Who will replace this legend?
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Good question. I would imagine David Esquer will be a candidate, but he has a pretty good gig going. No idea if he would be interested or not?
You can bet they are going to have a broad and extensive search. Savage and particularly Peters at UCLA come to mind. Stanford is so unique in their profile in recruiting high athletic as well as high academic kids. Checkett's at UCSB certainly should get a look.
BOF - I think its more likely someone like Esquer, who played at Stanford, will get the opportunity. Mark Mactholf (Gonzaga) who I think is a good coach also played there. But I'm not sure there are too many others. Ryan Garko woulda been a clear favorite had he stayed as an assistant, but he's moved on.
First order of business for the new coach will be a uniform upgrade. This is something I didn't used to agree with, but the time has come and even 9 has admitted that in many interviews over the past few years - that the unis will change when the coach does.
My completely off the wall guess would mean Columbia better watch their HC very closely, which they already do.
I don't think Rex Peters could do it, even though I think he would be a great hire with demonstrated ability as a HC, recruiter and with high academics involved. His son's disability is very consuming and tragic.
Justbaseball and IFD I agree that Esquer probably has the inside track but when you have coaches who do dramatic improvements like at Columbia and UCSB I think the decision makers have to take a serious look outside of the program, but of course Stanford is very special.
One difference from other (certainly not all) programs at Stanford is I don't believe they discard players quite as easily as others. That is, I think Stanford's athletic department is committed to players once they arrive as freshmen, good or bad. They also do not recruit JC players - not in a very long time. Those things may have changed and it wouldn't shock me if someone had a 'story' out there, but I doubt it happens often if ever.
Coaches who may have been able to cycle players through every year based on performance may not have that luxury there. There were certainly players there who asked for and received their release, but to my knowledge they were not shown the door.
I think the Columbia coach is a pretty good guess. He has the academic-oriented program background to do well and he's done well in arguably a fairly more difficult situation than Stanford.