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David Shaw, one of the most respected coaches in football, has stepped down as head coach of the Stanford Cardinal. The program really tailed off in the last four years, when the Cardinal failed to win more than four games in any season and went 10-23 in Pac-12 play. Stanford had great success under Jim Harbaugh and then Shaw, but then lost its edge in physicality and its identity. The influx of the transfer portal has also hurt Stanford; the school’s elite academics make it almost impossible to bring in many transfers. Additionally, the school — despite being flush with money — has avoided the NIL space, in contrast to most of the sport’s top programs.

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It will be interesting to see who wants this job and who Stanford really wants to be in control. There are a few former Stanford assistants from the Harbaugh Era we think the school may want to engage.

Jim Harbaugh-era assistants

Greg Roman, Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator

Roman only spent two seasons with the Cardinal but was a big part of Harbaugh elevating that program into a power. The 50-year-old from New Jersey went with Harbaugh to the NFL, where they turned the San Francisco 49ers around and made it to the Super Bowl. The idea of Roman, with perhaps Vic Fangio coming back too as his defensive coordinator, might sound really good to old Stanford folks. Roman knows what it took and takes to get Stanford going, but does he want to be a college coach again?

Pep Hamilton, Houston Texans OC

Hamilton is another old Harbaugh guy who Stanford may look at. The 48-year-old spent three seasons there before going to the NFL. We hear Hamilton would likely have support from Andrew Luck, but there’s others around the program that weren’t big fans of his.

Troy Walters, Cincinnati Bengals wide receivers coach

Former Stanford star wide receiver Walters never coached with the Cardinal but has worked in the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC. He helped Scott Frost turn UCF into top-15 team where he worked as an OC. Walters has spent the past two seasons coaching receivers for the Bengals and would have some old Stanford players pushing for him to get a look.

Enjoyed covering David Shaw. He was always extremely thoughtful and candid, and it was obvious he cared deeply about his players and the sport of college football. Curious what will be next for him.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 27, 2022

Other big names to watch

Sherrone Moore, Michigan co-OC/offensive line coach

Moore doesn’t have Stanford ties but we think he might be tempting for the Cardinal to consider. His offensive line unit won last year’s Joe Moore Award and the Wolverines are even more deserving of it this year. The 36-year-old Moore has been instrumental in Harbaugh turning this team into the bully of the Big Ten and dominating arch-rival Ohio State the past two years. People inside the program are huge believers in Moore. He’s also shown this season that he has a good feel as a play caller. Michigan staffers rave about Moore’s ability to connect with the players and say that players will run through a wall for him, in part because he’s very genuine. If Stanford is trying to re-create what Harbaugh did there almost two decades ago, Moore, a former Oklahoma offensive lineman, might be a very attractive option in getting it done. Expect him to be a college head coach in the not-too-distant future.

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Dave Clawson, Wake Forest head coach

Clawson has been fantastic in the ACC and has won everywhere he’s been. Shaw tried dabbling in Wake’s Slow Mesh earlier this season but didn’t have all the reads or feel for it that Clawson’s players and coaches have in mastering that system. The 55-year-old Clawson, 18-8 in the past two seasons, knows what it’s like to work at a challenging academic institution, where programs don’t have the same advantages most league opponents do. He’s still thrived, but he’s also been choosey and knows he has a great fit at Wake Forest. He might not want to uproot everything, but it’s a call Stanford should still probably make. The man is too good of a coach not to at least ask.

Mike Bloomgren, Rice head coach

Bloomgren is a former Stanford O-line coach whose departure for Rice essentially syncs up with when the Cardinals began to decline. The 45-year-old has struggled to get much traction with the Owls but is coming off his best season there, going 5-7 at a place that hasn’t won more than five games since 2014.

Dave Aranda, Baylor head coach

Baylor’s Aranda had a terrific second year in 2021, going 12-2 and finishing No. 5. The Bears dipped to 6-6 this season, losing their last three games. He has some of, if not the, best resources in the Big 12 as the conference transitions to the post-Oklahoma and Texas era. We hear Stanford might have some curiosity in seeing if the California native, one of the big outside-the-box thinkers in all of football — and a guy who has spent a lot of his career out West — has any interest in the Cardinal.

The wild card

Chris Petersen, former Washington and Boise State head coach

The big wildcard for this job is Petersen. (Full disclosure: Petersen is a colleague of mine at Fox Sports.) He got Washington into the College Football Playoff and had four top-10 seasons in eight years with the Broncos. No football coach is more thoughtful or better at creating a winning culture, but Petersen is very self-aware in a way many winning football coaches just aren’t — or at least not to that degree. He eventually he realized it was best for him to leave the sidelines. I don’t think he would want to come back to coaching for almost any job or situation.

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Stanford is a unique deal, and maybe — maybe — it would be the rare opportunity that would intrigue the Northern California native. But intriguing him and getting him to jump back into big-time college football and the craziness of it, with the portal and NIL and 365-day-a-year recruiting, probably would be tough for him to buy into.

(Top photo of Greg Roman: Scott Taetsch / Getty)

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