it would be a disservice to not at least see if Frankin, who has one of the best turnaround resume items in the sport with what he did at Vanderbilt and would be coming into the gig absolutely pissed off to prove his greatness, might have any interest. Saban’s splash would put all other splashes to shame and would supercharge the program like nothing else, and since I consider him a superior coach to Walsh or Belichick I don’t worry as much about the Walsh II type risk. Kelly is probably done as a head coach and I know isn’t everybody’s cup of tea but he would likely be a narrative boost and instant offense; the concern I’d have with several of the biggest splashes – CEO/alpha energy that could be a disastrous clash with Luck’s leadership role – might not apply to Kelly if he’s content with Luck doing most of the representational, fundraising, and recruiting work. In this category I am mainly just making the point that there may be nothing else we could do to resuscitate the patient quite like a jolt like this, not that any of these are realistic. Although Franklin may be different. We know he’s determined to come back to a Power Four job right away and if Luck thinks they could coexist….you never know.
2) Chris Klieman (Kansas State): This is a wish list so I’m going to include the guy who seems like arguably the most perfect Stanford candidate, but I don’t have any reason to think we’d have a prayer of prying him. Four FCS championships at North Dakota State and five 8+ win seasons at Kansas State is a mouth-watering resume, especially the latter showing sustainable relevance at a program where that’s not a given. And how he’s done it is through the simplicity, toughness, and physicality I crave. As a bonus he cares about academics and culture. As with the other Kansas guy I pine for below, the last three year trajectory has been at least somewhat concerning. But maybe that could create a desire to freshen things up in new scenery? Crazier things have happened, but it would be pretty crazy.
3) Lance Leipold (Kansas): When I hear Luck talk about what he wants in a coach it seems to be describing Leipold to an uncanny degree. Across Leipold’s stellar multi-school career (six Division III national championships at Wisconsin-Whitewater, phenomenal rebuilding of Buffalo, admirable bringing of Kansas to respectability despite high degree of difficulty), he has been the consummate teacher and developer, humble yet supremely confident in self, and sustainably focused on process and repetition. He’s everything we’d want, and might be a more logical fit to pair with Luck than bigger names. We’d have to pay a significant buyout as we would with any Power Four coach in good standing and I would have at least some worry that the Kansas trajectory the last few years has been going in the wrong direction and the Kansas success may have a lot to do with happening to have a good QB, but I’m a really big fan. My wife would be pissed though.
4) Dave Doeren (NC State): I wouldn’t let him go if I were his employer but you never know. Sometimes people get tired of too much of a good but not great thing and do something they regret. Or maybe we could make an aggressive financial play for him or another good Power Four coach. I used to think Doeren and NC State were boring but now that he’s had so much staying power and we play in their conference I appreciate him as so freaking rock solid. Just the absolute epitome of consistency (this will be his 11th bowl in the last 12 years and he could make it the 10th 7+ win season in that stretch).
5) Jedd Fisch (Washington): Similar story here where I think Washington would be foolish to let him go but if the rumors are going to persist I’d be interested in making a run at it. I think he’s a really good coach and his teacher energy vibes strike me as one of the best fits in the nation for what Luck says he is looking for in a coach. My one concern is that I would prefer a coach whose identity is good hard-nosed blocking and Fisch’s teams have merely been effective, not dominant, up front. This probably only makes sense if it’s mutual and Washington wants to move on.
6) Matt Campbell (Iowa State): Campbell has been one of my dreams going back over a decade to his Toledo years and he continues to show he can have Iowa State competing at a level beyond what that program deserves. If the NFL and big-time college programs couldn’t get him all these years I’d be shocked if we could, plus the buyout for a coach in good standing would be tough, but fundamentally I don’t feel like I know for certain the level we’ll be operating at with this coaching hire and don’t want to self-censor on coaches I like. Campbell’s teams’ blocking hasn’t been as good as one would think given his OL background but I still like his teams’ identity and like him a lot as somebody who can win at a program without many advantages.
7) Bob Chesney (James Madison): Excellent multi-stop success that is often a hallmark of the most underrated coaches in the sport (23-9 at Salve Regina, 44-16 at Assumption with three ranked Division II playoff teams, 44-21 at Holy Cross with four ranked FCS teams in a row, and now succeeding at FBS James Madison including 9 wins last year and a team this year slightly better than the already high baseline he inherited from Cignetti). Very good culture fit for Stanford, though we would be banking on competence more than the sexiness, boat-rocking, and intensity I think it's possible we need to jolt ourselves out of this. No Power Four experience in any capacity is scary. It also should be noted that the James Madison Cignetti created was spectacular, so it’s not like the current success was building. But the multi-stop success alleviates the concern he can’t build, and I think this is a wonderful fit for the teacher energy Luck will probably want.
8) Ryan Silverfield (Memphis): Successful Group of Five coach who shoots up my list because his model – following a varied career involving sizable stretches in high school, NFL, and college – focuses on player development and, specifically, his teams are elite at offensive line play. He’s had two top 25 teams at Memphis and this year looks like it might be a third. Wish he had more time working under good college coaches (the highlight being several years with Mike Norvell and one year with Matt Campbell) but I am really head over heels in love with what Memphis has done under him in terms of blocking dominance. I don’t think he’s a great fit or a terrible fit for Stanford as an institution. Only having done it as head coach at one school is a red flag, especially since Memphis was great when he got there, but I would gladly take at this point what Fuente and Norvell gave Virginia Tech and Florida State.
9) Scott Satterfield (Cincinnati): He fits a profile I have found to work time and time again in difficult turnaround situations, which is a multi-stop proven solid guy who was at least credible as a Power Four coach, which Satterfield has been at Louisville and now Cincinnati following his more obvious success at Appalachian State. Not sexy and would be an odd geographic fit for us but a good coach (especially appealing that his teams have tended to block really well) we could do a lot worse than.
10) Jon Sumrall (Tulane): Attractive as somebody who has succeeded at two FBS programs – two of the three best years in Troy’s 24 years in FBS and now two good teams in a row at Tulane, albeit after inheriting a very good program – and has fiery, energetic traits that are attractive for a rebuild. Seems obvious that he would wait for an SEC opportunity so not worth getting our hopes up too much.
11) Todd Monken (Baltimore Ravens OC): Could be really attractive for a brain trust inclined toward the NFL, as he has been a good coordinator in the Harbaugh orbit and also has excellent college and recruiting bona fides as the coordinator of back-to-back national champion Georgia teams. For my analytical purposes, the trajectory he managed as head coach at Southern Miss was exciting proof of concept that he was equipped to be a really good college head coach, even before the resume items he’s now famous for. Working for Harbaugh, Kirby Smart, and Mike Gundy scores well on the mentor/exemplar scale. Only having the three years as a head coach before volunteering off that carousel and not hopping back on raises some questions.
12) Dave Clawson (unemployed): The former Wake Forest coach, who was great there before the transfer portal and NIL sucked the life out of him and he bowed out at least somewhat gracefully on a faster and more self-aware timeline than what we saw with Shaw, is one of my absolute archetypes of multi-school program-building success at places that aren’t easy to succeed, He would be catnip to Stanford administrators as somebody who cares about the right things and does things the right way. His track record at Wake, Bowling Green, Richmond, and Fordham is great. But obviously having eventually flamed out in the ACC is a red flag, and Stanford fans may not be eager to see the slow mesh make its return. When I think of something we could do that is a realistic pick to get a Stanford-aligned, sustainable over-achiever who could mesh (ugh, sorry) with Luck in a division of responsibilities, this is way high up on my list.