List of Stanford Cardinal head football coaches

The Stanford Cardinal football program represents Stanford University in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Cardinal competes as part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The team has had 33 head coaches since its founding in 1892. The current head coach is Tavita Pritchard, hired in 2025 to replaced interim coach Frank Reich.^[1]^[2]

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.^[3] From 1906 to 1917, Stanford replaced football with rugby.^[3] The school did not field teams in 1918 and from 1943 to 1945 due to World War I and World War II, respectively.^[3]

Conference championships have been won by Pop Warner, Tiny Thornhill, Clark Shaughnessy, Chuck Taylor, John Ralston, Bill Walsh, Tyrone Willingham, and David Shaw.^[3] 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.^[4] James F. Lanagan is the leader in win percentage for coaches with more than one season of service.^[3] Shaw was also the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2017 respectively.^[5]

Of the 32 Stanford head coaches, six—Walter Camp,^[6] Fielding H. Yost,^[7] Andrew Kerr,^[8] Warner,^[9] Shaughnessy,^[10] and Ralston^[11]—have been inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame as coaches. Four more—George H. Brooke (who played at Swarthmore),^[12] Marchmont Schwartz (who played at Notre Dame),^[13] Chuck Taylor (who played at Stanford)^[14] and Paul Wiggin (who also played at Stanford)^[15]—are in the Hall of Fame as players.

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)^[19]
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)^[19]
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)^[20]
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)^[21]
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)^[21]
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)^[21]
32	Troy Taylor	2023–2024	24	6	18	—	0.250	4	13	—	0.235	0	0	—	0	0	0	—
33	Frank Reich	2025	12	4	8	—	0.333	3	5	—	0.375	0	0	—	0	0	0	—
34	Tavita Pritchard	2026–present	0	0	0	—	–	0	0	—	–	0	0	—	0	0	0	—

v t e Stanford Cardinal football
Venues	Stanford Field (1905–1921) Stanford Stadium (1921–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games California: Big Game Notre Dame Oregon San Jose State: Bill Walsh Legacy Game UCLA USC
Culture & lore	Stanford Tree "Come Join the Band" "All Right Now" Stanford Band The Play Stanford Axe T formation 1894 Chicago game 1906–1917 Stanford rugby teams Carroll–Harbaugh rivalry 2007 USC game The Spirit of Stanford Capt. Andrew Luck Radio KTCT KZSU
People	Head coaches NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906–1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943–1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
National championship seasons in bold

List of Stanford Cardinal head football coaches

Coaches

Notes

References

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