Could Ken Niumatalolo replace Troy Taylor? – Deseret News

On Tuesday, Stanford fired head football coach Troy Taylor — who served as the offensive coordinator at Utah in the 2017 and 2018 seasons — after “significant attention to Stanford investigations in previous years related to Coach Taylor,” as written in a statement from program general manager Andrew Luck.

On Wednesday, a story by The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman was published that identified potential candidates to replace Taylor. Ken Niumatalolo, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who is currently the head football coach of the San Jose State Spartans, was prominently mentioned as a potential candidate.

“The 59-year-old is beloved in football circles,” Feldman wrote of Niumatalolo. “He just went 7-6 at San Jose State in his first season there. Niumatalolo, a Hawaii native, did an excellent job at Navy before that, going 116-89 and was a three-time AAC Coach of the Year while running the triple option.

“With the Spartans, Niumatalolo — who has strong ties all over the West Coast — showed how he could overhaul his offensive scheme and still give opponents fits. San Jose State led the Mountain West in passing offense by a wide margin in Niumatalolo’s first season there and ranked fifth in the nation.”

Army head coach Jeff Monken, former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, Cincinnati Bengals receivers coach Troy Walters and Washington Commanders quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard were also mentioned by Feldman as potential candidates (Walters and Pritchard played at Stanford and were characterized by Feldman as “longshots” to get the job).

Luck noted in the announcement firing Taylor — who went 6-18 in two seasons in Palo Alto — that the program may or may not name an acting head coach for the 2025 season given that the season starts in just over five months.