Coaching candidate: Greg Roman

Contact: None; The Vikings can interview teams that won Wild Card games this week

Head coaching experience: None

NFL coaching experience: 15 seasons

1995-2001 – Strength and conditioning assistant/defensive and offensive quality control coach for the Panthers

2002-05 – Tight ends/quarterbacks coach for the Texans

2006-07 – Offensive line assistant for the Ravens

2011-present – Offensive coordinator for the 49ers

Background:

Roman has an atypical resume. How exactly did he spend three seasons away from the NFL and return as an offensive coordinator?

The New Jersey native returned to his alma mater at Holy Spirit High (Absecon, N.J.) as the head coach for a season. Roman joined Niners head coach John Harbaugh's staff at Stanford as the running game coordinator the following season and later added associate coach and offensive assistant head coach to his resume in 2010.

The Cardinal had two Heisman runner-ups in quarterback Andrew Luck (2010) and Vikings free-agent-to-be running back Toby Gerhart (2009). In 2009, Stanford set a single-season school record of 2,837 rushing yards with Gerhart and Luck.

He then followed Harbaugh to the NFL with the Niners as offensive coordinator and helped guide San Francisco to the Super Bowl in their second season. The 49ers are still alive this postseason and will face the Panthers in the NFC Divisional round despite ending the season 24th in total offense (323.8). They got off to a slow start on offense and didn't have wide receiver Michael Crabtree for most of the season. They were 11th last year in that same category (361.8).

In their 23-20 victory over the Packers on Sunday at Lambeau Field, Roman called a balanced game with 30 pass attempts and rushing yards and collected 381 total yards in the frigid conditions.

While he's currently an offensive coordinator, he played defensive line at John Carroll University and starting his coaching career as a defensive quality control coach for the Panthers. He also worked with the defensive backs and linebackers in Carolina before switching over to offensive quality control coach.