STANFORD, Calif. — Andrew Luck quoted Ernest Hemingway, rattled off Latin phrases and talked about how his new job as normal supervisor of Stanford’s soccer program in comparison with dealing with a Invoice Belichick-coached protection within the NFL.
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There may not be anybody extra suited than Luck to steadiness the divergent worlds of big-time soccer with the values of a college as prestigious as Stanford. Which may make him the perfect choose to assist shepherd the Cardinal program into the trendy period of faculty soccer.
“This amazing place that has, like any institution, its own sort of quirks and culture,” Luck stated final week. “A part of why I’m right here is as a result of, I perceive a whole lot of it and lived it as an undergrad and grad scholar and like it. It holds deep, deep which means for me.”
The task won’t be easy for Luck and now includes a search for a new head coach after he made the decision on Tuesday to fire Troy Taylor following a report last week that he had allegedly mistreated staffers.
ESPN reported last week that Taylor had been investigated twice since taking over before the 2023 season over allegations of hostile and aggressive behavior, as well as personal attacks, against female staff members.
Both investigations determined that Taylor’s treatment of employees, particularly of women, was inconsistent with Stanford’s standards, according to ESPN.
“It has been clear that certain aspects of the program need change,” Luck stated in an announcement Tuesday. “Additionally, in recent days, there has been significant attention to Stanford investigations in previous years related to coach Taylor. After continued consideration it is evident to me that our program needs a reset. In consultation with university leadership I no longer believe that coach Taylor is the right coach to lead our football program.”
The Cardinal are coming off their fourth straight 3-9 season and are nowhere near the levels they reached in Luck’s time as a player from 2009-11 and in the immediate years after that when Stanford was one of the powers on the West Coast.
The program has slipped in recent years and now must navigate the travails of competing in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a smaller share of the revenue pie after Stanford was nearly left without a viable conference following the recent realignment.
Those are issues Luck must address in his new role, along with raising money and bringing in the talent to help the Cardinal get back to the heights they reached under coach Jim Harbaugh and early on in coach David Shaw’s tenure.
“I certainly want to believe I sell this place as good as anybody around football,” Luck said. “I lived it, and I know it’s authentic when I talk about Stanford and what this place can be for development of a young man, of a football player academically, socially. I certainly believe deeply in this place.”
Luck was hired last fall by new school President Jonathan Levin as general manager of the football program. Luck reports directly to Levin instead of to the athletic director. The Cardinal are searching to fill that role as well after Bernard Muir announced his decision to step down earlier this month.
Luck is back in a more public role for the first time since his abrupt retirement from the Indianapolis Colts of the NFL just weeks before the start of the 2019 season. He moved back to the Stanford area in 2022 with his wife, Nicole, and earned a Master’s degree and served as a volunteer coach at nearby Palo Alto High School.
Luck has been in his new job for less than four months and is trying to balance the various responsibilities of selling the program to the public, raising money, energizing the student body and helping bring in high-level players.
“I don’t know what that balance is right now,” Luck said. “It’s a little bit of whack-a-mole in some senses, which is to be sort of expected in any new job, especially entering a new job with an incredible sea of change.”
Stanford was sluggish to embrace the brand new period of faculty soccer with limitless transfers and gamers capable of earn money via NIL offers. Luck stated Levin’s dedication to vary was the rationale he was prepared to tackle the problem.
The Cardinal took in 12 transfers through the winter portal interval and are dedicated to participating in income sharing with gamers if a courtroom settlement is accredited subsequent month.
Earlier administrations at Stanford have not all the time been as dedicated to big-time athletics, however Luck sensed a notable change below Levin, who took over final yr.
“We’re wading into a brand new period of faculty sports activities, which implies issues have to vary,” he said. “It could possibly’t be a toe dip and take a look at the waters out. There’s a stage of dedication. And that’s what I felt from President Levin.”
Luck stated the fast purpose for this system is to make a bowl recreation for the primary time since 2018 and win it. Luck stated the proof that Stanford can try this lies within the NFL, the place greater than 30 gamers who ended their school careers with the Cardinal appeared in a recreation final season.
That is a quantity extra on par with extra conventional powers like Southern California, Miami, Florida State and Texas A&M than a three-win program. He needs to have the ability to herald the kind of gamers who search a prime schooling however have aspirations to star within the NFL, like former gamers comparable to himself, Christian McCaffrey, Richard Sherman and Zach Ertz.
“We’re nonetheless totally different, particularly with our tutorial integrity and the values related to it,” Luck said. ”I know that there are incredibly bright kids out there that are also really good football players and that this is the school for them.”
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