In 11 years, Jeremy Gunn has engineered the rapid ascent of a Stanford program which has climbed to the pinnacle of men’s college soccer, including three straight NCAA championships from 2015-17.
Stanford cemented its dynasty in 2017 when it beat Indiana 1-0 in the College Cup final to become just the second school to win three consecutive national titles. The Cardinal, 52-7-10 during its three-year championship run, did not allow a goal throughout the entire tournament for the second straight year and ultimately put together an NCAA-record, 14-match postseason shutout streak that reached 1,428:09.
The previous December, Stanford beat Wake Forest in penalties following a scoreless 110 minutes to clinch title No. 2 and in 2015 the Cardinal routed Clemson 4-0, the largest margin of victory in a College Cup final since 1975.
One of four coaches with NCAA titles at both the Division I and Division II levels, Gunn has led a team to the College Cup final four times in the past 12 seasons. He and Virginia’s Bruce Arena (1991-94) are the only coaches to win three consecutive NCAA men’s soccer championships.
Gunn's teams are 138-43-41 (.714) in his 11 seasons on The Farm and he owns a career record of 325-104-72 (.719) in 24 seasons, a mark which makes him the fifth winningest active coach at the Division I level (by percentage).
Stanford won a conference record five straight Pac-12 titles from 2014-18 and six of the last nine, adding another league crown in the 2020 season, and put together a 50-9-11 (.793) league mark through the 2020 season. Gunn was awarded Pac-12 Coach of the Year following the first four of those conference championships and is the only coach in league history to win more than two consecutive Pac-12 titles.
He secured the first national men's coach of the year award handed out by Top Drawer Soccer in 2017 and United Soccer Coaches Far West Region Coach of the Year honors in 2014 and 2015. Gunn and his assistants were also collectively named the 2017 National Staff of the Year by United Soccer Coaches.
On the heels of Stanford’s 2015 national championship, Jordan Morris became the first MAC Hermann Trophy winner in program history and signed the most anticipated Homegrown Player contract in MLS history when he inked a deal with the Seattle Sounders. The Cardinal’s forward tandem of Corey Baird (Real Salt Lake) and Foster Langsdorf (Portland Timbers) followed suit and signed their homegrown deals in January 2018.
12 of Gunn’s players have also been selected in the MLS SuperDraft. Among the program’s six first-rounders under Gunn, four have been top-10 picks in Ousseni Bouda (8th – San Jose Earthquakes – 2022), JJ Koval (9th – San Jose Earthquakes – 2014), Brandon Vincent (4th – Chicago Fire – 2016) and Tomas Hilliard-Arce (2nd – Los Angeles Galaxy – 2018).
Gunn’s Cardinal teams have produced 11 United Soccer Coaches First Team All-Americans in Morris (2014, 2015), Vincent (2014, 2015), Hilliard-Arce (2016, 2017), Langsdorf (2017), Tanner Beason (2018, 2019), Zach Ryan (2020), and most recently, Keegan Hughes (2022) 37 United Soccer Coaches All-Far West Region winners, nine players recognized among the nation’s best freshmen by Top Drawer Soccer and 70 All-Pac-12 honorees. Stanford student-athletes under Gunn have also won recognition as Pac-12 Player of the Year (Jordan Morris – 2015; Foster Langsdorf – 2016 and 2017; Tanner Beason – 2018; Zach Ryan – 2020), Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year (Brandon Vincent – 2014 and 2015; Tomas Hilliard-Arce – 2016 and 2017; Tanner Beason – 2018, Keegan Hughes – 2022), Pac-12 Freshman of the Year (Aaron Kovar – 2012; Ousseni Bouda – 2019; Mark Fisher – 2020) and Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year (Brandon Vincent – 2015; Adam Mosharrafa – 2018).
Beason is the only player in Pac-12 history to be honored as both its player and defensive player of the year. Hilliard-Arce was also a MAC Hermann Trophy finalist and selected as the Top Drawer Soccer Player of the Year in 2017. Hughes, the most recent recipient of the Pac-12 defensive player of the year was also named a MAC Hermann Trophy finalist, and the program's first ever United Soccer Coaches Scholar-Player of the Year.
Academically, five have been United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-Americans (Ty Thompson – 2015; Andrew Epstein – 2016; Amir Bashti – 2018, Keegan Hughes – 2022, Cam Cilley – 2022), 15 have been named United Soccer Coaches Far West Region Scholars, 27 have claimed CoSIDA Academic All-District Accolades, nine been voted CoSIDA Academic All-Americans and Stanford men’s soccer student-athletes have found themselves on various conference all-academic squads 134 times over the past nine seasons.
Creating an environment keen on player development, Gunn’s work at Stanford has attracted the attention of professional franchises and national team programs alike.
Jordan Morris became the face of college soccer in three years under Gunn. In November 2014, he became the first active collegian since 1995 to receive a cap for the U.S. Men’s National Team when he came on in the 76th minute in a friendly against Ireland in Dublin. On April 15, 2015 in San Antonio, Texas, Morris started and scored for the United States against Mexico, becoming the first college player to score for the USA since September 1992.
Brandon Vincent was pulled away from the MLS Combine after just one day when he was added to the U.S. Men’s National Team roster for its January 2016 training camp in Carson, Calif. The 2015 College Cup Defensive Most Outstanding Player earned his first MNT cap on Feb. 5 when he came on for the second half of a 1-0 win against Canada at StubHub Center.
Corey Baird received his first senior call-up for the MNT’s January 2019 training camp after an award-winning season for Real Salt Lake that saw him take home MLS Rookie of the Year honors. He earned his first cap and start against Panama on Jan. 27 in Glendale, Ariz. and contributed an assist in the 3-0 win.
Gunn previously served as head coach at the University of Charlotte for five seasons (2007-11), building the 49er program into a national title contender. He led Charlotte to two NCAA tournament appearances, including a run to the championship match of the 2011 College Cup before losing to top-ranked North Carolina. After the season, Gunn was named the United Soccer Coaches National Coach of the Year.
During the five seasons at Charlotte, Gunn compiled a 64-26-14 record, including a 5-2 mark in the NCAA Tournament. The 49ers also won a pair Atlantic-10 Conference titles in 2010 and 2011.
A 1993 graduate of CSU Bakersfield, Gunn began his coaching career as an assistant at his alma mater. He served on both the men's and women's coaching staffs during his seven-year stint at Bakersfield, helping the Roadrunners to the 1997 NCAA Division II national championship and an appearance in the 1995 national semifinal. Gunn was recently selected to the 2021 CSU Bakersfield Alumni Hall of Fame class.
After leaving CSU Bakersfield, Gunn went to Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., where he built the program into a Division II power. Fort Lewis advanced to three national title games and won the 2005 Division II championship with a 22-0-1 mark, earning Gunn national coach of the year honors.
Gunn finished his eight-year career at Fort Lewis with an overall record of 123-35-17 and in 13 seasons at Fort Lewis and Charlotte, Gunn was 187-61-31 (.754).
Gunn also had a successful playing career. Growing up in England, he was a youth player at Grimsby Town F.C. and Scunthorpe United F.C., while representing the North Region as an English schoolboy. A first team All-American at CSU Bakersfield, Gunn played professionally from 1993-95 with the Chico Rooks Pro Soccer Club in Chico, California, the North Bay Breakers in Rohnert Park, California and in 1998 with the Nashville (Tenn.) Metros and the Charleston (S.C.) Battery of what is now called the United Soccer League (formerly the A-League).
Gunn’s Year-by-Year Record
| Year | School | Record | Conference | Postseason |
|---|
| 2022 | Stanford | 12-2-6 | 4-2-4/2nd Pac-12 | NCAA Third Round |
| 2021 | Stanford | 6-6-6 | 2-4-4/4th Pac-12 | |
| 2020 | Stanford | 10-3-1 | 7-2-1/1st Pac-12 | NCAA Third Round |
| 2019 | Stanford | 14-3-5 | 6-2-2/2nd Pac-12 | NCAA Semifinals |
| 2018 | Stanford | 12-4-5 | 7-2-1/1st Pac-12 | NCAA Quarterfinals |
| 2017 | Stanford | 19-2-2 | 9-0-1/1st Pac-12 | NCAA Champions |
| 2016 | Stanford | 15-3-5 | 8-1-1/1st Pac-12 | NCAA Champions |
| 2015 | Stanford | 18-2-3 | 7-1-2/1st Pac-12 | NCAA Champions |
| 2014 | Stanford | 13-3-3 | 6-1-3/1st Pac-12 | NCAA Second Round |
| 2013 | Stanford | 10-7-4 | 3-5-2/4th Pac-12 | NCAA Third Round |
| 2012 | Stanford | 9-8-1 | 5-4-1/3rd Pac-12 | |
| 2011 | Charlotte | 16-5-4 | 6-1-2/3rd A-10 | NCAA Final |
| 2010 | Charlotte | 13-5-1 | 8-1-0/1st A-10 | |
| 2009 | Charlotte | 11-3-6 | 5-2-2/5th A-10 | NCAA First Round |
| 2008 | Charlotte | 12-6-1 | 4-4-1/t8th A-10 | |
| 2007 | Charlotte | 12-7-2 | 5-3-1/4th A-10 | |
| 2006 | Fort Lewis | 21-2-1 | 12-0-0/1st RMAC | NCAA Final (D-II) |
| 2005 | Fort Lewis | 22-0-1 | 11-0-1/1st RMAC | NCAA Champions (D-II) |
| 2004 | Fort Lewis | 15-4-2 | 9-1-2/1st RMAC | NCAA Second Round (D-II) |
| 2003 | Fort Lewis | 12-7-1 | 9-3-0/t1st RMAC | |
| 2002 | Fort Lewis | 9-7-5 | 6-4-2/t2nd RMAC | |
| 2001 | Fort Lewis | 14-7-0 | 10-2-0/1st RMAC | NCAA First Round (D-II) |
| 2000 | Fort Lewis | 12-5-4 | 8-3-1/3rd RMAC | |
| 1999 | Fort Lewis | 18-3-3 | 9-2-1/2nd RMAC | NCAA Final (D-II) |
| 22 seasons overall | 325-104-72 | 166-50-35 | |
| 14 seasons D-I | 202-69-55 | 92-35-28 | |
Accolades and Honors
| Year | Honor |
|---|
| 2017 | United Soccer Coaches National Staff of the Year |
| Top Drawer Soccer National Coach of the Year |
| Pac-12 Coach of the Year |
| 2016 | Pac-12 Coach of the Year |
| 2015 | United Soccer Coaches Division I Far West Region Coach of the Year |
| Pac-12 Coach of the Year |
| 2014 | United Soccer Coaches Division I Far West Region Coach of the Year |
| Pac-12 Coach of the Year |
| 2011 | United Soccer Coaches Division I National Coach of the Year |
| 2006 | Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coach of the Year |
| 2005 | United Soccer Coaches Division II National Coach of the Year |
| United Soccer Coaches Division II Midwest Region Coach of the Year |
| Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coach of the Year |
| 2004 | Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coach of the Year |
| 2003 | Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coach of the Year |
| 1999 | United Soccer Coaches Division II Midwest Region Coach of the Year |
| Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coach of the Year |
