49ers coach adds Greg Roman, Vic Fangio atop staff

(01-14) 19:49 PST -- New 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh brought more than his personal belongings from Stanford. He's also packed three Cardinal assistants along for the ride into the NFL.

Harbaugh has hired Greg Roman as his offensive coordinator, Vig Fangio as his defensive coordinator and Tim Drevno as an offensive line coach, the team announced Friday.

He will also bring in outsider Ed Donatell from Denver to coach the secondary, according to a league source, but he has not signed his contract yet.

The initial staff hires come one week after Harbaugh accepted his first NFL head coaching job, earned by turning a 1-11 Stanford program into a 12-1 team that won the Orange Bowl last week.

At first blush, it looks like a college coach bringing his college staff with him to the NFL. A closer look at his coordinators' resumes shows Harbaugh actually hired NFL people to work with him at the college level - forming an NFL staff before he was in the pros, as it were.

Fangio was a defensive coordinator for 11 consecutive years at Carolina, Indianapolis and Houston and has spent 24 years coaching in the league. Last season was his only one at Stanford.

Roman spent the first 13 years of his coaching career in the NFL with Carolina, Houston and Baltimore before spending the past two seasons at Stanford.

Drevno has no NFL experience, but he is expected to work alongside longtime NFL offensive line coach Mike Solari, whom the 49ers want to remain on staff and share the line coaching duties.

"They bring a wealth of knowledge and a level of professionalism that I am certain will transfer positively to our team," Harbaugh said in a statement as he cited Roman's and Fangio's combined 37 years of NFL experience. "They know firsthand what it takes to win at this level."

Roman has never been an offensive coordinator, but Harbaugh has indicated he plans to be the primary play caller as he institutes his version of the West Coast offense. Roman was hired as the running game coordinator at Stanford in 2009 and was part of a play-calling committee that served under Harbaugh.

He is the team's ninth offensive coordinator in nine years. He replaces Mike Johnson, who took over in September when Jimmy Raye was fired after three games.

Roman gets an offense that is expected to have at least nine starters back - but has no starting quarterback in place. From 2004-05, he was the Texans' quarterbacks coach when David Carr - now the 49ers' only quarterback under contract - posted his best career numbers across the board.

Fangio replaces Greg Manusky, who was hired as the Chargers' defensive coordinator after four seasons with the 49ers.

In his only season at Stanford, Fangio's unit ranked 21st in the nation in fewest yards allowed and 10th in fewest points allowed.

He inherits a 49ers defense that ranked sixth against the run but struggled to pressure the quarterback or defend the pass, resulting in a 24th-ranked pass defense.

Donatell coordinated defenses in Green Bay (2000-03) and Atlanta (2004-06). His Packers led the league with 116 takeaways from 2001-03.

Stanford: Newly hired head coach David Shaw begins with recruits on campus and openings to fill on staff. B5

E-mail David White at dwhite@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle