David Shaw, head coach of the Stanford Cardinal football team, 2011–2022

The Stanford Cardinal football program represents Stanford University in the Pac-12 Conference. The Cardinal competes as part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The team has had 32 head coaches since its founding in 1892. Troy Taylor is the current head coach.[1]

The Cardinal have played in 1,207 games of American football in 112 seasons.[A 1] In their first season, the team played 4 games with no head coach.[2] From 1906 to 1917, Stanford replaced football with rugby.[2] The school did not field teams in 1918 and from 1943 to 1945 due to World War I and World War II, respectively.[2]

Conference championships have been won by Pop Warner, Claude E. Thornhill, Clark Shaughnessy, Chuck Taylor, John Ralston, Bill Walsh, Tyrone Willingham, and David Shaw.[2] Shaw is the all-time leader in games coached and most victories, having won his 72nd game in a 17–14 win over Cal in the 120th Big Game on November 18, 2017.[3] James F. Lanagan is the leader in win percentage for coaches with more than one season of service.[2] Shaw was also the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2017 respectively.[4]

Of the 31 Stanford head coaches, six—Walter Camp,[5] Fielding H. Yost,[6] Andrew Kerr,[7] Warner,[8] Shaughnessy,[9] and Ralston[10]—have been inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame as coaches. Four more—George H. Brooke (who played at Swarthmore),[11] Marchmont Schwartz (who played at Notre Dame),[12] Taylor (who played at Stanford)[13] and Paul Wiggin (who also played at Stanford)[14]—are in the Hall of Fame as players.

Key

Key to symbols in coaches list
General Overall Conference Postseason[A 2]
No. Order of coaches[A 3] GC Games coached CW Conference wins PW Postseason wins
DC Division championships OW Overall wins CL Conference losses PL Postseason losses
CC Conference championships OL Overall losses CT Conference ties PT Postseason ties
NC National championships OT Overall ties[A 4] C% Conference winning percentage
† Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame O% Overall winning percentage[A 5]

Coaches

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards[A 6]
No. Name Season(s) GC OW OL OT O% CW CL CT C% PW PL PT DC
[A 7] 		CC
[A 8] 		NC Awards
1 Walter Camp† 1892, 1894–1895 17 11 3 3 0.735 — — — — — — — — — — —
2 C. D. "Pop" Bliss 1893 9 8 0 1 0.944 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
3 Harry P. Cross 1896
1898 		13 7 4 2 0.615 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
4 George H. Brooke† 1897 5 4 1 0 0.800 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
5 Burr Chamberlain 1899 9 2 5 2 0.333 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
6 Fielding H. Yost† 1900 10 7 2 1 0.750 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
7 Charles Fickert 1901 7 3 2 2 0.571 — — — — 0 1 0 — — 0 —
8 Carl L. Clemans 1902 7 6 1 0 0.857 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
9 James F. Lanagan [A 9] 1903–1905 29 23 2 4 0.862 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
10 Bob Evans 1919 7 4 3 0 0.571 1 1 0 0.500 0 0 0 — 0 0 —
11 Walter D. Powell 1920 7 4 3 0 0.571 2 1 0 0.667 0 0 0 — 0 0 —
12 Eugene Van Gent 1921 8 4 2 2 0.625 1 1 0 0.500 0 0 0 — 0 0 —
13 Andrew Kerr† 1922–1923 18 11 7 0 0.611 3 5 0 0.375 0 0 0 — 0 0 —
14 Pop Warner† 1924–1932 96 71 17 8 0.781 31 9 5 0.744 1 1 1 — 3 1 – 1926 —
15 Claude E. Thornhill 1933–1939 67 35 25 7 0.575 25 18 4 0.574 1 2 0 — 3 0 —
16 Clark Shaughnessy† 1940–1941 19 16 3 0 0.842 11 3 0 0.786 1 0 0 — 1 1 – 1940 AFCA Coach of the Year (1940)[18]
17 Marchmont Schwartz† 1942
1946–1950 		60 28 28 4 0.500 17 25 3 0.411 0 0 0 — 0 0 —
18 Chuck Taylor† 1951–1957 71 40 29 2 0.577 25 20 2 0.553 0 1 0 — 1 0 AFCA Coach of the Year (1951)[18]
19 Jack Curtice 1958–1962 50 14 36 0 0.280 5 19 0 0.208 0 0 0 — 0 0 —
20 John Ralston† 1963–1971 94 55 36 3 0.601 30 25 2 0.544 2 0 0 — 2 0 Sporting News College Football Coach of the Year (1970)[19]
21 Jack Christiansen 1972–1976 55 30 22 3 0.573 22 12 1 0.643 0 0 0 — 0 0 —
22 Bill Walsh 1977–1978
1992–1994 		59 34 24 1 0.585 19 19 0 0.500 3 0 0 — 1 0 Pac-8 Coach of the Year (1977)[20]
23 Rod Dowhower 1979 11 5 5 1 0.500 3 3 1 0.500 0 0 0 — 0 0 —
24 Paul Wiggin† 1980–1983 44 16 28 0 0.364 11 23 0 0.324 0 0 0 — 0 0 —
25 Jack Elway 1984–1988 56 25 29 2 0.464 16 22 2 0.425 0 1 0 — 0 0 —
26 Dennis Green 1989–1991 34 16 18 0 0.471 13 11 0 0.542 0 1 0 — 0 0 —
27 Tyrone Willingham 1995–2001 81 44 36 1 0.549 32 24 0 0.571 1 3 0 — 1 0 Pac-10 Coach of the Year (1999)[20]
28 Buddy Teevens 2002–2004 33 10 23 — 0.303 5 19 — 0.208 0 0 — — 0 0 —
29 Walt Harris 2005–2006 23 6 17 — 0.261 5 12 — 0.294 0 0 — — 0 0 —
30 Jim Harbaugh 2007–2010 50 29 21 — 0.580 21 15 — 0.583 1 1 — — 0 0 —
31 David Shaw 2011–2022 150 96 54 — 0.640 65 40 — 0.619 5 3 — 4 3 0 Pac-12 Coach of the Year (2011, 2012, 2015, 2017)[20]
32 Troy Taylor 2023–present 12 3 9 — 0.250 2 7 — 0.222 0 0 — 0 0 0 —

Notes

  1. ^ For 12 seasons from 1906 to 1917, Stanford replaced football with rugby. The school includes rugby matches as part of the overall football record.[2]
  2. ^ Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played.[15]
  3. ^ A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
  4. ^ Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since.[16]
  5. ^ When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss.[17]
  6. ^ Statistics correct as of the end of the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season.
  7. ^ Divisional champions have advanced to the Pac-12 Football Championship Game since the institution of divisional play beginning in the 2011 season. Since that time, Stanford has competed as a member of the Pac-12 North.
  8. ^ Stanford was not a part of an athletic conference prior to 1919, when the school joined the Pacific Coast Conference. After the demise of that conference, the school joined the new Athletic Association of Western Universities in 1959, which became the Pacific-8 Conference in 1968, the Pacific-10 Conference in 1978, and the Pac-12 Conference in 2011.[2]
  9. ^ Football record only; Stanford includes Lanagan's 26–8–1 record in three seasons as rugby coach in his overall record.

References

General

  • "Stanford Coaching Records". College Football Data Warehouse. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
  • 2013 Stanford Football Media Guide. Stanford, California: Stanford Department of Athletics. 2013. Retrieved October 28, 2013.

Specific

  1. ^ Mandel, Stewart. "Stanford hires Sac State's Troy Taylor as coach". The Athletic. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "The History". 2013 Stanford Football Media Guide. Stanford, California: Stanford Department of Athletics. 2013. pp. 145–153. Retrieved October 28, 2013.
  3. ^ Chesley, Kate (November 17, 2017). "David Shaw is now the winningest Stanford football coach". Stanford University.
  4. ^ Wilner, Jon (December 1, 2015). "Stanford's McCaffrey, coach David Shaw garner top Pac-12 honors". San Jose Mercury-News. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
  5. ^ "Hall of Fame inductee detail: Walter "The Father of Football" Camp". National Football Foundation. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  6. ^ "Hall of Fame inductee detail: Fielding "Hurry Up" Yost". National Football Foundation. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  7. ^ "Hall of Fame inductee detail: Andrew Kerr". National Football Foundation. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  8. ^ "Hall of Fame inductee detail: Pop Warner". National Football Foundation. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  9. ^ "Hall of Fame inductee detail: Clark Shaughnessy". National Football Foundation. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  10. ^ "Hall of Fame inductee detail: John Ralston". National Football Foundation. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  11. ^ "Hall of Fame inductee detail: George H. Brooke". National Football Foundation. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  12. ^ "Hall of Fame inductee detail: Marchy Schwartz". National Football Foundation. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  13. ^ "Hall of Fame inductee detail: Chuck Taylor". National Football Foundation. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  14. ^ "Hall of Fame inductee detail: Paul Wiggin". National Football Foundation. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  15. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  16. ^ Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on November 24, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  17. ^ Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on October 22, 2009. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
  18. ^ a b "Past National COTY Winners". American Football Coaches Association. Archived from the original on August 20, 2012. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  19. ^ "Plunkett named best by Sporting News". Youngstown Vindicator. December 9, 1970. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  20. ^ a b c "2015 Pac-12 Conference Football Media Guide". Pac-12 Communications Department. 2015. p. 121.
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