In a shock to the college football world, David Shaw announced his resignation as head coach of Stanford football after 12 seasons in the Bay Area, picking up a 96-54 record, three Pac-12 titles, and seven seasons with at least nine wins. However, Shaw failed to reach a win total higher than four since 2018, and, frankly, it’s not getting any easier to win at Stanford in the NIL and transfer portal era.

Stanford only started accepting January enrollees recently, and their academic requirements mean the athletic department has to be incredibly choosy on who it can take, nevermind who they want to take.

That being said, let’s dive into some possible candidates to take over the head coaching job for Stanford football.

3. Derek Mason, Defensive Coordinator, Oklahoma State

Derek Mason was Shaw’s defensive coordinator from 2011-13, before taking the head coaching job at Vanderbilt. The concern with Shaw is that he only went 27-55 at Vanderbilt, a school with very similar athletic challenges to Stanford. While it is true that the SEC is much more difficult to win in than the Pac-12, it’s not exactly the strongest statement of confidence that he couldn’t at the very least continue some of the success had by his predecessor in the Music City, James Franklin.