Names of football coaches from all over the country have been mentioned as possible replacements for current Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez if he is fired. But who are these candidates? And are they even interested in Michigan? A quick breakdown of the biggest rumored names:

Jim Harbaugh, current Stanford football coach: Harbaugh is the hottest name in the football world at the moment — at both the collegiate and professional levels. It’s understandable. Four years ago, Stanford finished its season 1-11. Monday night, under Harbaugh’s tutelage, the fourth-ranked Cardinals demolished a red-hot Virginia Tech team, 40-12, to win the Orange Bowl and finish the season with a 12-1 record. Stanford’s only loss of the season came to Oregon, a team that will play for the national championship.

Harbaugh is an attractive candidate to Michigan fans. He played for legendary coach Bo Schembechler in the mid-1980s. He has repeatedly expressed interest in coaching the Wolverines, and over the past month, many Michigan fans assumed he was the front-runner to replace Rodriguez, if he was fired. In the early parts of the week, however, reports surfaced that Harbaugh was more interested in moving to the NFL or remaining at Stanford.

Brady Hoke, current San Diego State football coach: Hoke also has some Michigan ties, which automatically links his name to the potential coaching vacancy in Ann Arbor. He was a defensive line/associate head coach at Michigan for eight years under head coach Lloyd Carr, most notably during the 1997 national championship season. Hoke then became a head coach at Ball State, his alma mater, and he has coached at San Diego State for the past two years.

He’s a defensive-minded coach — a phrase that should sound nice to Michigan fans — and he has a history of making the most of the limited talent on his teams. He turned Ball State into a MAC power, and after going 4-8 last season at SDSU, his Aztecs finished 9-4 this year with a Poinsetta Bowl victory. If reports taking Harbaugh out of the equation are true, Hoke could be the new favorite.

Les Miles, current Louisiana State football coach: Miles was the big name circling around the post-Carr head coaching job in 2007, the one that ultimately went to Rodriguez. Fans were disappointed when Michigan didn’t hire Miles; Miles has been a head coach in two of the nation’s top BCS conferences since 2001, and he’s won a national title. He hasn’t had a team that lost more than eight games in a season since his first season at Oklahoma State in 2001.

Miles, whose late-game clock mismanagement and grass-eating talents have been well-documented, might be a little risky or eccentric for Ann Arbor, but fans would enjoy a proven winner. Miles’s name is popping up less frequently than Harbaugh or Hoke, but he’s worth keeping in mind.

Other names being tossed around: Gary Patterson (current TCU football coach), Chris Peterson (current Boise State football coach), Kyle Whittingham (current Utah head coach) and Jon Gruden (current NFL Monday Night Football analyst).